Towering mountains topped with ice and snow, low-lying deserts with mesmerizing plants and richly colored rock, and waves from the vast Pacific Ocean turning small rocks into fine sand. You can see the varying beautiful landscapes of California all in one day if you want to. The views become even more dramatic when you visit Los Angeles. Above the bustling city sits a wild wonder that offers the most amazing views in the county. Dense chaparral shrub forests with oak woodlands, which change to pine and fir-covered slopes in the higher elevations. The Angeles National Forest, perched above skyscrapers and winding roads, creates a unique contrast. You can stand in the middle of the wilderness and see the stream of cars moving through the urban mazes like ants in a formicarium.
I love that within an hour or so, I can be standing next to a mule deer under a sea of evergreen pine trees. To be in such a remote location on Sunday and make it back to an office building for a meeting on Monday feels like a privilege. I took advantage of the forest's location for years, working full-time in an office during the week and becoming an adventurous explorer on the weekends. The forest was an escape, a quick getaway, and a portal to a space where I could reconnect with nature and reset.
The forest, which is home to the Gabriellino (Tongva) people, the region's Indigenous inhabitants, with radiocarbon evidence dating back over 7,600 years, is also home to black bears, gray foxes, bobcats, mountain lions, mule deer, bighorn sheep, rattlesnakes, and coyotes. In the forest lies the Silver Moccasin Trail. It’s a 53-mile (85 km) trail that begins at Chantry Flat Recreation Area and connects Mt. Baden-Powell 9,407 ft (2,867 m), Mount Burnham 9,001 ft (2,744 m), Throop Peak 9,142 ft (2,786 m), and Mount Hawkins 8,783 ft (2,677 m), and descends to Vincent Gap on the Angeles Crest Highway near Wrightwood. I ended up exploring a section of this trail and hiking to the top of each of those peaks, including Mount Islip, 8,250 ft (2,510 m), and Crystal Lake, 5,500 ft (1,676 m). The trip took me 25 miles (40.2 km) of perfect, blissful spring weather to complete.
The majority of the hike that day kept me on the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), a spectacular 2,650-mile (4,265 km) national scenic trail spanning from the Mexican border near Campo, California, to the Canadian border in Manning Park, British Columbia. I saw so many other backpackers enjoying the beautiful, crystal-clear blue skies. One had an Australian accent. Others had traveled from out of state to make their dreams come true. The majority of them were covered in a thin layer of dirt (or what I affectionately call trail dust), hidden by smiles, polite banter, and distracted moments of awe. I had dropped myself into the middle of an epic adventure that others were taking months to complete, and felt lucky to get a sample of the journey and still be home in time for dinner. I still feel lucky to be so close to such an amazing, wild, and beautiful place that sits between the desert cities and Los Angeles.
I made a vlog about my hiking experience in the forest that you can watch here.