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Open Door to Colby Loop, 9/27/2025

And so, finally, we return to the mountains! But where to go? Long ago, I hiked the Bridge to Nowhere with Kyle and Ian. A southern California classic but, true to its name, very isolated: it painted a lonely line on my Map. So I started investigating how to connect it, which led to a cartographic exploration of the mountains north of Glendora, which led to this loop! A first foray into these mountains, with a far flung dream of reaching the Bridge to Nowhere, starting with a wander of the Open Door Trail, Glendora Ridge Motorway, and Colby Trail. About 12-miles on the map, but with a steep climb at the beginning (at a slope of 850 ft/mi) and a possible peak (Glendora) to look forward to: seems a natural next step in my hiking rebuild! After some sidewalk trekking through the neighborhood, I started the hiking by stepping onto the dirt of the Open Door Trail, so named because it’s on the private property of the Church of the Open Door. But the Church of the Open Door is very nice and, ...
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Santiago Creek Bike Trail, 9/20/2025

Last Saturday, a prior engagement kept me from the trail. I know, I know: one week hiking, then one week off, is Not Good for building trail legs! But consequently this week, instead of building to a tougher hike, I stayed mild, with the Santiago Creek Bike Trail. Specifically, starting out by Santiago Oaks Park (in Orange), I followed it west to its end at the 5 (by the Discovery Cube in Santa Ana), crossed the 5, then continued on to the Santa Ana River (by Edna Park). Just 10 miles, over fairly flat terrain. Some complications: as a bike path, it’s paved so it’s harder on the legs, and I hiked it in the afternoon at the height of the heat. But still, a pretty mild route. Where I picked it up--in the residential sprawl by Cannon Street and Taft Avenue--Santiago Creek Bike Trail actually departs its namesake. This is because Santiago Creek flows into a Recharging Basin here: a series of monumental manmade pits, cratering the neighborhood, about 3 stories down to water’s surface. While...
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Wood Canyon Trail, 9/6/2025

Wow, has it really been a month--over a month!--since I’ve been on a trail? What happened? Injury. After Copter Ridge, my left leg was hurting: the knee, which felt twisted (for example, just sitting figure-4 cross-legged with my left leg on top produced warning pain around the kneecap); and the hip (which was sore in the mornings). I rested the following week--no hiking--then again the week after when I was on travel in Half Moon Bay. But even after two weeks, it still felt fragile. The pain only flared at the extremums, but it was sharp enough that I worried if I pushed it, it would convert to persistent. So I didn’t hike. And didn’t hike. And didn’t hike. I’d like to say some resurgent desire broke the inertia, but nothing so heroic: it was obligation. I’d volunteered for trail work last week, and if I said I’d be there, I gotta be there! It was trail assessment work--no tools, no decompacting or shovel or tamping, just walking and observing--but it forced me onto a trail. And the l...
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Post-trail: Week 2, Irvine

And so, finally, I was back home. So one of the questions I've consistently gotten since returning is: how has it been integrating back into normal life? Is it strange being back home? Is it difficult readjusting? And for this week at least, the answer has been: it's not that bad. And maybe it's because I don't have a job to rush back to, or some other external deadline encroaching. Rather, in a lot of ways it's been the same as it was on the trail: it's still just me dictating what happens every day, just the setting has changed. And I admit that the scenery of my apartment doesn't compare to that of the PCT; I don't deny that the setting is important so changing it *is* significant. But I will say about being at home setting: fundamentally I think of myself as an Indoor--rather than an Outdoor--person. Even when I was on trail, I would dream of being ensconced in a library carrel, hidden amongst the stacks, working away at some technical problem with p...
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Saturday: Los Pinos Peak via Bell View Trail (10/9/2021)

When I touched the Northern Terminus of the PCT, I died as a thru-hiker and was reborn as a day-hiker. Well, today I fully resumed the latter, resurrecting my Saturday hiking habit by heading out into the Santa Ana Mountains and Cleveland National Forest. For this hike, I headed to the top of Los Pinos Peak via the Bell View Trail. This hike has been on my list for a while, but that area has been closed for fire recovery for at least the last year (if not more). So when I got back and saw that the way was now open, I figured I had to take it. Plus, it's a considered a tougher trail--it's a ridge trail that goes up and down lots of local peaks on its way to the top, and it's pretty overgrown for the last couple miles to boot--and I figured I'd better make use of the remnants of my PCT fitness before I lost it all! But as I started the hike, I immediately realized that I had basically forgotten how to hike. On the PCT, towards the end, it would take me 20-30 minutes to wa...
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