Spring at the Flat

Wow, it has been way too long since the car has been out in the hills.  It's been driven around town a bit but there's nothing an old Toyota Land Cruiser likes more than dirt.  So, today I took it out to it's old stomping grounds Rowher Flats or "Rowher Flat" as I discovered by actually stopping and looking at the sign.

I've ordered new rear shocks (the old ones were killed by the race) and I wanted to do a little before and after test. 

Rowher Flat has been cleaned up quite a bit.  All the bathroom structures were rebuilt and they've added a bunch of shaded picnic areas.  It seemed to help.  In the hour I was there I saw 2 jeeps, about 5 motorcycles and someone camping with a trailer.  That's a lot for a Tuesday morning.  

Even with that crowd it felt pretty empty.  I did find a gopher snake to keep me company.

The fj40 ran great.  All the high and low gears were where they were meant to be, no stalling and it seemed to enjoy going fast.  I mainly stuck around the flats.

One thing I did learn is that I might need to wrap my new steering wheel.  The spun aluminum really came off on my hand....I guess that's what gloves are for.

Trip to Costco! and Up and Over Rowher Flats 2

I needed to go to Costco and decided to take the best route rather than the quickest.  The quickest would take me twenty minutes but the best would wind up taking over two hours.  30 miles of which were off road.

Basically, I'd start by driving in the wrong direction and then take The Sierra Pelona Mountainway off of Bouquet Canyon, climb over the hills through Rowher Flats and wind up on Sierra Highway about 10 miles east of Costco.

A - The start of the trail is pretty easy to miss it while your zipping along Bouquet Canyon.

B- I stopped at the first pullout to  quickly to check over the car and wound up right next to an ancient dump.  It was pretty picked over but still neat.

The road going up is pretty smooth but a bit narrow with plenty of blind corners.  There are some bits where rocks have fallen into the road and  if you don't like heights you shouldn't look down.

C - Weird rock formations!  The goelogy in this area is amazing.  

D- Pretty quickly you reach the most western point and have a great view of Santa Clarita and beyond.

E- As you head back east there are several spurs off the fire road.  Mainly little hill climbs, some more challenging that others but only one the Land Cruiser couldn't handle.

F - Somewhere around the highest point on the trail.

G - As you start to descend you can see the Bouquet reservour off in the distance.  Turn right and head down Fall Canyon Truck Trail.

H - More weird rocks!

I - As you head up Texas Canyon Trail keep your speed down.  There are a few puddles that seem to never dry up and in the case of the Toyota FJ40 hitting them at a moderate speed can mean a mud bath.  Here's what happened on a previous trip.

This time I kept my speed down and made it to Costco relatively clean.

And realized that because of my "active lifestyle" I need some new sunglasses.  It was the retro early 90s packaging that convinced me.

thanks Costco!

Catching up...

Nearly a month has flown by since my last post.  I really don't know what I've been doing with my life.  I've said that people stop blogging when their life gets too interesting but that's not the case with me.  Things have been the same.

Anyway here's a run down on what's been going on.

I gave a lecture at Otis

It was good, although I felt a bit "off."  It was mainly undergraduates and I wasn't quite prepared for that.  It's a  different lecture than one for graduates or a general audience.  It was a good lecture in the end but it could've been better.  On the plus side, I got to do some record shopping that day.


We went on a Candy Hike

This time we made it all the way up to the waterfalls (without much convincing).  I'm starting to be the one who has to keep up.


I went to a wedding in Texas.

My nephew got married.  It was fun and really good to see the family


I think I resolved Diehard Champion.

It needs different hardware but it works.

I put an awesome back seat in the Land Cruiser

Inspiration - Candy Hike! - Elsmere Canyon

This weekend we managed to do two weekend candy hikes*, the first was an accidental trip to Elsmere Canyon.  We'd planned on hiking Whitney Canyon but there were other people with dogs on the trail so we took a quick right turn went up and up and then saw this.

Elsmere Canyon is a hidden sort of box canyon which is Santa Clarita newest "open area."  I don't really know what "open area" means but I like it.  It was dedicated in November 2010.  Thanks to some citizens of Santa Clarita and money from Santa Clarita, Los Angeles County and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, Elsmere was save from being the nations largest landfill.

It isn't the nicest oak filled valley with a creek running through the middle of it but it's pretty amazing and only five minutes from out house.

*Candy Hike - is a hike where you use candy to bribe your kids to keep going.  Good for their body bad for their teeth.  Oh and I do wonder what kind of associations they'll have with hiking when they're adults.