Hiking: The sooner you hit the trail, the better

Beneath a dense canopy of oak and eucalyptus, hidden from the trail, deer rose and began scaling the hillside.

Crunch! Crackle!

They tried to be silent. But that’s impossible for large hoofed animals walking across branches and dried leaves.

I didn't actually see them until they’d reached a narrow clearing atop the ridge, over which they quickly vanished.

It was too dark for photography. Night was falling on Malibu Creek State Park yet I was in no hurry to leave. I was a world removed from civilization, and it felt good.

Nobody talked politics. Nobody got fired. There were no foreclosure notices dangling from limbs and the only precipitous drops involved terrain, not the stock market.

Indeed, the animals, especially the birds and including the deer, until I spooked them, seemed in an enviable state of existence. Immersion here seemed more therapeutic than usual.

So my advice for anyone overdosing on politics or feeling blue because of the sad state of economic affairs or precariousness of the workplace:

Take a hike. This weekend if possible.

Find a secluded trail. Breathe fresh air. Listen to birds and search for animal tracks. It’ll clear your mind and renew your perspective on what's truly important: physical and mental well-being.

I chose Malibu Creek merely because it had been a while since I last visited the expansive park, a few miles west of the Ventura Freeway and accessible via Las Virgenes Road.

Two miles in, I ducked off the main fire road and onto narrow Cage Creek Trail. My old friends the ravens, an inseparable pair, kept an eye on me, as they did the last time I visited.

Across the canyon, a raptor cried but was not answered. In dense brush along the trail, towhees bounced along the leaves, hunting bugs and grubs.

The Cage Creek turnoff meanders upward beneath scrub oaks and alongside a narrow creek, before veering to the right through a wide clearing, connecting with Lookout Trail.

Lookout Trail leads upward through another long tree tunnel to a scenic overlook trail junction, and ultimately back down to the fire road.

Even on weekends, this wonderful loop is lightly traveled by humans. But it is clearly popular among critters, judging from a minefield of sign.

From vantage points on Lookout Trail, you can see across much of the park and across the canyon, where towering rock cliffs are pocked with caves and spread with moss.

I’ve seen deer tracks on this trail, but never deer. They’re most commonly seen on brushy hillsides or in meadows closer to the parking lot and campground.

The deer I startled, and which startled me late Thursday afternoon, were at the base of a hill just beyond the visitor center on an alternate trail leading back to the lot.

En route there, I discovered there was no water in the creek. Not a trickle. I'd never seen it so dry. It was a sorry sight. But it's nothing a few days of rain won't solve. I wasn't going to let it spoil my afternoon.

--Pete Thomas

Photos: Malibu Creek (top photo), as shown last fall when it contained water; and the view from Lookout Trail, toward the distant parking lot. Credit: Pete Thomas / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Jon K.]

It's a wonderful hike. The Santa Monica Mountains are magical.