Echo Mountain via Ridge Line Trail

Fully exposed, but a true challenge especially if you are running or jogging. This trail is similar to the West ridge at Brand Park that terminates at Mt. Tongva. You do this trail to work out as it has no other function. You can head up a little trail that cuts up the hill to the left of the reservoir, or go straight through the Cobb Estate and go up the face. The electrical towers are about halfway. Not as scenic as the Lower Sam Merrill Trail, in fact not very scenic at all, but today there was a lot of yucca in full bloom. Up at the top, head down the trail to Echo Mountain, or continue as we did to Inspiration Point via Castle Canyon for a total of 10 mi. Today, in addition to the yucca, you could not pick a better time to see the wildflowers. They are sublime. We also ran into a large doe, a fast moving garter snake, beautiful raven, noisy scrub jays, and have you ever seen a hummingbird sitting still on the top of a yucca plant? The head and tail are red and purple. I got burned like a Branch Davidian up there even though I used sunscreen. You have been forewarned. Also, there is a spring on the Castle Canyon Trail with a nice flow, but you will have to filter the water.

Sports Chalet

Choose radiance and health. Buy Merrill Barefoot Trail Running shoes here for half price during their clearance sale currently in effect. Choose mental freedom over anxiety and depression. Put on those new shoes and go the distance. Choose your brain's poly pharmacy over the CVS Pharmacy. Serious exercise, serious diet, seriously taking care of yourself will make everything else fall into place. Share it with others. Try and convince your family members to develop proper exercise habits. Take your children along and get them started with healthy activities at a young age instead of giving them amphetamines. Walk past Cinnabon without temptation. Walk right past See's Candy. Go into Sport's Chalet. Complete the holy trinity and get a good sleeping bag and a water purification filter. Get on the trail. Start breathing and start living. Reject diabetes. Reject heart disease. Reject sleep apnea. Discover exercise. Discover the outdoors. Discover stores like Sport Chalet with good cheap shoes on sale and feel the eye of the tiger.

Eat Your Salad

< class="separator" My narcissistic aunt is a cunt and my uncle is her brainless henchman. Due to the terms and conditions of a legal settlement, I am forbidden from using their real names. My Uncle "Wally" never worked and kept house while my aunt taught in an elementary school. From a very young age, I would dread Uncle Wally and his bad temper, red beard, and halitosis. He was unpredictable and prone to fly into a violent rage at any given moment over any trivial thing and beat the shit out of my cousins. He would hit them with a closed fist, belt buckles, tools, and lumber. One time he punched my cousin resulting in a ruptured eardrum because he inserted comical words about a monkey into the song Happy Birthday. Another time, he beat another one of my cousins half to death because he did not eat his salad. A third cousin was beaten senseless with a closed fist because he could not remember the name of a power station in El Segundo. These days, my uncle and aunt would have been involved with the Dependency Court and my cousins placed in foster care. My aunt would have been banned for life from working with children. I hope they are both dead. The reason why I bring up my dim witted abusive uncle is the part about the salad. Not beating your kids because they did not eat theirs, but how to make a nutritious, delicious salad with a great flavorful dressing and five (5) vegetables. Even though my uncle was a bastard, he made a great salad. I kind of modified it a little, but not by much. My wife, daughter and I eat this salad on a daily basis. It is a real life changer. 3/4 Head of green cabbage washed and sliced as thin as possible 1 raw medium beet, grated 1/2 white onion cut into thin julienne slices 1/2 red bell pepper cut into thin strips 1/2 bunch of parsley finely chopped, washed and wrung dry in a towel dressing smash 2 cloves of garlic in 1 tsp of salt add 1/2 cup of red wine vinegar 1 tbsb of dijon mustard fresh black pepper whisk in 3/4 cup of olive oil mix well serve the same day You can eat this with a little steamed asparagus, and some fresh fish. I cooked halibut tonight.

Happy 4th of July!

Thank you for reading my blog. I would like to wish all of you a happy 4th. I was at Topanga State Park earlier and it could not have been any more beautiful. I'll be heading out to Mt. Baldy this weekend, so come back and check out the pictures.

Backbone Trail Run-Topanga State Park

This morning, before the heat set in, my daughter and I set off to Topanga State Park to clock some running time in the Santa Monica Mountains. Using the gateway at Will Rogers State Historical Park, we were on the Backbone Trail in no time. Wednesday is not one of the popular days in this park and as expected, we ran into less than a dozen other people. This trail is always preferable to Griffith Park during the frequent summer heatwaves. It is at least 10 degrees cooler here than in Hollywood. The Backbone trail runs from Pacific Palisades to Point Mugu. While I have been to the park over one hundred times this year, I have never run the entire length of the Backbone Trail. It is on my short list. I saw a couple of people with dogs this morning, and while I understand that people love their dogs, and truly, for many people, their dogs are their children. I empathize with you, but it is pretty arrogant to think the rules don't apply to you. I am not the Ranger, and I loathe law enforcement, but seriously, fuck you people who go on this trail with dogs. The highlight of the trip today was a giant black raven sitting on top of a yucca plant. This guy must have tipped the scales at 3lbs. An awesome sight. The photo was taken with an I-Phone Camera at a distance of approximately 15 feet.

Seen better days.

A hefty dose of trash from Los Angeles' past, these four places just will not die:

1. Pink's Hot Dogs 709 N La Brea Ave Los Angeles, CA 90038 (323) 931-4223 Getting food here is like being assaulted with a deli weapon. It should be codified in the California Penal Code as a felony. It is absolutely reckless, just insidious to serve this fecal matter to people. Landmark my ass. More like skidmark

 2. Tam O'Shanter 2980 Los Feliz Blvd Los Angeles, CA 90039 (323) 664-0228 I come here on occasion for business dinners. Without fail, the hostess will always tell us that Walt Disney used to sit here. That fucktard was inspired by the architecture here when he thought up Disneyland. The food is bland, a study of mediocrity, a glorified Swanson Hungry ManTV Dinner. Vegetables, especially the creamed spinach, are decent. The place needs a deep cleaning. It smells like the floor of the Viper Room in here.

3. Musso & Frank Grill 6667 Hollywood Blvd Hollywood, CA 90028 (323) 467-7788 If nostalgia means puking up gin a few hours after you leave this place along with some toast points, then you are gonna get a hefty dose of nostalgia here. If you do not drink alcohol, and frown on the food available at the Circus Circus Buffet in Reno served by waiters in red monkey suits then you will not want to drop one hundred bucks on Welsh Rarebit. With that said, Mario the bartender will expertly facilitate your drunkening with a martini (with sidecar) by which all martinis should be judged. You can close your eyes and inhale the stench of this old carpet, and you can almost picture W.C. Fields pissing on your leg in the bathroom or Gloria Swanson trying to grab your wiener at the bar.

4. El Cholo 1121 S Western Ave Los Angeles, CA 90006 (323) 734-2773 Every dog has its day best describes how I feel about this place. Lots of people have been doing lots of things for many years. Take working as a prosecutor, for instance. I once knew an elderly prosecutor who worked at the Glendale Courthouse, and he had been scrubbing out toilets and kissing a lot of hairy bean bag since the 1920's, just like the kitchen staff at El Cholo. How special! The watered down canned tomato based salsa is a harbinger of the mediocre combo plates to come. If you grew up in LA, you know what I am talking about. The #1 and the #2. Here, you are mostly going to find a lot of #2. For all of those people who live nearby or attend clown college at USC, you don't have to look too far to get a better and cheaper pseudo-Mexican meal. What is up with all the high ratings for this place?

The oppressive heat is no excuse to weasel your way out of exercising!

Get on the trail and stop making excuses. Drink plenty of water, and eat a couple of bananas. Take at least an additional liter of water per person. Today, I decided to tackle Griffith Park from the Western end of Ferndell. Just walk a couple of hundred yards past the kid's playground and keep to the left. There are several ways to speed this section up the best was is to just start running slowly and bear right past the sycamores to a little trail that will take you straight up the ridge and finish up at those picnic tables just below the road. Cross the street, and head up the hill and soon you will be at the bridge. Keep on going up, breathe through your nose and exhale through your mouth. Keep hydrated. Take a look at the panoramic views and the inevitable pair of raven soaring overhead.

Once you get to the top take a look around and start heading down at once Pick up the pace a little bit and scan the trail ten feet in front of you. Let gravity carry you down the hill, and do not stop. Breathe and keep hydrated. Run at 3/4 speed until you get to the picnic area. Stretch for at least 15 minutes before heading to your car. Face it, it must have taken you a couple of years to get into bad shape, and it will probably take you at least a year to start seeing good results. You have to eat whole foods also! Working out alone is not enough. It is a lot of work. If you want to keep fit, you are going to need to do this run at least five days a week pushing yourself each and every time. You can go in the morning, or in the evening, it does not matter as long as you do it. It does not get easier, ever. Park your car across Los Feliz Blvd. so you don't get a parking ticket, and so that you don't cut any corners like a cheating bastard. There is another way to get a really good workout and that is by going up the steep hill to the right of the ever popular fire road leading up to the Observatory out of Ferndell. Run up this hill if you want to work your body the fuck out and fill each and every cell in your body with rich oxygen and nutrients. When you get to the top of the first steep hill, run like hell down the slope until you can barely take it anymore. Try to make yourself run up the next hill. Then the next one. And so on. After running this trail every day, I feel like 98% of my problems have been solved. I feel great, and look 10 years younger. Trail running even makes my hair grow back in a lush and shiny manner. I suspect that you will probably get the same results. I did it, and you can, too!