Remember when my aunt and I did an afternoon hike at Stough Canyon last June? And I wrote about how my aunt was super fit and just walking up the mountain like it was nothing? Well, I found myself back to the Verdugo Mountains this past Saturday with my entire family in tow. My aunt had been inviting my parents to hike here for the longest time now and with the weather finally cooling down, my parents finally agreed to come!
The night before, I was actually at work until midnight; how I woke up when I did and forced myself to hike remains a mystery. We planned on meeting at 7AM, but we run on Filipino time, so we started our hike at 7:30AM. This mountain/hike was badly hurt by the La Tuna Canyon fires that happened last month; nonetheless the mountain still remained its usual steep self.
Our group of seven got split up into two groups. My mom, dad, my fifteen-year-old brother and I fell behind and we met up at the top, halfway to the radio towers and just hung out on this little chair that overlooked the 210 freeway. It was nice being up there but the faint smell of burnt wood still lingered in the air.
After our hike, we went to the IKEA in Burbank (aka America’s LARGEST IKEA branch) to have some breakfast – $2 plates, who can beat that?! Plus, I just discovered that their lingonberry drink is beyond delicious. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t tired – I absolutely was! I worked that evening so my 3.7 mile hike up the mountains turned into a total of a 9.8 mile walking distance by the time I got off work.
Was it worth it? Yep, definitely. Am I looking forward to my next hike for next weekend? Hell yea! And as John Muir once said, “In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks.” Opt outside, my friends.