(Not to be confused with Red Rock Canyon State Park.)

Driving to the trailhead is, most of the time, a relatively straightforward thing.  The parking areas are usually well marked or easily definable (like a wide roadway shoulder).  Such is not the case with Red Rock Canyon Park.

Located off Old Topanga Road, the turn-off on Red Rock Road has no sign indicating the park at its end.  Driving down the road, one passes by numerous “no trespassing” and “no parking” signs.  The road turns into a single lane.  The asphalt ends and the road becomes gravel.  It’s not hard to wonder after a half-mile if you’re really on the right road or headed into the middle of nowhere.

Then, boom, there you are.

The gym is hardly one of those places that I expect to be silent.  I mean, you’ve got a lot of people there, in a fairly enclosed space.

Machines are humming, weights are banging around, resistance equipment weight stacks are being dropped.  People are in various stages of panting, gruning, groaning.  Some, like me, are relatively quiet when they lift weights; others make an announcement to the whole gym that they are.

But that’s what a gym is all about.

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I just realized something tonight.  Halloween is next weekend.

On a Saturday night.  With an extra hour because of the time change.

And me?  I’ve asked around.  Friends seem to have no plans.  No party invites have come my way.  In fact, no plans whatsoever.

On the one hand, I’m an adult, and so it doesn’t matter all that much.

On the other, it’s just kind of a wee bit sad, know what I mean?

Camping in Yosemite Valley, unlike the rest of the park, has certain unique factors.  Namely the fact that humans and bears have been interacting for far, far too long.  This has left the resident bear population very accustomed to seeing humans as a food source, leading to a nightly contest between ranger and bear.  Bears wander through the campgrounds looking for easy Snickers bars, rangers chase them off hoping they’ll go back to eating berries.

Anyone who thinks that bears are just dumb, aggressive animals could not be further from the truth.  Currently, all food has to be stored in large bear-boxes at each campsite.  Why?  Because they’ve been known to get into cars, bear-proof garbage cans, even take running leaps from nearby boulders and stand on each others backs to reach food hanging from trees.

And now, this, seen this morning on Salon.com:

So… let’s say you decided to take my advice from last weekend, and head out to Julian for the day.

One of the first things you might decide to do is check the traffic on SigAlert.com.  It takes the CalTrans road speed information and maps it all out for you in a handy, color coded format.

So, my order from UC Press’ big online sale arrived today.

Admittedly, after reading “Cheap – The High Cost of Discount Culture,” I keep trying to figure out if I should feel guilty for buying them on sale (especially with a number of them published in, of all places, China).  Oh, well, they were purchases I was (mostly) going to make anyway, so what the heck.

Of course, life is all about balance, so to make room on the shelf for my new books, I have a small stack that will be heading to the donation bin at the local library.  Wax on, wax off.

When October rolled around when I was a kid, in addition to Halloween, there was the annual trip up to Apple Hill.

Located near Placerville, up in the Sierra Nevada foothills east of Sacramento, Apple Hill is an association of apple growers who banded together to promote their products.  The Parentage and I went up every year to pick up things like apple syrup (which, much as I love maple, will always be my favorite on waffles) and apple crisp.

Funniest thing I’ve seen all week.

Ever wish you were a fly on the windshield of a car?

I sure wish I had been on this trip:

Ranch Sierra Vista/Satwiwa is located at the northwest edge of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, a good hour’s drive from Los Angeles.  The open landscape sits right next to the outer edge of suburbia, neighborhoods you’ll be driving through on the way to the trailhead.  The open land here is the border between city and nature: on the northern side lie tract homes while to the south is the Boney Mountain State Wilderness inside Point Mugu State Park.

For much of its history the area had been home to the Chumash and Tongva/Gabrielino tribes, who used Sycamore Canyon as a trade route down to the Pacific.  Part of the park is reserved as a cultural center and natural area and often has speakers and events celebrating the native peoples who populated the area.  Later, the area was part of a Spanish land grant and then home to ranching operations.  The last owner of the land, Richard Danielson, sold it to the National Park Service in 1980.

The route below is rambling, walking through open fields, chaparral, riparian areas with old-growth oaks, deep canyons and seasonal waterfalls.  It can also be shortened in a number of spots to suit your tastes and time.