Thanksgiving night, Lindsey and Mehran decided to go for a run sometime before Lindsey left back for San Diego. Interested, I suggested that, instead of jogging around a neighborhood or even the park, we should try out Runyon Canyon where you can get a nice view of Los Angeles and the occasional celebrity. But Mehran shot down that idea saying that he didn't want to drive far for a jog.
So on the morning of our run, I looked up other hiking trails that were nearby. And found quite a few of them but settled on doing one of the Chatsworth Park ones, which was described as such:
Chatsworth Park consists of a south section and a north section which are separate. There is no direct trail connection between them. However, they both have hiking trails up to Santa Susana Pass, so a long hiking loop can be made.
Now I wanted to hit the Chatsworth Park South one but because of my stupidity we ended up at Chatsworth Park North, which ended up being a good thing.
View Larger Map
The above is where we started out our little journey. We began jogging due west on the paved path but quickly decided to get on the a dirt trail, which lasted all of 20 feet before we ran into a chain link fence with no apparent way to get to the other side, none that Lindsey could find any way. Disappointed, we turned around and decided to get back on the paved path but it became obvious that the paved path only followed the perimeter of the grassy park so we decided to get back on the dirt trail yet again. We soon came upon a fork in the trail, one seemed to ascend more directly up the hillside while the other not so much except it had this yellow sign cautioning us against mountain lions (I tried to find an image of the sign online but apparently people are too afraid of mountain lions to linger and take a picture to post online.) Lindsey takes the lead and goes the way of the mountain lions.
Soon the dirt trail went back to the paved path again so Mehran decides to turn his back to the paved path and make his way up the rocky hillside. Lindsey and I follow. I quickly learn why hiking boots are manufactured as my sneakers were not exactly the best choice of footwear to handle the rocky and broken beer bottle climb. But we come up on three kids, apparently one acting as a lookup, two of them with bikes, so I figured it wasn't as hard as I was making it out to be. A brief climb up and we make it to the train tracks.
View Larger MapNow the train tunnel curves slightly so there's a bit of a blind spot and it's really dark in there but you can make out the light hitting the wall. So it's decision time again.
We can either continue going up the mountain or go through the train tunnel. It not exactly being my finest moment, I suggested that we go through the tunnel and that any approaching train would make enough noise from a far enough distance that we could get out of the tunnel either by racing through it or turning back. Persuaded, we go through the mountain instead of climbing it. The tunnel was a lot longer than I expected and a lot rockier but I'm here now posting about it so it went alright. Lindsey and Mehran, physically fit and not wanting to tempt fate with a train, wasted no time in getting through the tunnel but I, in my sorry physical state, dawdled, hoping for a train.
At the other side of the mountaintop we found a lot of burnt shrubbery apparently from a fire and a little bit of a view of the northwest part of the valley (not the one pictured but close enough.) At this point we decide to find our way back to the car but not by going back where we came from - where's the fun in that? We start our descent diverted somewhat by a fenced off area. In finding our way we came across a sheltered area that had the rusted, springy skeletal remains of a mattress and a parka that Lindsey avoided stepping on but not me.
We find our way around the fence but we also find ourselves with another rocky path that requires having both our feet off the ground at times, not exactly jumping down from one rock to another, but we weren't exactly walking down either, which was made all the harder by carrying a damn water bottle. A few times, Lindsey and I joke that we would like to find our way down alive. At the end of our descent, we found ourselves at the edge of the mountain side and the park. The park and the mountain side were separated by thick brush that had dried off and provided a minor obstacle to get through.
We were now at Chatsworth Park, but not Chatsworth Park North but Chatsworth Park South. Who said the two weren't connected? Forget the part of the direct trail connection and the tunnel "shortcut" we took.
View Larger MapOnce past the brush we tried to figure out the quickest way back to the car. So instead of going through the park we decided to stay on the dirt road pictured above and cut our way across to Chatsworth Park South. The thing is, it's fenced off. No problem says Lindsey, as she suggested that we crawl under the fence at this gap between the road and the fence. My mind quickly wandered to whether Lindsey was
making extra money as a coyote. With my mind wandering I found myself following Lindsey and Mehran under the fence. Of course, we come upon another fence this time, instead of an empty lot, this fence is protecting a residence and has barbed wire on it. But it also has a gap that Lindsey has spotted (apparently she has a real talent for finding a way around or through a fence.)
Before we could worm our way underneath, a man came out from his metal workshop/nuclear bunker and warned us, yes, warned us that by crawling under that fence we would be on private property. Now understand hisI don't think it's an exaggeration to say that by his tone, he meant to tell us that by crossing over to the other side of the fence he could and would have his way with us. And by having his way with us, I
refer to this - click at your own risk.
So we ask the guy how we can get to the other side of his property hoping he would let us through. His response? "Turn around and go back." So we turned around and went back. Why? Because you don't mess with crazy, especially angry crazy people of a different race.
Back at Chatsworth Park South, Mehran noticed that it was empty and wondered why. I thought that there may have been people at a part of the park we could not yet see - the tennis courts and basketball court - but once they came to view I noticed that the adjacent parking spaces were occupied by garbage dumps. I assumed that the park was closed for the holidays for some odd reason. Instead, security accosted us and asked how we got there and why we were there. We told security that we got lost hiking starting out at Chatsworth Park North. Convinced, we were escorted out of the park but before so we asked why the park was closed and were informed that the park was now privately owned and closed to the public.
Having not heard about the park being sold to a private owner I decided to look it up and it doesn't appear to be quite that way. Instead, I
found this:
A popular park in the San Fernando Valley is closed after tests showed the soil is toxic. Officials found dangerous amounts of lead in Chatsworth Park South and now they're trying to determine if it can ever be reopened.
Chatsworth Park South is closed to the pubic, and has been since mid-February, when a park visitor found dozens of tiny lead pellets along a hiking trail.
One hour after having started our little jog/hike/climb/descent/brush wading/fence crawling/train tunnel running/avoiding getting killed by angry private property owner/being escorted out by security, we found ourselves back where we started. And it was a fun workout.
That was a question frequently asked as Mehran, Lindsey, and myself continued the new tradition of going out for a post-holiday hike.
No longer blissfully ignorant, we stopped at every damn plant we came across, took a close look, counted the leaves, and debated if it was poison ivy. Mehran and Lindsey were pretty adamant that 90% of the plants we encountered were poison ivy while I was fairly certain that none of it was. Yeah, I think we all can see where this is going.
