Led by Jeff Johnson and Nancy Beverly
story and photos by Jeff Johnson
This hike was on various trails and use trails in parkland south of Woodland Hills, adjacent to the Santa Monica Mountains. The trails all show up on online map services but you have probably never heard of some of them and some sections are pretty rough. We started in Corbin Canyon, climbed Winnetka Ridge on the west side of the canyon to Mulholland, looped through Natoma Canyon to the west of that and back to Mulholland, and ended coming down Serrania Ridge further to the west. Though there’s cellphone reception the whole way and suburbia visible much of the way, it feels like you’re discovering places that no one pays attention to, unlike so many crowded trails that start at overflowing parking lots.
The first spring wildflowers were past but the San Luis purple sage was impressive, and full of bees. The hillsides were covered with the purple sage and also sticky monkeyflower. I don’t remember seeing so much purple sage on a hike, far more here than black sage (Salvia mellifera) or California sage (Artemisia californica). I was disappointed this time not to find the native California peony (Paeonia californica) that I have seen here before, one of the two peony species native to California.
An interesting feature of this hike was learning about the various wires and cables we saw here and there overhead. Hiker Leslie’s profession is planning electric power delivery to remote locations so she could tell us what everything was that we saw attached to the occasional weather beaten utility pole.
I scouted the route a few days before but was disappointed on the day to find that I really wasn’t in great shape to be leading a group of energetic hikers. Fortunately everyone was patient with my uphill pace and we all arrived at the end of the trail not much later than anticipated.
Here are some pictures of wildflowers, shrubs and trees seen along the way.
