Led by Nancy Beverly and Heidi Lennartz
By Nancy Beverly
For our easy Franklin Canyon jaunt, we met early to beat the heat — August had been a scorcher. Forecasters had predicted August 30 to be “only” 90 degrees at mid-day. I’ll take that over 100 degrees any day! And good news, it was in the 70’s when we started at 7:45, whew!
Heidi and I had a lovely group of seven other gals, so nine total, and some folks were brand new to L.A., so we got to introduce them to Franklin Canyon, a gem hidden in the urban hills near Mulholland and Coldwater.
We sauntered around the lake — where Andy and Opie walked around in the opening credits of the Andy Griffith Show years ago. I joked that Heidi and I were the only two people on our hike old enough to remember that TV show. We angled off to the side to walk around Heavenly Pond and got to see ducks and turtles — several of both. A couple of the waterfowl got into a big splash spat and fought with each other — sorry, didn’t get any photos of that combat.
Then it was into the woods, heigh ho (not too high, though!). Took a group photo at my fav tree in the park — all twisty turny — Mother Nature is amazing in how she adapts.
The gang adeptly climbed not just two but three dirt / wooden stairs (took only a few minutes but still, a workout).
Since this was billed as an “Intro to Hiking” outing, when we got back to the picnic tables, Heidi and I covered the ten essentials, what to do if you have heat problems, ticks, and other ups ‘n downs.
