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Welcome to the Community Hiking Club |
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Welcome to the Community Hiking Club website!
(Scroll down for current Hiking Schedule!)
The Community Hiking Club is based in Santa Clarita, California. We organize hikes and educate the public regarding the various wilderness lands of Southern California. All ages are welcome to join us. Our hikes are typically easy to moderate, with some more challenging treks.
Please look around our website. Editor-in-Chief, Dianne Erskine Hellrigel, has spent many hours compiling information about wilderness area trails and wildlife.
We continue to grow and look forward to you joining us for a wonderful outing!
Join our FACEBOOK page as a fan and get updates, schedules, and photo albums on your facebook newsfeed! It's easy-just go to facebook.com, and enter Community Hiking Club into their browser!
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The Community Hikng Club is now a non-profit charity. That means that any donations you make are tax deductible. The CHC depends solely upon your donations and grants to survive. Please consider making a donation to CHC today.
Make checks payable to CHC and send them to Community Hiking Club, c/o: Dianne Erskine-Hellrigel at 24820 Fourl Rd, Newhall, Ca. 91321.
You can also make payments via paypal.com online. Payments may be made directly to the Community Hiking Club.
Please include your return address or email so we can send you your tax deductible form. THANK YOU!
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Community Hiking Club Schedule, February-March
February 27-Nick will take you on a beautiful hike through lots of blooming Lupine from O’Melveny Park to Mission Point. This is a 10 mile trek with a few steep inclines to Mission Point. You will love the views, the flowers, and surprise….you end up in the same spot you did last week from a different direction! Bring your camera, lunch, lots of water, and snacks.
Meet outside of Towsley Canyon at 8:15 for an 8:30 departure to the trailhead. Or, you can meet at O'Melveny Park at approximately 8:50.
March 6- Fish Canyon Falls-Linda Castro will be leading this hike to the gorgeous falls. She has gotten special permission to cross Vulcan Land on this date ONLY! This hike is only opened by Vulcan on rare occasions. Plan to attend this hike if you can...the opportunity may not come around again! Parking is free. Please note that ALL hikers will have to sign in at the trail head with CHC AND Vulcan. Dogs are allowed, but MUST remain on the leash at all times. There is a shuttle van used to get to the trail head. There is a 3:00 deadline for your return to Azusa Rock. Trail access will be closed if it rains. The hike is 6 miles round trip with a gain of 950 feet. This is an 80 foot, 3 tier waterfall and is considered the BEST in the San Gabriel Mountains. Access is only by permission and only through the Vulcan Quarry. There is poison oak along the trail so long pants and shirts are recommended. Meet Linda at Towsley Canyon outside the gate at 7:45 for a prompt departure to the trail head at 8:00 AM. If you prefer to meet her at the trail head, please meet her there at approximately 9:00. Here are the directions.
From the I-210 Foothill Freeway, traveling east (or the I-605 traveling north): Exit Mt. Olive Avenue in Duarte. Turn right (east) on Huntington Drive and go 0.6 mile to Encanto Parkway. Turn left (north).
Drive north on Encanto Parkway. At 1.3 miles you'll pass the entrance to Encanto Equestrian Center (marked with a yellow sign), a dirt road going off to the left. In another 0.2 mile there will be a dirt parking lot on the left side of the road. Park here (no Forest Adventure Pass is needed). When Vulcan offers the shuttle service, parking is available inside the Vulcan main gate, another 0.25 mile past the trailhead parking lot.
March 7-Ron Kraus will lead us in a 3.5 mile hike with a 300 ft gain from Placerita through Walker Ranch, East Walker Ranch to Golden Valley and back. Although this is a short hike, there will be a little scrambling over boulders, and stream crossings, so be prepared for that. Some of it will be off trail. Bring water, lunch, and a camera for early wildflowers and historical ruins. This is about as close to an old growth forest as you will find in the area--fire hasn't burned through here in about 100 years. There are dense stands of huge Alders and Sycamores, and some uncommon wildflowers for Placerita Canyon. Also, the California Spotted Owl has been seen in the area. Bring water and lunch. We'll start at the Walker Ranch parking area at 10AM, up by Placerita Canyon Road. Allow 4 hours for the whole hike. Walker Ranch parking area gets crowded on weekends, if some can carpool that would be good, or those who want can make it a longer hike by parking at the nature center and walking up the Canyon Trail to Walker Ranch (takes me about 45-minutes at a leisurely pace.) That would make it an 8-mile hike.
March 13- Manzanita Trail-Matt Nelson will be leading you on this 10/12 mile hike. It is a steep trail first half of hike, then road conditions for remainder with some gain and then loss of altitude. Bring lots of water, lunch, lots of energy! You will be eating lunch at the top of Wilson Saddle before descending down Los Pinetos, and then the Canyon Trail back to Placerita. Meet at Placerita Nature Center at 8:30 AM.
March 20-Florence Nishida at 9:00 AM "If It's Weird, It Must be a Mushroom, aka Mushrooms 101". It'll be a basic introduction to fungi, covering what are fungi, what are their roles in the environment, their lifestyles (saprophytic, mycorrhizal, parasitic), what are mushrooms, some notable local resident mushrooms, including best edibles and serious poisoners. Since most people know very little about fungi, they usually find it quite interesting. We will follow this presentation with a mushroom foray on the Canyon Trail in Placerita Canyon. Meet at the Placerita Nature Center building in the classroom at 8:45. (Sorry, this is later than usual. Florence is coming a great distance to be with us)
March 27- Nikki will be leading you on the hike to Fish Canyon near Castaic in the Angeles National Forest-This is one of our hidden treasures, and one of our favorite hikes! This canyon is gorgeous! We will hike to Piano Box. There will be water crossings, so wear water shoes or waterproof boots. Poles are a good idea on this hike! Meet outside Towsley at 8:15 for an 8:30 departure to trail head.
Rain cancels all hikes!!!
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