Last Friday I was scheduled to assist on a field trip to Mt. Lowe. A peak near Mt. Wilson in the Angeles Forest. After the school bus slowly made its way up Lake Ave.’s steep incline we found that the trail head was closed. After a call to the Forest Service we learned that the whole forest was closed as a precautionary measure with all the recent fires.
Since two school buses filled with kids were already taken out of school, the teacher decided we should go to Ernest E. Debs park. It’s entrance lies in El Sereno, and heads up into the hills of Montecito Heights & Rose Hills. A drive up the hill shows a green park, with not much amenities besides benches, some coverings, and barbecues.
Further on you see there is a trail that leads up into the hills. It was a steep hike up to what is locally known as “peanut lake.” I can be pretty sure that most of the kids rarely, if ever go hiking. Many immediately started complaining about the incline, the mild heat, and of being thirsty (all within the first 5 minutes). Kind of sad, I remember as a kid my almost compulsory drive to go wandering through these hills to get away and enjoy the views. Too much tinkering with PSPs, iPods, or finding proxies to get MySpace has made some kids too lethargic.
The lake itself isn’t much. It’s fed by what must be a pipe from some reservoir and it’s obviously man-made. Nonetheless the view from up there is great. Here are some photos.
It was a hazy day so the view wasn’t as great as it could be. Going through the trails one can scarcely hear the sound of cars, or of any city life. One gets the feeling of what this area might have been like a few hundred years ago.
All in all a great field trip, and yet another reason why I like my job.
