Saturday Hike

So a few Saturdays ago it was really overcast and basically perfect weather for a hike. Not too cold, not to hot and no beaming sun on a path with minimal shade.

We decided to do the Echo Mountain hike we've heard so much about. The trail head is only about 2 miles from our house and leads straight up into the mountains where an old, now destroyed mountain resort used to be. A small railway used to bring up the guests. You can read more about it here .http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echo_Mountain.

We reached the power lines which seemed like a good spot to stop and take some pictures.

 This is taken looking up while standing under the tower of power.

The building you see there in the center among the trees with the red tiled roof is the middle school right next to our house.

The vein along the mountain is the trail we took up.

Almost there!

So here we are. The first sign of civilization is the remains of an old rail car.

And some miscellaneous machinery

Nice view from the top of basically all of LA. It was too bad it was cloudy for pictures but I think we would have died if the sun was beating down. I'm certain that on clear days you could probably see the ocean.

...And the obligatory couple picture. Steven considers this the successful one...

...but I like this one better.

Here we have some rubble rubble.

And this area was the most in tact. It used to be the rail station.

There was a sign saying that there were remains of a fountain down a path so we found it. I told Steven to pose sexy and this is what happened.

So all the previous pictures were facing south from the mountain. If you turn north this is the view you get. The moster mountains that span higher and farther.

Here is Steven using the echomaphone (not actual name). Apparently the boy scouts have gone around placing these at all the "sweet spots" of Echo Mountain for which it is named.