Editor’s note: This newsletter is all about featuring a variety of exciting voices from SoCal’s outdoors scene. Starting this month, that voice belongs to Times staff writer Jaclyn Cosgrove, who will write The Wild going forward. Jaclyn enjoys hiking through Angeles National Forest and mountain biking along the least scary trails they can find.
Some trails provide the same sense of comfort that’s found in spending time with a good friend or eating your favorite recipe from home. That’s how I feel when hiking a section of the Gabrielino National Recreation Trail near Pasadena. I often take it about 7 miles, out and back, splitting off the main trail to check out the Brown Mountain Dam waterfall.
If I’ve had a bad or weird day, or maybe I’m just a little bored, I can often be found somewhere along this trail, admiring the laurel sumacs with their taco-shaped leaves, the massive coast live oaks that provide loads of shade and native plants like California buckwheat, sticky monkey-flower and golden yarrow. Sometimes I sit near the Arroyo Seco, a 22-mile natural river, and listen as it flows by. My dog, Maggie May, and I first visited the trail around 2019.
After visiting dozens of times, Maggie now knows the route as well as I do. She knows that after we cross the second bridge over the bubbling Arroyo Seco, we will soon turn for the first water stop. This trail is good for all ages and fitness levels.
Over the last five years, I’ve taken several friends and family .