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| Will Rogers Park off Sunset Blvd. |
Summer of 2007 midday my ex-boyfriend Steve and I decided to take a little hike around Will Rogers State Park. We intended to take the short flat one mile hike which looped directly around the main park area because we didn't think we were up for the longer three mile hike. While we walked to the beginning of the trail an elderly woman said "there's a rattle snake right at the beginning of the trail over there. Be careful" while she pointed to the trail entrance. I looked at Steve and said "I guess I was wrong about the entrance." We walked toward where the woman was pointing.
The beginning of the hike was in a cool glen. The path was somewhat open and it looked like a few people had already been there that day. After a few minutes I looked at my map and said "I don't think this is the trail we meant to take." Steve said "that's okay. We can take the longer trail" thinking it was the three mile looped trail which was also on the map. We continued on.
After half an hour the trail is getting tight and over grown. We had to hike through a creek, climb a rocky hill, maneuver around bushes and trees. I said "I don't think this trail is well traveled." He said "it has to loop back around to the park. It's a nice day. Let's continue." We continued hiking for another hour or so up the canyon.
The trail is getting tighter and tighter. It was starting to look like an animal trail. The sun was starting to go down and we were deep in a glen and couldn't see our way out. I was wearing long pants and a long sleeve shirt. Steve was wearing shorts and a tshirt. I started noticing a lot of poison oak and told him to be careful. I was also starting to feel that the trail we were on was not on the map. We'd hiked too far to still be on the map.
It continues to get darker. By now our choices are to forge ahead and hopefully loop back to the park or turn back the way we came. We continued ahead thinking it must loop back shortly. If we went back the way we came we wouldn't get back before it was totally dark. We had no flash lights. It was at that moment that I came upon a freshly severed deer leg. I stopped in my tracks and whisper yelled "Steve!" while pointing at the severed leg.
I have a major fear of mountain lions. I developed this fear after I attended a Fish & Game meeting about mountain lion attacks. The warden had a great time scaring the crap out of all of us female wildlife rehabilitators. He showed us severed body parts and went into gory detail of all the human attacks. He said "the mountain lion sees you but you can't see him. He will attack you from behind, break your neck then eat your face while you are still alive." He continued "the main prey of mountain lions are deer. They will consume as much as they can then put branches and leaves over the remains to hide it from other animals. They will guard their stash and return to eat the rest. They will kill any animal that tries to take its prey."
Steve and I are looking at each other and the severed deer leg which was hidden under branches. It was obviously a fresh kill. It was at that point that I whispered "let's just get the hell out of here the first chance we get. Let's climb high to look for a telephone or power pole then just climb toward it. Civilization must be near a power pole."
We picked up our speed with the adrenalin rush from discovering the severed deer leg. Steve decides to just climb up the closest hill. He climbs up some brush for 20 feet then slides all the way back down. That's when I looked closer at the brush he was climbing. It was totally covered in poison oak. I told him to stay out of that brush. I said "I'm wearing long pants and a long sleeve shirt. I will go up the hill instead."
I carefully climbed up the hill making sure I did not touch the poison oak. I climbed to the top and finally I see an old telephone pole. We both started climbing toward the pole frantically as if we were being chased. We ended up having to climb some rocks which seemed to be some old trail stairs. I knew we must be close to civilization. We climbed some more and finally made it to the pole. We were so relieved knowing that we'd finally made it out of the glen and none too soon as it was starting to get dark.
The pole was on a chained off and deserted road which had not been maintained or used for years. We decided to follow the road down the hill as it must meet another bigger road. After half a mile we see a sign that says "Private property. Keep out. Road closed." We were obviously no longer in Will Roger's Park.
We continued down the road and came upon a couple. They asked us where we just came from as there are no trails up there. We said "you don't want to know"with an embarrassed laugh and continued down the road. The road finally met up with a residential street in Brentwood. We continued on down the street walking by huge mansions laughing at each other for getting lost in a small city park.
Finally the street met up with Sunset Blvd. I looked at the numbers and realized we were two miles east of the park on Sunset. We tried to walk faster because we needed to get back to the park to get our car out before the park closes. By now of course we are exhausted, starving and out of water because we'd been hiking for hours.
20 minutes later we're back at the entrance to the park. We were laughing at how far we'd gotten off trail. I told Steve we need to go to the bathroom and wash off as much poison oak oil as possible. If you wash off poison oak oil within half an hour there's a good chance you won't have a reaction. Fortunately I was wearing long pants and shirt. Unfortunately we'd been hiking for over five hours so it was probably too late.
All washed up we get in the car to go home. We were totally exhausted and our muscles were aching from all the walking and climbing. We get home and take a shower then soaked in the jacuzzi. Finally we ate a huge dinner then just about passed out in bed. Before we passed out I looked at the map. We meant to take an easy flat one mile hike but ended up hiking ten miles in the canyons.
The next morning I woke up and had some poison oak marks on my wrists. Steve on the other hand had it all over his exposed arms and legs. I ran to the pharmacy and bought every poison oak remedy they had. Steve's poison oak was so bad he ultimately needed steroids. He was itching and scratching for almost two weeks. We definitely learned our lesson about hiking in LA.
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| Red: route we hiked. Blue: route we meant to hike. |
Mary Cummins of Animal Advocates is a wildlife rehabilitator licensed by the California Department of Fish and Game and the USDA. Mary Cummins is also a licensed real estate appraiser in Los Angeles, California.
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