One of the best things about living in Southern California is you can be surrounded by 18 million neighbors one minute and the next, be on top of the world all by your lonesome. Specifically, I'm talking about the San Gabriel Mountains in the Angeles National Forest.

Emmett and I ventured out last Sunday and tackled the Icehouse Canyon/Icehouse Saddle/Chapman Trail hike (9 miles round trip), which we've done once before. Located in the Mount Baldy area, it is, perhaps, my favorite hike in the San Gabriels. I love the challenge (at one point on the trail you climb 2600 feet in 3.5 miles...ouch!) and I love the surroundings (pine, cedar, oak, sycamore, towering canyon walls, huge boulders, rivers and waterfalls, snow, glorious and colorful birds, wildflowers, views, views, views). I also love the idea that I am hiking on a huge chunk of the earth's crust. The San Gabriel Mountains are "young" in a geological sense. It's my understanding that they are "only" 10 million to 12 million years old (makes my paltry 37 years on this planet seem like nutin’ but a hiccup, if even that) and were formed when two plates came head-to-head like a couple of male rams head butting it out over a lady ram. I may be totally misinformed about this but who cares...I like the story so I'm sticking with it. The trail is well established but it definitely feels like you're walking on stuff belched from the gut of the earth...tons of rocks that have either been deposited by torrential floods in years past or that have slid down the ever-changing mountain top and sides or risen up from the underbelly. Gotta love a mountain with attitude.

Here's a little pictorial stroll through our day (in no particular order):

	I love, love, love Our Lord's Candle when it is in bloom. The flowers are gorgeous and creamy and it smells like jasmine. For a plant that is so HUGE and emerging from evil spiky things at the base, it is so delicate and precious to behold when in bloom.
	The view back down Icehouse Canyon from the top of Champman Trail. Mt. Baldy is just out of the frame on the right.
	The super cool Cedar Canyon shot in sepia tone...just to emphasize the dramatic beautiful of this little flat.
	Columbine in bloom.
	EJD on the Icehouse Canyon trail up to Icehouse Saddle. The trail got its name because there used to be an ice factory at the base of the canyon in the 1860s which provided ice to residents living in the valley.
	You never know what you're going to find on the trail. Especially in LA. In this case, it was llamas. There are a few old cabins (with electricity but not sewer) still remaining at the base of the canyon and they use llamas to transport stuff. Crazy. Who would have thought we would be sharing the trail with llamas? They were pretty cool to watch as they gracefully maneuvered the rocks and trail. But what I really wanted to do was make those two people carry the crap they were making the llamas carry. That's just mean. Poor llamas.

	Me lovey the blooms on the Our Lord's Candle.
	Another little surprise we ran into on the trail. Well, it wasn't that little, and, considering it's that time of the year when they are coming out of hibernation, not so much a surprise either. This rattlesnake was almost four feet long. She was a beauty. And we got the extra pleasure of watching her slide and wind (and what seemed like skating on ice) across the trial as she looked for a nice rock on the other side to sun herself on.
	Walking on the what the earth spit up...rocks from the aftermath of a head-on collision between plates over 10 million years ago. Seriously, how cool is that?!
	Looking up from Champman Trail.
	The view from our lunch spot at Icehouse Saddle.