Trabuco Canyon

Posted on June 19, 2004 in Hikes and Trails

Diana, her man Lee, Lynn and I walked to the head of Trabuco Canyon today, munching on the blackberries that grew along the trail. We saw three people all morning, all trail bikers, two of whom were polite and a third so dazed by exhaustion that he nearly crashed into us from behind as we passed beneath a landslide. While a heavy marine layer covered Orange County up to the foothills, Trabuco Canyon opened to the heavens, only the faintest of mists obscuring the views of the gigantic oaks, sycamores, and pines on the south bank of the Arroyo Trabuco. From the trail’s head, we looked back over the thick forest, down the canyon towards the front of the fog. The mist crept up the gorge as we returned.

The road was harder than the trail. On our way out, we stopped to watch the model airplanes flying out of the miniature airport. The flyers invited us to come on in and park our car in their lot while they prepped and tested their planes. Their motive was that they often crashed the planes in the adjacent wash and didn’t want us getting our heads cropped by low fliers.

We saw the spectacular crash of a brand new remote controlled Mustang: the pilot lost control and it power dived into the chaparral, burying itself a foot or so in the ground. The owner laughed as he brought it back. Another one for the graveyard of smashed planes which they kept at the end of the runway.