Walk #1 from Secret Stairs: A Walking Guide to the Historic Staircases of Los Angeles is the Secret Stair walk closest to home, scaling the San Rafael hillside area of western Pasadena. Starting this first evening walk of stairs for Beth and me, it appeared that a number of houses chose to drain swimming pools, as lots of water ran down from several residences and into the street. Through the hike though, we realized that it just takes lots of days for heavy rains of last week to seep down and out of the hills.
Somewhere past the halfway point of the walk, we discovered some wind/rain damage that will necessitate an edit of the book for later editions: “Follow Cheviotdale … up to a huge gnarled eucalyptus at the corner of Juniper.” The trunk of this eucalyptus tree lay on the ground along Juniper Drive, recent strong winds having uprooted it from the rain-softened soil.
We will follow this Friday walk with two more this weekend, one on Saturday evening and one on Sunday.
Open this hike on Garmin Connect
