Today, Monday, was a hell of a Monday. Meetings starting at 8:30am in DTLA, traveling to Gardena for meetings, then back to DTLA, over to Koreatown for a block of more meetings, then back to DTLA for some fun at Spire 73 atop the Grand Wilshire Intercontinental (or whatever it’s called). It was kinda crazy. But I did enjoy the view up top and this time, I got to see the view as it overlooked the PwC building. Pretty pretty cool.
Capturing the entirety of the building
Can see the helicopter pad in this one
Looking over towards the US Bank building
The panorama shot isn’t my best
Looking north towards Glendale
Me and Ari
The old First Interstate building
After this, I walked over to the Ace Hotel and met up with Doug and Sloan, with Doug being one of Larry’s college friends and coworkers. They’re out in town for work and we were able to meet up for dinner tonight with them and their adorable toddler son, Silas. Ended up going to Perch and having a great time – very fun to catch up and also get to go to Perch as I’d been wanting to go there for a long time. Got a pretty cool set of couches to sit on. Fun times!
This morning, Larry & I met up with the gang (this time, it was Nicki, Brian, George, Rob & Jamal) to do some hiking! Nicki had warned us that it would be a more difficult hike than our previous one in November (which is when we hiked in the Santa Monica Mountains along the Mandeville Canyon trail – I have pics but they weren’t posted as that was during my lazyass posting phase) and she was NOT lying.
Ignore that initial straight red line – I think the app was freaking out.
We met along Lake Hollywood Drive, at which point you park and then hike up a little road to the trailhead. We didn’t do what it looks like most people do, which is take on the direct path to the top of the trail at a place called Wisdom Tree; instead, we went along the mountains to the San Fernando Valley side first, getting great views of Universal City and Burbank. The hike had been along a decently-wide trail but at a point where you’re looking right out at NBC Burbank and Warner Bros, our path turned vertical. Yep, it was time to hike up the mountains so we could approach Wisdom Tree from the back. Despite it being more than what Larry & I had bargained for, the effort was well worth it. As we progressed ever higher up the mountain, the views of the Valley were amazing. It being Sunday, the smog was pretty much minimal and in fact, the whole area was pretty damn clear. It did get annoying as we’d hit what seemed like a summit only to find yet another peak to climb. Even though our elevation was only about 1600 feet at the max, it was a rapid elevation and pretty tiring. Yet when we got to that last summit and hit the ridge that allowed you to see all of Los Angeles (non-valley), it was invigorating and all worthwhile. I’ve put all my pictures up and Google/Picasaweb was nice enough to automatically stitch my attempts at panoramic photos for me! Take a look:
Universal City Panorama:
San Fernando Valley Panorama:
Los Angeles Panorama:
So yeah, it was awesome and the weather really cooperated. Here’s the whole suite of pics below though, just in case you want to see some more action shots and more of the harrowing journey we embarked upon!
January 19, 2014 – Wisdom Tree Hike
Hollywood Reservoir, not our trail
Needless map – we weren’t hiking here
The path uphill to the actual trail
I think you still could get there
Larry & Nicki
The antennas behind the Hollywood sign
Adorable Larry & Nicki
Downtown LA on a cloudy Sunday
George
Universal City in the distance
The trail over to the valley was fairly easy
Nice and wide trail
A little less wide here
George and company
When we realized this was going to be work
Our old NBC Burbank digs
Warner Bros Studios
Looking back
The end of the flat trail
Universal again
Brian tossing water at Rob while Jamal watches
Our path now went vertical
Trying to give perspective
Up a good chunk of the way looking down to Warner Bros
Larry puts on his game face
Waving from up above
Warner’s Backlot
Warner Bros
Jamal took a break
Burbank Glendale Airport
Nowhere near the top
Looking east to Glendale over Forest Lawn
Yep, we were going to the top
Disney and ABC
The view kept getting better the higher we went
Still heading up
Larry & Nicki
Selfie
We had a lot more up to go
High above Universal
Reaching the top on the valley side
The San Fernando Valley
Brian and Rob during a break
Larry expects there to be an end to this soon
Our ultimate destination, the Wisdom Tree
Yet another hill to climb still
Nicki, Queen of the Valley
Larry’s got thoughts
We made it to the Hollywood side
Spectacular views of the Southland from here
Larry & Me on top of the world
Closer view of DTLA
The Hollywood Sign is right below that antenna, but not visible
Hollywood Reservoir zoomed
DTLA zoomed
The Wisdom Tree is still ahead
Looking down into Hollywood
Clearer view of Griffith Observatory
Better view of Wisdom Tree
The Wisdom Tree up close
Here you can see the Hollywood Sign
We did it
Griffith Park and DTLA are visible
And now for the hike down the LA side of the mountain