Charmlee Moonlight Hike

Charmlee Moonlight Hike - 07
Originally uploaded by dewelch

The cooler temperatures finally provided and opening to get back into the outdoors yesterday. A few weeks ago I check out the Santa Monica Mountains Outdoors Guide and noted anything interesting in my calendar. The Full Moon is always a busy weekend for outdoor activities and I noticed that Charmlee Wilderness Park in Malibu was having their monthly moonlight hike. We have been to this park many times in the past and it is relatively easy to get to from the Valley.

I gathered up some friends, new and old, and we headed out. Right around sunset we headed out into the main part of the park, looking to arrive at the south bluff just as the sun went down. As you can see from these pictures, our timing ended up working out quite well. We watched the sunset for a while. taking lots of pictures and chatting. (Click the picture for more photos of our trip) Then, as darkness fell, we made our way back to the trailhead. It always amazes me how much light is shed by the full moon. We cast dark shadows on the trail and our eyes adjusted to the point where we could easily make our way.

After our hike I decided to show some new friends a little bit of Malibu proper on our drive home. As we approached the newly refurbished Malibu Pier I remembered I had wanted to stop and check it out on several earlier occasions. This seemed the perfect time for a spur-of-the-moment visit, so we walked the pier, took some more pictures and then had dinner a Ruby's Diner, situated at the very end of the pier.

It was a wonderful night and a perfect re-introduction to the hiking season. I plan on getting out more this Fall and taking my son, and my friends, to some of my favorite spots. In fact, once the Angeles National Forest fully re-opens, I will be one of the first to visit, bringing along my friends to show them how the forest recovers after a large fire.

Join us for a hike sometimes. I will put notices here whenever we have some advance notice of an upcoming hike that I think might interest you. You can also join the WelchWrite Mailing List to get these notices and more. See you on the trail!

Total Lunar Eclipse - March 3

Update: (3/3/2007 8:35pm): More info from LAist, blogging.la, and Flickr pictures from flyinfoxymama

Update 3/3/07: 9:52pm: Eclipse photos in the Make Photo Pool on Flickr

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While we here in California will only be able to see part of the eclipse cycle (if I read the chart linked below correctly), it should still be a neat site. The moon will rise in near totality and then we will see it uncover as the evening progresses. I think I enjoy lunar eclipses more than solar eclipses because they are much more easily observed and present such an odd viewpoint of the moon.

To do March 3: look up in night sky, see total lunar eclipse

Xeni Jardin: Link to details at NASA website. Depending on where you are on earth, you may be able to see a red glowing moon during the total lunar eclipse next week, on Saturday March 3. I predict that it will be beautiful.

[Boing Boing]

Tags: : moon eclipse event site losangeles california science astronomy lunar