Hiking Mission Trails: South Fortuna Mountain & Suycott Wash

The end of 2013 brought a particularly cool friend into town, and, lucky me, Dr T had recovered from her cold and had an afternoon free to visit! With the weather being accommodatingly clear and warm out we decided that we both could use a little exercise and headed east to explore Mission Trails Regional Park for a few hours.

Descending Visitor Center Loop trail to San Diego River.

I should confess that though I have cycled through Mission Trails Park many times I had only ever hiked it once, many many moons ago when I still cane-dependent, and so am not terribly familiar with the park's many trails. To be safe, we stopped in at park headquarter to pick up a trail map and ran into a really helpful park docent who pulled out the map, a pencil, and then proceeded to describe in detail his favorite 'little romp' for us to follow. Our less-fat-than-average look sort of worked against us as our enthusiastic guide plotted our way UP South Fortuna Mtn and traversing it to the Fortuna Saddle before heading back down through Suycott Wash. All my mountainous century bike rides of the past year have made mountains seem less formidable for me of late, but the talk of steep terrains and 300+ rock steps that are much better scaling up than descending down was a bit unsettling. Neither of us are known for shying away from any adventure (especially when there's an audience looking on), however, so off we went to find the Visitor Center Loop trail head at Mission Gorge Rd and Jackson Dr before proceeding down the wide dirt road to the San Diego River.

Cottony arroyo willow seeds padding up the rocks along the San Diego River.

Dr T fording the midgetly San Diego River

We were a bit too instructed on how to cross the river the least wet way possible, I'm afraid, and ended up crossing it at the wrong spot because the right place looked very much, to our untrained eyes, like the the place our guide had told us to avoid! Some moderate amount of bushwacking ensued before we popped out on the trail again, serendipitously right at a sign warning hikers not to stray off the marked path!

Up the San Diego River Crossing Trail toward the tower.

From then on we managed to stay on the, er, straight (ahem!) and narrow path, so to speak for the rest of the hike. The gravelly trail led us steeply up toward the landmark white tower before we picked up the S Fortuna Trail east down to the wash.

Starting down S Fortuna Trail from the crossroad.

One of the things I had learnt from my many long distance cycling expeditions is to note pavement condition on the opposite side of the road when on an out-and-back route... So the steepness of our descent into Suycott Wash concerned me a bit as we'd have to climb back up it toward the end of our hike. I had not chosen my footwear very wisely and my well worn soles weren't gripping the trail very well.

Down S Fortuna Trail into Suycott Wash.

We soon reached the bottom, though, and found the promised two picnic tables hiding in the shades. Starting up the gentle lower slope of S Fortuna Mountain I was busy finding a good spot to place my cane when Dr T let out a gasp. It was a fat little roadrunner running across the path just a few yards ahead! That quite perked up both Dr T and me. No matter how the hike turned out, at least we had spotted a wildlife up close. I was still relishing that thought a few minutes later when Dr T let out another yelp... I looked up just in time to see a coyote running up the trail ahead of us and disappearing behind some boulders! First a roadrunner then a coyote... Real life is just like cartoon sometimes!

The lower steps on S Fortuna Mtn. The dog and his parents were on their way down.

The steep steps up S Fortuna Mtn.

By the time we got to the lower steps up S Fortuna Mtn I was getting quite warm and very grateful for my insulated cycling water bottle... and for the cane! Since I took up cycling almost two years ago my balance and stamina have improved a lot, but I'd still soon deteriorate to a drunkard's walk if I try to go more than a mile on my feet without using a stick. Now as the hike was turning into a climb, I don't think I'd have made it all the way up the mountain without my third leg (and Dr T's endless patience!). The upper part of the steps was really steep and eroded. I really wouldn't have liked to descend down the same path!

There's a coyote in the foto, believe it or not. I just managed to catch his ears behind the boulders and bush.

As we cleared the steps and neared the crest of the climb Dr T let out another yelp. By this time I had learnt to associate her yelps with photographing opportunity, so I got the camera out just in time to catch a little bit of our second coyote of the hike... disappearing behind a set of boulder and surrounding bushes!

Fortuna Saddle. N Fortuna Mtn in background.

The view from the top of S Fortuna Mtn was pretty good (though I think it was better at the top of the steps than at the summit itself). We might have lingered there a bit longer, but didn't want to risk not making it back to the car by 5pm, when the gates would be locked, so we started down to Fortuna Saddle...

The trail down to Suycott Wash.

And then down what turned out to be the most hazardous bit of the day's hike, the steep and very slippery descend into Suycott Wash. Really, folks, don't do this thing without having on a good pair of hiking shoes. It's so eroded and bare and steep that I had a hard time zigzagging down without turning into a human tumbleweed! Once down to Rock Garden Trail (formerly known as Suycott Trail) we sped along nicely and was back at the San Diego River in time to catch the local flora in some really splendid light.

Western sycamores catching the evening light with their autumn gold leaves.

We even had 30 minutes or so to spent browsing around the park's visitor center museum. It's quite a cool space!

Mission Trails Park HQ museum

Bobcat and roadrunner.

Coyote. I couldn't get a good shot of a live one, but here at least is a stuffed version.

Our nice park docent was still around and came over for good (and mostly educational) chats. I particularly liked the collection of stuffed local wildlife on the second floor... seeing as their live version are so good at disappearing in the presence of my camera! One of the 'stuffed animals' is a fake, though. If you're ever in town, drop in at Mission Trails Park HQ and see if you can tell which!

Links:
- Mission Trails Regional Park
- Mission Trails Park trail map
- Dr T's Opera Rambling Outlet

National Park Week (20-28 Apr 2013) Starts Tomorrow!

If it has been a while since you visited the national park close to you, dust up the sunscreen and the camera and find time to go next week. April 20-28 is National Park Week 2013, and you can get to all the national park near (or even far from) you for FREE!

www.nps.gov

Here in San Diego, the closest park around is, of course, Cabrillo National Monument. It is a gem of a park with spectacular view of San Diego Bay and the Pacific Ocean, excellent museums and gift shop, observation decks, hiking trail, awesome tide pools, the light houses, etc, etc, and it's less than 20 minutes drive from Downtown (and, for cyclist me, a good little warm up ride before tackling the beautiful tide pools hill).

Old Pt Loma Light House

Cabrillo Monument with Coronado Island & Downtown San Diego in background.

Looking west down tide pools hill to the Pacific Ocean

Looking NE toward La Playa, Shelter Island.

Cabrillo is so close to town you can bike there in less than an hour!

New Pt Loma Light House. Coronado Islands (Mexico) in background.

The real thing is much more mesmerizing than the photos, of course, and, for one week starting tomorrow you can get in for free. Aren't we spoiled rotten in paradise or what???

Guest post: Palomar Mountain State Park volunteer & donation call

VOLUNTEER LOOKOUTS URGENTLY NEEDED FOR PALOMAR'S BOUCHER FIRE TOWER UPDATE ON MATCHING FUNDS FOR PALOMAR

ROOM WITH A VIEW: VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR BOUCHER FIRE TOWER Did you know that Palomar Mountain State Park has a historic working fire lookout tower --- high atop Boucher Summit --- one of the few remaining in southern California? Ever dreamed of "sitting on top of the world" in a fire tower, enjoying a commanding view --- from the surrounding mountains all the way to the ocean --- while watching over our precious woodlands for forest fires? Volunteers are urgently needed to staff Boucher Tower during this coming fire season. Each volunteer would only need to commit one day per month to this valuable service.  Training sessions for new volunteers will be on April 6 and 13.   Anyone interested can contact Curt Waite at elcariso@yahoo.com. Curt is chairman of the San Diego - Riverside Chapter of the Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA), the non-profit organization that oversees the tower's operation and spearheaded its restoration. The current tower was built in 1948 (the original version was built in 1921) and was operated as a California Department of Forestry fire detection point until the mid-eighties when it was taken out of service.  Over the years it fell into disrepair until there was danger of it needing to be torn down.  An agreement was signed in November of 2011 between Cal Fire and California State Parks transferring ownership of the structure to the park.   Boucher Hill lookout has now been restored to its original 1948 condition through the efforts of Cal Fire, State Parks and the Forest Fire Lookout Association (FFLA).  The FFLA has restored the interior cab (top floor) of the lookout, and will be putting the lookout back into service as a working fire detection center this fire season in partnership with Palomar Mountain State Park and the Cleveland National Forest.  (FFLA also operates High Point lookout on the east side of Palomar.) For details about volunteering as a lookout, please contact Curt Waite at elcariso@yahoo.com

UPDATE ON MATCHING FUNDS FOR PALOMAR This month we submitted a proposal to Sacramento to receive matching funds for Palomar Mountain State Park. The matching funds are to come out of a portion of the money discovered in the Department of Parks and Recreation's coffers last summer, and their intended use must meet certain criteria. Because we have a pre-existing donor agreement with State Parks to keep Palomar open, our application will entail an amendment to our original agreement. We will notify you when we have finalized our revised agreement with State Parks. This will also allow us to establish a target for our 2013 Fund Drive, which we have postponed pending the results of this matching fund opportunity. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please contact Rick Barclay at 951-265-6385 or email Rick directly at rickbarclay92592@yahoo.com.

Thank you! Sincerely, Friends of Palomar Mountain State Park

Earth Day at Balboa Park

Happy Earth Day, Earthlings! Apparently Earth Day is not just a day dedicated to Mother Earth and conservation anymore, but has attained a sort of holiday status among many. I would seriously run out of fingers and toes if I try to count how many time I was wished a 'Happy Earth Day!' today. Not that there is anything wrong with that. If only more holidays could be so universally appreciated (or at least appreciable... After all, there's only one earth we can live on, and we all have to share it!)!

Zoro Garden, my favorite bit of Balboa Park, is having a bloomy green spring!

The big Earth Day celebration here in town is, of course, at Balboa Park. Having a little break in between work assignments this weekend, I hopped on the mountain bike and pedaled over to soak in the scene a bit. The place was already pretty busy at 9:30AM, so I was contemplating finding a place to park my fat wheels before proceeding on foot (lest I run over a baby or a dog while distracted by something else) when I spotted a roped off section of the lawn by the Casa del Prado with a 'Bicycle Parking Valet' sign on it. How cool was that??? The San Diego County Bicycle Coalition volunteers, a really friendly bunch of people, registered my bike, parked it and watched over it (and others) while I went out enjoying the festivities. They even provided area biking maps for free! Gosh knows you can't know too many bike-friendly routes around this town.

SDCBC Valet Bike Lot by Casa del Prado

El Prado, the park's main pedestrian thoroughfare was lined with vendors of various shades of green. It can be a bit dangerous browsing through these. If you don't watch it you'll end up signing a bunch of petitions supporting various green and/or environmentally friendly causes. Not that supporting worthy causes isn't good, but I'm a tad paranoid about giving out my contact info to organizations.

I wouldn't have minded giving my contact info to this free-loving and irresistibly cute Bonita Blue Bin, however...

I mean... look at her. Isn't she the perkiest Earth Day party-er you've ever seen (aside from your own kids, that is)??? She took one look at me and tried to recycle me on the spot (thankfully nobody took a picture of it... wouldn't want a foto of me getting swallowed up by a blue recycling bin floating around on the internet now, would I?). Mesmerized, I felt a sudden mad urge to propose on the spot, but some other old geezer beat me to it, so I went off to pet the stuffed raccoon at the Friends of the Laguna Mountains tent instead...

Alas, it wasn't all happy a celebration. A bunch of evangelical Christians turned up trying to scare the crowd into conversion via threats of hell and eternal punishment.

Compared to the passive and cheery Hare Krishna nearby, they were something of a killjoy, I'm afraid. The Christian leader dude got so carried away drowning everyone out by his amplified preaching that a few unwilling audience took offense and told him to cut it out (I spotted one of them telling the park police about it a bit later). I'm sure even this preacher guy and his crew meant well, but their tactics really didn't come off well. The Hare Krishna folks didn't try to evangelize at all, and drew a much more positive crowd reactions.

There was a parade, of course. I didn't follow them beyond the Plaza de Panama (that big round-about where the Museum of Art is), though. It was already almost noon and I wanted to ride on a bit and stop by to see the Maritime Museum's San Salvador Build Site, so I went back to reclaim my bike and took off.

Valentine Ride Around The Town: 1 - Through Mission Hills to the San Diego River

Part 1: Through Mission Hills to the River

Part 2: Ocean Beach via OB Bike Path

Part 3: Sunset Cliffs to Cabrillo

I don't have a sweet tooth. My entire set of teeth is glucophilic! The candies aisle at the grocery store is the bane of my sugary existence. It should then come as no surprise that I woke up on Valentine morning practically surrounded by the varieties of chocolate bars acquired from my many raids to the local stores and sweet shops over the past month.

Don't blame me. My guardian angel is the tooth fairy!

What to do with such a guilt-betraying horde of mellifluous theobromic nibblers? I looked out the window at the delightfully rainless Southern Californian sky above and the dustily idle mountain bike below - the very machine that I had spent the dollars that should have facilitated my encore encounter with Lise Lindstrom's delicious Salome upon - and the answer came to me in a whiff of hyperactive imagination: Off on that bike goeth thou, ye Smorg, and return not until the last of those blasphemously tasty chocolate bars has been passed along to others more in need of their richly psyche-soothing extra sweet calories than fat-bottom-you do!

And so began my ambitious Valentine's Day epic sugar-freeing bike ride. Being a slow slugger that I am, I opted for the path of least resistance and headed northwest (down the hill, of course) toward the beautiful uptown community of Mission Hills, at the bottom of which lies the closest access point from my humble abode to the beautifully flat Ocean Beach Bike Path.

Pioneer Park gravestones

Having taken off at the hour where the more industrious residents of San Diego had all completed their morning rush to work, the traffic was accommodatingly light. I rolled through Mission Hills so smoothly that I decided to take a short detour from the route to pay a visit to Pioneer Park and its row of old gravestones. A lot of names interned there turn up at various Old Town museums. I don't know why, but the priests were all lumped up in one corner... Perhaps to confine posthumous ecclesiastical discussions there and allow the rest of the interns true peace?

Mission Hills is a really great neighborhood to stroll or ride around in. The stately old-moneyed craftsman mansions, bungalows, and various revival houses framed by green shrubs and manicured lawns. A car passes through every few minutes instead of in a constant torrent. I headed west on Ft. Stockton Rd, veering onto the laid back San Diego version of Sunset Blvd just as two red-shouldered hawks low-dove over the road into a yard nearby. One popped back out empty taloned, but the other escaped into a tall fir carrying someone's lunch in its beak. Naturally I don't have a photo of it... These hawks are so fast and quiet they're always apparating out of thin air just when I couldn't spare a hand to fish out the slow-acting camera! 

View as you turn the last curve on Sunset Blvd in Mission Hills

Mission Hills has many rustic side-streets worth exploring on bike, but the day had grown a bit older and the ocean beckoned, so I stayed on Sunset Blvd, making for the straightest path to my destination. Entering the last curve there is an awesome view to be had if you are on foot or bike (you lazy buggers going 'round in cars will just have to go park a bit away and walk back to the curve to catch this, I'm afraid. The road is narrow and marked fire-lane red all the way).

And then, of course, there is Juan Street... A decade or so ago I would have had enough of the dare-devil left in me to fly down this steep stretch of paved slope like an aerodynamic roadkill waiting to happen. Alas, I have survived enough close-calls to know that even a hardiest cat do run out of lives after so many encounter with what old Maverick famously characterized as 'the need for speed.' 

Looking down Juan St toward the San Diego River.

Besides, there's a stop sign before the bottom of the hill right where Heritage Park and the Mormon Battalion are... These are relatively busy tourists attractions, so any unsightly spill would likely be photo-documented by one or a few of the camera-toting folks and end up on Youtube where indiscretions go to spend the rest of eternity being replayed for the amusement of others long after crash wounds have faded into scars. I screeched to a complete halt right on the intersection line and hobbled in to the MoBatt to entrusted a few Valentine goodies to Sister Nächstenliebe to pass along among her fellow resident missionaries before escaping from another 'would you like to have another discussion' to my adamantly religion-free bicycle.

Juan Street forms the northern boundary of Old Town State Park, and just a couple of blocks' worth to the west lies Old Town Transit Center and its many bus terminals and trolley station... quite a temptation for soft-bodied Smorg to cut the trip short and hop a bus home in time for lunch! But you'd be proud of me; I prodded on and turned right (east) onto Taylor St to be rewarded with a largely empty road that made the transition onto Morena Blvd less nerve-racking as it could have been (cyclists have a way of ending up in the evening news when we try to make a left turn at a major intersection while surrounded by California drivers!). On the right side of the road just past the I-8 overpass was the entrance to Ocean Beach Bike Path. I've made it to the river!

Unfortunately it is now dinner time and I'm too exasperated by the computer's malfunctioning keyboard to continue typing. Will have to pick this up later! 

Off The Main Road: La fleur qu’il m’avait jetée

I made a quick trip to the grocery store a mile or so away this morning. On the way back as I cut through the park I spotted this cute black phoebe perched on a tree watching my approach.

A black phoebe (Moucherolle noir) I saw months ago in the park. Alas I didn't get a picture of the one I met today.

Black phoebes are this area's sparrows. There are always a bunch of them around rustling in the bushes and on tree limbs. So, though I'm always saying hello and waving to them (I know they probably think me wacky, but I like watching how they react to that) I hadn't taken a photo of one in a long time... and certainly not this one this morning. He got a bit nervous and hopped to a higher limb as I got close. Then when he saw that I was not one of those nasty cats with the bad habit of looking at him as if he is a piece of Tartar steak, he started pecking at a bunch of leaves nearby. I was almost under him when he pecked loose a little flower -- it drifted a little in the gentle breeze and landed on my open fingers just as its dislodger hopped away into someone's backyard bush.

You do bring me flower, you do sing me love song...

Being a rational dude that I am, I'd have no trouble thinking that it is just a particularly nice sort of accident. Sentimentally, though, I'd like to think it a little present from a bird that appreciates weirdos who try to talk to him in a strangely unmelodic language as if he would abandon his infinitely more pleasant songs just for the sake of associating with a featherlessly slow-moving lump of ground-bounded biped. 

Maybe it was a female black phoebe, in which case I shall now call her 'Carmen,' and hope that doing so wouldn't condemn me to the fate of Don José (though exceptions can be made if I then get to look and sing like Jonas Kaufmann with my new featherly friend transforming into one Vesselina Kasarova... almost anything is worth that!!!).

Just (Not) Thinking Out Loud

Why is it so easy to sit and gaze over a lake or an ocean or a stream all day long without getting very bored, but sitting still in a car gazing at stuck traffic feels like madness beyond boredom even after just 10 minutes?

On second thought, don't answer that...

Off the Main Road: An Oasis by Discovery Park

I'm a country bumpkin and living in concrete forest cities sometimes depresses me. Oddly enough, the best cure for that is often to go out and walk a skewed hike. How is a hike skewed? By looking where you wouldn't normally look, of course.

This is a little creek hiding in plain sight near Discovery Park in Rancho del Rey area of Chula Vista. I've been by there several times without ever giving the little out-of-the-way grove of palm trees a second thought (ok, I confess I was interested once but was discouraged by the graffiti on the retaining wall up the hill from it... It looks like a druggie's hangout).

Yesterday, however, I was walking back from the store nearby when I spotted a lone hawk being harassed by a pack of three huge crows. It was a weird sight! The hawk went crashing into the eucalyptus grove on the hillside and just sat on a limb, ducking its head as the crows kept diving in to buzz him. I sneaked around and had a look at Mr. Hawk from below just before he flew off again. The last I saw of him he came circling back to the eucalyptus with something furry and yellowish in his beak, deftly maneuvering between the branches as the three crows tried to get at his lunch.

Looking back down on the ground level, though, I was surrounded by little birds! They were hard to photographed with my low-tech low-zoom camera, though, hopping from one bush to another as if cheering for the crows to drive that big fat flying predator away. There were a bunch of red-headed house finches up in the palm trees eating palm fruits. And the bushes were quaking with hopping golden crowned kinglets.

A golden crowned kinglet

And behind the bushes, of course, was this clear watered oasis...

 

If you were paying good attention you might have spotted the one icky thing in the creek.... An overturned shopping cart from the mall nearby. Thankfully there was just one of those and it was sort of tucked into a corner. The whole creek is only about 20 yds long, starting from a pipe outlet on the east end and disappearing underground behind a lone palm on the west end. On the whole, it really isn't much. But as a contrast to its citified surroundings.... it's a welcoming peaceful oasis!

An Accidental Hike Up Mission Trail Regional Park

Writing about opera and classical music all the time gets to be pretty tiring after a while, so occasionally I lapse onto other odd topics. One of the recent projects was to be an article about the pedestrian bridges of San Diego... Was, because I hadn't realized just how numerous pedestrian bridges are in this city!

When you google 'pedestrian bridge' and 'San Diego' you usually just keep running into a few well written about bridges: the canyon-spanning pedestrian bridges at Quince St, Spruce St, and Vermont Ave in Uptown area. And then there are a couple of recent news articles about the still-not-finished-yet new fancy suspension bridge linking Petco Park to San Diego Convention Center across Harbor Drive in downtown. A very knowledgeable fire-fighter friend of mine pointed me to a few more bridges, and a couple of hours spent on Google Earth poring over freeways and canyons found several more. In fact, I've identified so many pedestrian bridges now that I'm no longer very keen on writing about all of them.... Perhaps just the more interesting ones.

Clockwise from top-left: 1. Vermont St Bridge from Washington Ave; 2. Hollywood Canyon Bridge; 3. Scripps Crossing at UCSD Institute of Geophysics; 4. Harbor Drive Bridge; 5. Omni Hotel Skywalk; 6. Mary Augustine Bridge at Sweetwater Reserve; 7. Quince St Bridge; 8. Spruce St suspension bridge.

But, anyhow, in the midst of my bridge-hunting spree I found one via Google Earth where I didn't quite expect - at the eastern terminus of Clairemont Mesa Boulevard in Tierrasanta area. I thought I knew that road quite well, having kept an apartment right at a corner of that road and I-805 for nearly two years back in the mid 90's, and never knew about it. So when I spotted a 'dry' day in the middle of uncharacteristically rainy October, I hopped on the buses and the trolley up to Tierrasanta to check it out (of course I always check this sort of thing out in person before writing about it! If I retained any lesson from my medical career days, it is that I have absolutely no luck at all when it comes to getting away with bullshitting about stuff I don't know enough about. There are plenty of smarter people who would love to shine light on all the things I should have known about but hadn't taken the trouble to learn... in front of a group of very intellectually intimidating audience).

Tierrasanta is not well served by bus. There is no bus service on weekend, and only hourly ones on weekday. I left my pad in the eastern part of Chula Vista at 4:40AM and made it all the way up to Kearny Mesa Complex by 6AM (I was astounded! Would have expected a 2 hrs transit since I had to catch 2 buses and one train to get there). The first bus into Tierrasanta (holyland in Spanish?) didn't take off until 7AM, though, so I raided the McDonald's nearby for breakfast. It is a very impressive McDonald's... It even has a library area with leather couches and shelves of books and magazines you can read while waiting for your bus! (Thinking further about it, maybe that doesn't reflect quite well on bus service here that the restaurant is practically counting on you having to wait such a long time for your bus that you'd have time to peruse its library. Most of the drivers are really nice and efficient, though. We just don't have enough buses!)

I was hoping for a few good shots of dawn over the wild mountain at the east end of Clairemont Mesa Blvd, but by seven o'clock the sun was already well past dawning... Bus 25 veers south at La Cuenta, so I got off there and walked 1/4 mile or so uphill to the end of the road and was rewarded by a few good morning sun shots like this one:

The bridge spans a canyon separating civilization from Mission Trails Regional Park. I headed across, looked around and just kept on walking... I hadn't been up on this side of Mission Gorge before, so why not explore a bit. 

The main trail was quite wide and well-maintained. I soon spotted a little cut-off trail that heads east toward S. Fortuna Mtn, though. It looked invitingly off-the-beaten-path, so I veered off onto it. Went down a gully, across a little wooden bridge, and up a steep little hill with rough steps marked by logs and sand bags. You know... I'm still just young enough to remember the painfree agile days when I would have had a blast storming up and down these. Nowadays they serve as good reminders of the reason why I need my third leg.

A few forks up the trail with the sun racing up the aging morning and I was up on top of a ledge checking my water supply and having a good look around (while stalling for breath). Something moved in the valley below... I had a look and thought it was one of those cute deers looking to nervously cross the trail in search of greener pasture. That was when the thing broke into a very canine-like jog. It wasn't a hoofer at all, but one of Mission Trails' resident cayotes. I wish he had ran my way to say hello, but cayotes aren't very well-liked in this town (they have a bad habit of having neighborhood pets for lunch, dinner, and even snack).

I took off on a trail toward the Fortuna Saddle (Fortuna is a long mountain with two summits on either end of a saddle)... and then must have taken a wrong turn somewhere (they don't always put direction signs on trail junctions here) as, an hour later I found myself on the 'Rim Trail' instead, heading north parallel to the mountain instead of toward it. Said a few not very holy words since by then much of the sole of my shoes had been de-grooved from climbing up the rough loose-pebbles trail surface. My water is more than half gone and it was getting sunny and hot.... And I hadn't spotted even a hawk! 

But then I remembered that I hadn't set out to hike any mountain at all... I was only going to check out a pedestrian bridge, and that was done a long time ago. And so, having talked myself into not beating myself up over having gotten on a trail to nowhere, I had some fun looking around and taking another round-about trail back. There's some good views to be had on the Rim Trail, too. One of these days I might persuade myself up the mountain again and actually getting to one of the summits...  But for now, here is a slide-show/video summary of the hike, pretty much:

I gather this place would look even more inviting in the spring months when the flowers are blooming... If you like the music, it is the finale from Richard Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier from a 2004 performance at Zurich Opera. Franz Welser-Möst conducts the Zurich Opera Orchestra. Nina Stemme (Die Marschallin), Vesselina Kasarova (Octavian), and Malin Hartelius (Sophie) did the singing. A great DVD of the show is commercially available!