Even after attack, Griffith Park still a respite, hikers say

Nancy Serena and Christina Stone had just hiked to Griffith Observatory and back on Tuesday morning when a woman approached them in the Fern Dell section of Griffith Park, asking for directions and if the hike up the hill was safe.

Yes, they said, sure. They didn’t hesitate. Then they learned that a man had been badly attacked on a nearby stretch of trail the day before.

The victim, still unidentified, was in critical condition. Another man had been arrested. The violence apparently had occurred in broad daylight, in the early afternoon.

It was one of those rare moments, the two women said, when they were forced to confront potential dangers in the enormous city park, which they treasure for its natural beauty and for the breathing room it offers them.

More than 4,200 acres, much of it is chaparral-covered hills and trails, with sweeping views of the San Fernando Valley, the downtown skyline, on some days a swath of blue Pacific Ocean. The real marvel, the friends said, was how little city ills intruded in this largely wild space where, ordinarily, being startled by a bold coyote or a rattlesnake might seem a more reasonable fear than any encounter with a human bent on harm.

Serena, a casting director in her 50s, said long ago she used to hike with pepper spray and flares. Now, with more company on the trails, she carries only her hand-whittled walking stick, which is good when she loses traction on a trail and could deflect a snake’s strike.

“But we do say to each other, ‘We are in the city,’” she said. “This is probably a good reminder to be aware.”

Details about Monday’s attack remained sketchy. Police later described it as an altercation between two homeless men that ended in one hitting the other with a trash can.

In May, two women reported being attacked in separate incidents at the park. But according to The Times’ Mapping L.A. database, there is relatively little crime in Griffith Park, especially given how many people visit the park. The most common incidents over the last few months were thefts from vehicles.

Bianca Malinowski, an actress raised in Texas, walking briskly down from the observatory in fluorescent shorts and running shoes, said she has had one uncomfortable park experience, though it really was more “weird” than frightening — when a fellow hiker, mad that Malinowski was talking on her cellphone, followed her closely for awhile on a trail.

“She was a little too angry. She called me some vulgar names. When I told my family, they were like, ‘We don’t want you walking here by yourself, even during the day.’ But I wasn’t going to stop it from letting me come out here,” the 29-year-old said. “It’s a pretty cool thing to have a place like this, where you can get away from the city.”

When Nathaniel Rizzo first heard an attack had occurred, the 28-year-old graphic designer immediately began fretting that maybe the park was not a safe place to go on regular hikes with his girlfriend. She said nonsense, so on Tuesday morning the two of them hit their usual trail.

“She’s hardcore,” Rizzo said of Sarah Rasmussen, 27, a singer, who replied, “This is the sort of thing that never, ever happens. If we stay in the populated areas, we’re fine. And I bet you find out that it was personal, that they knew each other.”

Fern Dell, right off Los Feliz Boulevard, feels magically remote and forest-like, with its twisting paths and quaint foot bridges in the perpetual shade of tall sycamores, redwoods, pines and ash trees. Parking near the trails is easy, and there’s good food, tea and coffee at the cozy Trails Cafe on Fern Dell Drive, whose bulletin board includes a trail map, a display of male and female pine cones and advertisements for yoga, Rolfing and Italian lessons.

“I love the park. It enriches my life,” said Alisha Dickson, an actress from Sherman Oaks, who was ambling along one of the paths Tuesday morning with her Sheltie, Violet Chantilly Rose.

Once, she said, she saw police Taser a man in Fern Dell. He was running through sprinklers, “in his boxer shorts, on a freezing cold winter day.” When a park ranger told him to get his clothes on and leave, he started swearing and shouting, ‘You’re not going to take me to jail!’ Then he pulled a signpost out of the ground and started swinging it.

By the time police intervened and the man fell to the ground, a crowd had formed, Dickson said.

“That pretty much was the only time in 10 years that I’ve ever seen any kind of trouble,” she said, “and whenever anything happens, there’s always someone there.”

Except somehow when she chances upon a rattlesnake, slithering across the dirt path.

“The funny thing is,” she said, “with all the people who come up and down the trail, no one’s ever around with a rattlesnake.”

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