Organized Adventure : Colleges, Municipalities Offer Trips and Educational Excursions All Over Southern California

James Marshall may have started the California Gold Rush in 1848 when he discovered “some shining flecks in the water” near Sutter’s Mill, but his was not the first major discovery of gold in California.

Francisco Lopez did it six years earlier. Lopez was sitting beneath an oak tree in Placerita Canyon, near what is now Newhall. He reached out to pluck a wild onion growing nearby and was astonished to find glittering gold mixed into the sandy soil clinging to its roots. The tree, which still stands, was named the Oak of the Golden Dream, and the discovery yielded gold worth $80,000.

This surprising fact is just one of the many historical nuggets available to weekend adventurers who join up to see “The Other Los Angeles” with tour guide Lee Klein, a history buff and former corporate executive.

Community colleges and community-services departments of area cities have become treasure troves of one-day weekend excursions such as this. Many, but not all, of these tours are handled by commercial tour operators such as Klein.

From Wineries to Waterfowl

For instance, you can journey to the Santa Ynez Valley and learn about early California history on the way to wine tasting at local vineyards, or take a boat to enjoy the stark beauty of Anacapa Island off the coast of Ventura, where you can see unusual plants, sea lions, pelicans and other waterfowl.

Or, perhaps you would like to learn about astronomy during dinner under the stars in the Santa Monica Mountains, tour private flower-filled gardens in Redlands, go to San Diego’s Old Town for Cinco de Mayo, see the wildflowers in Antelope Valley or experience “Murder in Casablanca,” a new environmental theater.

Klein started his California Native tour company six years ago after he decided during a rock-climbing expedition in Australia that he had had enough of suits and ties, long hours and a regimented work day. “The Other Los Angeles,” offered by the California Native and priced at $55, is one of several one-day and weekend trips available through city or community college programs.

Rio Hondo College, (213) 692-0921, is offering a Placerita Canyon outing April 16; Alhambra Human Services Department, (818) 570-5063, on June 4 (fee is $25 because Alhambra underwrites transportation costs), and Moorpark College, (805) 378-1400, on June 10.

In addition to Placerita Canyon, the trip includes hiking in the San Gabriel Mountains, a visit to St. Andrew’s Priory, a trip to Devil’s Punchbowl Park in Pearblossom--where five earthquake faults have created strange rock formations--and Vasquez Rocks, near Palmdale, off California 14.

The Vasquez Rocks formation, which Klein says is “one of the most photographed spots in the United States,” was created by the Elk Horn earthquake fault. In relating the history of the area, he says the rocks were a hide-out for Tiburcio Vasquez, a famed desperado of the late 1800s who became a “cause celebre” of his day.

Vasquez, a horse thief and highwayman, was captured in 1874 in what is now West Hollywood by a posse that included George Beers, a San Francisco Chronicle reporter who shot and wounded the desperado. Klein says that Vasquez’s undeserved reputation as a “Robin Hood” earned him support among people of his day. He was visited in jail by upstanding women of the community, and when a play about his life was ready for the stage, it even was suggested that Vasquez should be released from jail to play himself. In spite of all this, he was hanged for murder in 1875.

“The beauty of the thing is that Lee knows the territory very well,” says J. P. Smith, 70, an Eagle Rock real estate agent who took the Vasquez Rocks trip recently. “He not only knows where to go and where to stop, but he researches everything and he’s a walking encyclopedia. . . . People who take these trips are all ages. . . . It’s a delightful, wonderful way to see the territory.”

“If you just went to Placerita Canyon by yourself,” says Patty Mailman, 39, a Los Angeles paralegal who has taken several trips with Klein, “you’d just think it’s some kind of forsaken place. But he (Klein) tells you the whole story.”

For Astronomy Buffs

If you don’t want your adventure to be so earthbound, you might be interested in Santa Monica College Community Services’ “Stars of the Santa Monicas” and “Earth, Sea and Sky.” Information: (213) 452-9232.

“Stars of the Santa Monicas,” scheduled next Saturday and May 6, costs $20, which includes dinner under the stars at Arroyo Sequit Ranch, 34138 Mulholland Highway, in the Santa Monica Mountains, accompanied by a discussion of constellation lore and an opportunity to view the moon, Jupiter, star clusters and other celestial wonders through a telescope.

“We’ll be enjoying the universe, the beauty of the night sky. We’ll be getting a perspective on our place in the universe, how we fit into things,” says John Hodge, who runs the college’s Planetarium and lectures on astronomy at Griffith Observatory. Hodge will also explain double, or binary, star systems, which he says “are not only beautiful to view, but fascinating to contemplate intellectually,” because sometimes as many as six stars orbit one another “in a sort of complex gravitational dance.”

“Earth, Sea and Sky” on April 29 is an overview of nature in the Santa Monicas. The fee is $10 for an all-day adventure that starts at Leo Carrillo State Beach, exploring beach and canyon areas to learn about tides, weather, geologic activity and unusual plants; the class concludes at Arroyo Sequit. Hodge, who teaches the class with geography instructor Bill Selby, says they try to put everything in a universal context by talking “about the sky mythology of the Chumash Indians who lived in this area for thousands of years before the encroachment of Western civilization.”

“And,” he adds, “we can use our telescopes to take a look at the stars and try to imagine processes going on out there.”

If early California history or the mysteries of the cosmos aren’t your idea of adventure, you may want to try something that’s pure fantasy.

Cal State Long Beach and Cerritos College Community Services in Norwalk are offering pre-opening excursions to “Murder in Casablanca,” an environmental dinner theater that premieres in May at Rick’s American Cafe in Beverly Hills. The Cal State event takes place April 22 and costs $55 per person. Information: (213) 985-5561. The Cerritos evening is April 29 and costs $50 per person. Information: (213) 860-2451, Ext. 521. These dates include a special 20-minute seminar on how such a play is written and an opportunity to meet the actors. “We’ve taken an old building and we’re turning it into a Casablanca nightclub, a complete environmental theater,” says Baron Mosley of Murder Mysteries Inc.

Several Mystery Shows

Mosley and his partners have created several similar shows.

In “To Catch a Vampire,” the Wattles Mansion in Hollywood became the house of a movie producer with a biting problem--his wife was a vampire.

In “Happy Birthday, Sherlock Holmes,” the famed detective battled against his arch-nemesis, Prof. Moriarty, and Jack the Ripper in a renovated bank building on Hollywood Boulevard.

This new adventure is the most ambitious to date, says Mosley, who wrote and directs “Murder in Casablanca.” He says characters Rick, Sam, Ilsa and Louis are “trapped in the nightclub by a Nazi commander and his men. There’s a hidden document that will change the state of the war. It becomes a romantic suspense thriller.”

When guests arrive for the show, they will be served champagne and appetizers, while a 1940s-style torch singer vamps and Sam takes requests at the piano.

Intermission Buffet

At intermission there’s a buffet dinner, nightclub entertainment including tango dancers, and “gambling” at roulette tables for prizes.

“It’s like watching a play, but you’re actually in the nightclub with the actors,” Mosley says. He explains that actors talk to audience members, sit in people’s laps, select people for “drug therapy and torture” and will “almost kill you.”

There have been occasions when people have become so caught up in the action that they momentarily forgot it’s only a play. Mosley recalls a 95-year-old woman getting so angry with Sherlock Holmes’ pretense of being a villain that she started flailing him. Mosley says the actor almost “lost it” but was able to extricate himself; he sternly admonished the woman, “Don’t do it again!” and carried on.

Mosely says the embarrassed woman later told him: “I really got into it. I knew it was phony, but I was so mad at Sherlock.”

These are just a few of the adventures waiting on Saturdays and Sundays through colleges and suburban cities. More are listed below.

--The City of Alhambra Human Services Department, (818) 570-5063: La Purisma Mission Fiesta & Santa Barbara Arts Festival, May 27, $15; Western-style Jamboree and Chili Cook-off at Big Bear Lake, June 11, $17; L.A. at its Finest, walking tour of Chinatown and shopping at Arco Plaza, June 3, $19 (includes Chinese buffet); Anacapa Island, June 18, $67 (includes catered lunch); Local Mountain Hike, June 25, $25 (includes gourmet lunch).

--Pierce College Community Services, Woodland Hills, (818) 719-6425: Mother’s Day Special, May 14, “My Fair Lady” and lunch at Lawrence Welk Village in Escondido, $64 (includes theater and meal); Glories of the Golden West, April 29, no-host lunch at Lawry’s California Center, then on to “The Grand Canyon” at Imax Theater in Exposition Park and Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum in Griffith Park, $33; Redlands Garden Tour & Brunch, April 23, tours of private flower gardens, $26 (brunch at Edwards Mansion an additional $19); Garment District, May 6, shop at wholesale prices at five different locations, $22.

--Cerritos College Community Services, Norwalk, (213) 860-2451: Wildflower Country, April 15, the California Poppy Reserve and fields of colorful wildflowers in the Antelope Valley, no-host lunch in Palmdale, Vasquez Rocks, $24; Old Town’s Cinco de Mayo Festival, May 6, Scripps Institute of Oceanography and Old Town State Historic Park in San Diego, entertainment on five stages, $28.

--Golden West College Community Services, Huntington Beach, (714) 891-3991: Rancho California Wine Country Tour & Tasting, May 13, Callaway, Culbertson and Maurice Carre wineries, bring picnic lunch, $29, includes transportation, guide, admissions, tastings and a wine glass; Gardens Galore, June 3, San Diego area, Taylor’s Herb Gardens, lunch break, a begonia farm and a cactus nursery, $24.

--City of Tustin Community Services, (714) 544-8890, Ext. 220: Catalina Island, June 10, includes transportation on the Catalina Express and glass bottom boat tour, $50; Tijuana shopping spree, May 20, shopping and horse and dog racing, $18.

--Pasadena Community College, (213) 642-1140: Wine tasting in the Santa Ynez Valley, May 13, includes transportation, lunch and wine tasting, $62; Anacapa Island adventure, June 17, includes transportation, boat trip, catered lunch, $97.