Commentary: High winds lend a certain thrill to the morning hike
Last week I wrote about the powerful winds that had just roared through Southern California that had given me one of the most exhilarating hikes I’ve ever had here. This week I want to write about the most exhilarating. I’ve just come back from it.
As usual it was on the Mt. Lukens fire road overlooking La Cañada — but oh! what a difference from the usual steady uphill climb looking at the gradually evolving surroundings.
Today the scene was wild from the beginning. When I got to the parking lot I could scarcely open the car door against the pressure of the wind. I struggled out then narrowly missed an amputation as the handle was ripped out of my hand and the door slammed shut.
Even from there I could see bushes on the ridge I was making for, a few hundred feet above thrashing around like mad things, and hear the piercing whistle from the electrical towers up there as the gale tore through them.
From the start I was opposing a force I could barely make headway against and had to halt completely from time to time, bracing myself with the ski poles I use nowadays. Then I’d turn one of the tight bends on that serpentine road and instantly I’d be racing along trying to hold back. I may qualify for a Guinness World Record for acceleration from a standing start, 1 mile an hour to 5 in the blink of an eye.
The view ahead was equally changeable, one moment hazy as a cloud of dust was swept into the air, the next swept clean like a windscreen wiper in a downpour. In between there were places of unnatural calm with only that never-ending roar up above as a reminder that this was just a brief respite.
At the overlook, I’d half-expected to see all the downtown high-rises, in one of which my son was working, blown down like skittles.
Back on the road, everything was reversed. I was barely able to fight forward in gusts that took my breath away along sections of the road I’d danced up half an hour earlier, and I had to dig in the poles with all my strength to stop myself speeding out of control in places where, when I was going up, 1 mile an hour would have been good going.
I’ve hiked in remote mountains as different as Afghanistan and Venezuela, India and Ethiopia, Iceland and Turkey. All are exciting, but matronly La Cañada can give you quite a thrill too.