The first image is looking back down Mount Wilson Fire Road above Altadena. The next image was taken on the Sunset Ridge / Mt. Wilson fire road just past the junction of the trail to Millard Canyon campground at an elevation of only 2000 feet. I thought the contradiction of green moss with cold, fresh snow was intriguing. OK, it's only hobbit size, but it IS an honest-to-gosh Altadena foothills snowman!
Neighbors and Trail Cohorts,
This morning I walked up to the snow line above Altadena (which was briefly down around 1,600 foot elevation in the very early a.m.; however, the snow had melted back to approximately the 2,000 foot elevation by the time I began hiking up the Sunset Ridge / Mt. Wilson fire road around 10:00am or so). The air was cold, clean, and smelled a of black sage, California sage brush, and other chaparral. Every once in a while the Sun would break through for just a minute or two before the clouds closed in again. The storm clouds appeared to be blowing northward. A few times the sunlit ocean became a gold ribbon on the horizon.
Only a few others were also out on the fire road and connecting trails. Almost everyone I met on the fire road was walking with their dog(s). There were a few youngsters ambushing each other with snowballs, a few couples out for a hike, and I encountered two courteous mountain bikers returning from dawn rides who let me know there was more snow falling ahead. I saw no horses on the trail today! In spite of these encounters, there was plenty of solitude for everyone. The breeze whispered and huffed among the pines as the temperature dropped and snowflakes fell sporadically.
Wildlife was out and about in spite of the cold and snow. Lots of small songbirds were singing in the shrubs and rummaging for insects and seeds on the ground (yellow-rumped warblers, hermit thrushes, a California thrasher, and an entire flock of tiny little grey bushtits). Several turkey vultures and hawks were enjoying the unstable air and up drafts generated by the storm, flying in position above the cliffs, unmoving and supported by the air for minutes at a time. One Merriam's chipmunk (at lower elevation near the Sunset Ridge parking area) stopped long enough after darting across the road to chip at me before vanishing into the buckwheat.
There were numerous animal tracks in the mud and snow on the fire road. I noticed several hiking boot prints and large dog paw prints overlaid for about 15 feet by cougar prints. The positions of the tracks told the tale: The big cat followed soon after the dogs and hikers had passed (all prints were deep and fresh, with the cougar's paw prints on top of some of the other tracks). The cougar ambled at a casual walk, stopped at one point (where the cat probably sniffed something, looked around, or thought about where to go next). The cougar then angled away from the mud and snow before disappearing down slope under an oak. I'm sure no one had any idea they had been "followed" by a curious cougar. There were also bobcat paw prints crossing the road in several spots.
It was odd to see the Indian Paintbrush, ceonothus, and cliff asters bravely blooming through the snow fall.
At Sierra Saddle I experienced an authentic snow flurry (!) that then turned into a heavy, clumpy snow storm (it wasn't quite hail). The 3D view across the canyon of falling snow was spectacular! It was a scene I'd expect to find in the Sierra or Rocky Mountains rather than above Altadena at relatively low elevation.