Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Day 711: San Vicente Mountain Park - LA-96 NIKE Missile Site - Mandeville Canyon - Westridge Canyonback Wilderness Park - Encino Reservoir

LA-96 NIKE MISSILE SITE

Day #711 * Hike #860 * New Track #690
Saturday October 27, 2012
San Vicente Mountain Park - Encino, CA
LA-96 NIKE Missile Site - Mandeville Canyon
Westridge Canyonback Wilderness Park
Encino Reservoir
My Tripometer: 1.5 Hours * 4 Miles * +1000 Feet

 Driving down Ventura Blvd. into Encino

Upper entrance to the Westridge Canyonback Wilderness Park

Directions:
From the 101 Freeway in Encino, exit on Balboa and turn south towards Ventura Blvd.  Turn left on Ventura and drive about a half mile to Havenhurst.  Turn right on Havenhurst and stay to the right for about a mile.  Turn right on Encino Hills Dr.  Follow this up the hill for about a mile and then continue following the road (Mulholland Dr.) until you reach this sign.  The road here gets kind of bumpy but its manageable.  There are parking spots up the road about a quarter of a mile, but we began here.  **You can also achieve this route from the 405 Freeway - look it up...

 Mandeville Fire Road Trailhead
(This is up Mulholland and to the right of the parking)

 We didn't know what was up here - nice surprise seeing this sign

 Too bad Ayden couldn't handle Granny Gear

The good news is, he helps me obtain my 1 mile minimum hike even though the majority of this journey was a bike ride.  We later ditched our bikes to hike around at the park to help assure my requirement...

 Encino Reservoir

 Agua!!!

We turned left to the missile site.  I guess this is considered San Vicente Park.  The main road continued forward but we ended up taking another route on the other side of the missile site...

 The trail leads out to an awesome ocean view...

 Mixed in the shmog is the city of L.A.

 Gee mom, why are you so far away???



There are some picnic tables up here, a restroom and awesome views.  We walked around for a bit to explore the area and then headed out...

 Part 2...

The downhill ride was fast, way fast!  This was a nice open road so I barely pulled the break.  Jess and Ayden remained far back.  However, at the bottom it begins to rise back up again.  My momentum carried me a quarter of the way up but then Jess called me back.  Her and Ayden had enough so they turned around.  Ayden had already run in a 3k and later he would be diving in Simi Valley.

I told them that I would meet them back at the car.  I was eager to climb this hill to catch the awesome ocean views.  I remained on the main road but there is also a single track trail option that you could take.  I eventually got up the first hill and determined that it made me quite exhausted.  My ocean views were still five minutes away and my wife was 10 minutes the other direction.  I made the decision to turn back and head down the narrow single track trail.

OMG - I nearly ate it!  I pressed my breaks as hard as they could go and they did not slow me down.  Afterwards, my biceps felt like I worked out 10 crazy sets of 20 reps each.  Fortunately, I survived it and I passed up the family before reaching the car.  Cool beans...

Canyonback Trailhead

I will need to come back up here to check this one out.  It seems more level - wonder where it goes???
 

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