12 miles. 2000 feet elevation gain. CONQUERED. MINE!!

Yesterday, CA and I decided to go hiking on the Eagle Rock trail off of Topanga Canyon. It was supposed to be a nice, 4-6 mile hike round trip that would only take a few hours, but somehow, along the multiple trails and peaks, we ended up hiking 12 miles. 12 MILES. Whoever thought I'd willingly walk that far in one trip??

Our hike started off in Tippet Ranch, which is on Entrada Road. Entrada Road is a few miles inland from the ocean when you're driving on Topanga Canyon. The ranch was actually really nice and peaceful. There were several tables there for anyone to have a picnic and you could rent horses to go horseback riding. There were also multiple trails of different levels for people to walk or run along. CA and I decided to take the Eagle Rock trail which would (obviously) take us to Eagle Rock, and it was only supposed to be 4 miles round trip. We agreed we'd go there, and if we felt like going further, we'd continue along the trail before turning around. I figured that I'd be hiking 6 miles total, which was fine with me. At the beginning of our hike (which was actually very pretty and scenic), we saw some deer!! There were at least five of them, and they seemed to be incredibly tame as they were only about 7-10 feet away from us.

We continued along the trail, and soon, about a mile in, we could make out our supposed destination: Eagle Rock. Even though the trail towards it was mostly uphill, I was completely stoked to get to the top of Eagle Rock and see the view from there. Yesterday was rather overcast, but you could still see some awesome views of the Santa Monica mountains and even views of the city. We climbed to the very top of Eagle Rock with ease and relaxed for a bit to enjoy the view and to take some pictures. Even though I was glad it wasn't hot during our hike, I really want to come back on a sunnier and clearer day so that I could see better views of the city.

Since the trek up to Eagle Rock wasn't too strenuous, CA and I decided to continue on the trail. We saw another peak that seemed to be about a mile away, so we figured we'd go there and then go back to Tippet Ranch on another trail that looped around and met up with the Eagle Rock trail. We kept on walking for a while, but we weren't getting anything that resembled the second peak. Along the way, we started to see views of the city, and even though the picture doesn't do it justice, it was awesome. You could see all of the buildings that made up Westwood, and in the very far distance, through the brown smog, you could see the skyline of Downtown LA. I think we walked for a solid 2 miles or so before we hit a sign that said, "Backbone Trail to Will Rogers State Park: 6.4 miles." We decided that this must be part of the route to the second peak and continued on through it.

After a mile or so into it, CA and I realized that we didn't seem to be getting any closer to a peak, but since we were so far along the trail, we agreed (or more like CA conned me into agreeing, haha) to just hike all the way to Will Rogers State park and have someone pick us up there. I don't know what compelled me to agree to hike so much, but I did and we continued on along our hike. The beginning of the trail was pretty cool, if a bit creepy, and it was a narrow, one person trail. There were a lot of shrubbery around us, and after an hour on this trail, it felt like we were legitimately in the middle of nowhere. There was no sign of human life around us, and we were completely surrounded by the Santa Monica mountains. There weren't any views of the city or the ocean, but we kept on going, trying to pick up our pace in case we somehow got lost and stuck among these mountains.

Soon, we saw another view of the city, and this time I got excited because it was clearer and seemed a lot closer. Clearly, we were headed in the right direction, and I began to regain a little more faith in this hike. Twenty minutes after that, we started to see the ocean through all of the valleys. The trail began to change, and we no longer were surrounded by shrubbery and dead trees. There was now green, lush trees around us, and even at one part, the leaves had started to change color. Who knew you could get fall and actual seasons in LA? It was really pretty, and this is one of the reasons why I like hiking so much. I love the views because it's amazing to me that this is a part of LA. I've grown up here my entire life, and I'm so used to city life that the fact that I can just drive 45 minutes from school or 20 minutes from my house to a such a different and beautiful place astonishes me. The juxtaposition of urban city life with nature in one city is great, and I love that I can go from one extreme to the other in one day.

We continued on along our hike, and it was even more exciting when we started running into other people (another sign of civilization). I asked two guys who had come from Will Rogers State park how long the hike from there took, and they said around 45 minutes. That was exciting to find out that the end of this long hike was actually in sight and near! We continued along the trail, and even though it ended, we had to walk all the way down to the parking lot to be picked up. CA is in a fraternity, so he called one of his pledges to pick us up and drive us to my car. We walked another 1-2 miles from the trail to the parking lot by the field, and we sat on a bench for a little bit because there were two guys playing polo! You don't see that very often.

I honestly can't believe CA and I did that yesterday. We went from Topanga Canyon to Will Rogers State Park, which was approximately 12 miles with a 2000 feet elevation gain. Took us nearly 5 hours. I CAN'T BELIEVE I DID THAT.