(Or other area trails: Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel are regulars in Runyon Canyon, while Ashton and Mila prefer Franklin Canyon.) Outdoorsy hipsters to celebrities feels the pull to post a picture from one of its high sandstone ridges. It’s even become something of an entry point to hiking for novices, as everyone from nouveau. The Backbone Trail rides the spine of the Santa Monica Mountains, soaring to Pacific Ocean views and diving in and out of canyon-riddled topography the whole way. It required decades of wrangling between the National Park Service and land owners, but now it’s not only possible to (legally) hike from Beverly Hills to Oxnard, it’s too nice not to. The challenge was creating a route through the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area-a 156,000-acre jumble of public land squeezed between enclaves of land privately owned by ranchers, recluses, and wealthy folks. Though parts of it have been around for 50 years, the Backbone Trail officially opened ass a 67-mile, end-to-end path in 2016. My plan? Link vacation rentals that I’d booked along the route. I would not: I’d keep heading west, into the 53-mile, campsiteless zone, knowing full well there were legal places to stay the night. Most importantly, however, he’d awake the next day and have to hike out to the trailhead. He’d do everything he could to escape civilization, while I would embrace it. He’d top off his water from a creaky pump, and I’d use a filtered refrigerator tap. I, on the other hand, would enjoy a soft bed in a mid-century craftsman. There, he would set up his tent among eucalyptus trees at Musch Trail Camp, a dusty clearing with room for eight tents. My new friend and I were both targeting Topanga Canyon, a sage- and chaparral-choked chasm that empties into Santa Monica Bay. Why shouldn’t Angelenos be able to go backpacking as easily as Denverites? Fortunately, the vacation rental boom opens a new possibility. Though the Backbone’s two dozen trailheads have long been popular launch pads for after-work trail runs, dog walks, and dayhikes, the path is seldom used for overnights. Located at miles 12 and 65, the sites don’t allow for a proper thru-hike (even creative use of two campgrounds a couple miles off the trail would require a 30-mile day). The Backbone Trail, in its infancy, has only two designated backcountry campsites. “Well, part of it,” he replied, as he dropped a pack the size of a 4-year-old to the dirt. My new friend and I paused for a moment to look out over golden hills dotted with century-old oak trees, a landscape so quintessentially Californian that it made me wish I’d packed a Steinbeck novel. I had climbed above views of the Hollywood sign, where people go to see and be seen, and was suddenly away from it all, immersed in mountain lion country and following a chaparral-lined trail into Topanga Canyon. I was closing a 12-mile stretch along a rocky ridge that began six hours earlier near the upscale suburbia of Sunset Boulevard. We both wobbled a little, in that particular way you do when you stop the rhythm of your own footfalls. Like me, he wore a layer of summer dust and had a sweat stain encircling his hat. So when I encountered a lone backpacker near the end of my first day on the 67-mile route, I stopped to say hello. Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members!ĭespite the Backbone Trail’s proximity to Los Angeles, I hadn’t seen another hiker for hours.
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