A few healthy thoughts...

As I mentioned a couple posts back, I'm trying to make some healthier choices. I've been mostly consistent in walking a trail in Fryman Canyon which is a roughly two-mile trek up into the hills and back down. And being a rather curious person and observing as much as I can as I huff and puff and listen to podcasts, I began putting together some clues about the origins of the trail. The trailhead is at a park (well, parking lot) called Wilacre Park that actually has a street address. The steep winding path uphill is paved for the first quarter mile and is lined with terra cotta bricks (mostly grown over) and features what I think was once a large fountain and now has a big tree growing in the middle. At the end of the paving, the path opens up to a large field that boasts remnants of old fences and some old, bare foundations. What the heck was here? Well, after a little digging, I found one brief reference to the park's namesake. Evidently, Lila Wilacre was a silent movie actress who had an expansive estate here in the 1920s. I wish I could find out more, but that one reference was all I could find on Google. Really interesting though.

Some more intriguing facts about the trail is that at one end is the Alex Trebek estate and at the other end is the George Clooney compound. And near Clooney's is the entrance to another trail that is more obscure but often talked about on hiking sites and LA city recommendations... the Rainforest Trail. I hear tell of a seasonal stream and a rope swing and a half-buried VW Bug. An exploration might be in order soon.

One final granola-ish health observation is a memory from junior high. Mr. Wilkinson, p.e. teacher and coach, told us of something he called mushroom tea, a tea cultivated over a month using a fungus (not actually a mushroom, but a cake of cultures). There were supposedly many health benefits, but that didn't matter to junior highers who wretched and convulsed at the thought of the stuff. Well, mushroom tea – or Kombucha – while still falling under "alternative supplements", is becoming more and more accepted. Folks have cultivated their own for ages, but bottles of the stuff are now available mixed with various juices at Whole Foods and other stores. I'm still a little creeped out a bit by the idea, but I've tried it and it isn't nearly as disgusting as I thought it would be. Anyway...

That's enough musing for the day. Back to drawing... lots of projects on the desk. Peace and love, y'all.