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Chair Fred Dong
Vice Chair Jeffrey Wilson
Secretary, Publicity Marlene Plummer
Treasurer Jerry Burnham
Programs Wayne Fisher
ExCom Representative John Lajeuness
Membership, Outings Silvia Darie
Newsletter, Conservation Bettie Pearson
Webmaster Chuck Gooley
Crescenta Valley View
In This Issue
Iceland/Greenland 1
Evening Hike 1
Programs & Outings 2
Fall Festival 4
Zimbabwe 3
Channel Islands
Management Committee
VOLUME IV, ISSUE XI
Crescenta Valley Group of The Sierra Club Monthly Newsletter
November 2017
November 14th: Terri Hill’s slide presentation of Iceland and Greenland
The Crescenta Valley group of the Sierra Club will
present Terri Hill’s program on Iceland and Green-
land, Tuesday, November 14, 2017, 7:30 p.m. at the
Los Angeles County Public Library in La Crescenta,
located at 2809 Foothill Blvd, La Crescenta, 91214.
Our program begins following news of Conserva-
tion and Outings. This is a free program, and every-
one is welcome. Refreshments will be served.
Please contact Wayne Fisher at 818 353-4181 or at
[email protected] for further information.
Moderate paced hike, five-mile round trip,
1200' gain on the Earl Canyon fire road on, or
near, the full moon to enjoy the beautiful city
lights, at the top is a water tank where the old
"Leon" sign used to be. No beginners please, and
no very fast hikers.
Meet at 5:30 p.m. at Palm Crest School
parking lot, 5025 Palm Dr, La Cañada. Dress to
layer. Wear sturdy, hiking shoes, bring water, a
flashlight with a filter (so as not to blind other
hikers), and goodies to share. Rain cancels.
Leaders: Bettie Pearson and Joe Phillips.
Sierra Club requires all participants to sign a lia-
bility waiver. Event suitable for older children
accompanied by adults or legal guardians. Dogs
on leash - OK.
Evening Hike – Nov. 5th, 5:30 p.m.
Earl Canyon trail hikers taking a break at the top – Oct. 15th
Programs, Outings, Announcements
Date and Time
Angeles Chapter and Group elections
Instructions:
1. Go to: www.angeles.sierraclub.org
2. In the "Search this site" box, enter: vote
3. Scroll down through the groups and click on "Vote in Angeles
Chapter & Crescenta Valley Group Elections"
4. Scroll down to read candidates for the Angeles Chapter by
clicking on "Angeles Chapter Candidates"
5. Enter your Sierra Club ID number from your membership card.
6. Vote!
Sunday, 10/8/2017 to Fri-
day, 11/17/2017
Terri Hill’s slide presentation on Iceland and Greenland
Los Angeles County Public Library in La Crescenta, located at 2809
Foothill Blvd, La Crescenta, 91214
Tuesday, 11/14/2017, 7:30
p.m.
PAGE 2 October 2017
Jerry Burnham shares his
Travel Adventure with his
son, Jon, in Zimbabwe; Au-
gust 3 – 13, 2017
In the last blog, my son Jon and I
had entered Zimbabwe, stayed one
night at Imvelo’s Gorges Lodge and
visited Victoria Falls. Now it is time
to move on to the far more isolated
Nehimba Lodge.
Our driver took us south for over
an hour to an entrance to Hwange
National Park. Upon entering the
park on a dirt road, we met our nature
guides Tae and Brendon in a safari
vehicle waiting for us along with oth-
er guests.
Our first stop in the park was a
commercial camp on a ridge over-
looking a broad valley with very few
scattered animals. This is what I had
pictured in my mind we would gen-
erally see on the trip. Not so. In this
case the primary purpose of the stop
was to have a mid-afternoon snack
consisting of assorted types of
sandwiches and both soft and alco-
holic beverages. The intent of Imve-
lo is to assure that the guests stay
well hydrated in the dry climate and
never be hungry. From there we
rode for several hours, stopping
from time to time to see animals. It
was dark when we arrived at Imve-
lo’s Nehimba Lodge where we were
greeted by the owners, handed damp See Zimbabwe Blog, Page 3
wash cloths and treated to a wel-
come beverage.
After a quick orientation explain-
ing things like the limited hours an
electric generator would be running
and that the water was OK to drink,
we went to our tent cabin to unpack
and freshen up. The room was nice;
two bed areas and a bathroom. The
Hippos queueing up to enter a water hole __photo by Jerry Burnham
Second of a five-part series
CRESCENTA VALLEY VIEW
November 2017
CRESCENTA VALLEY VIEW
PAGE 3
On September 30th and October
1st, 2017, I visited Harwood Lodge
for the first time in over 25 years as
a Sierra Club, Angeles Chapter
member. The Aurelia S. Harwood
Memorial Lodge is located at 6,000
feet on Mt. Baldy Road and is an
institution in these parts. Built in
1930 at a cost of $6,500 and named
after the Sierra Club’s first woman
president, the three-story rustic
stone and polished wood lodge is a
comfortable and historic entity,
owned by the Sierra Club and used
for weekend outings and special
events.
The weekend I attended was an
open weekend for members and it
was a beautiful warm, sunny day on
the mountain. The lodge was deco-
rated in fall colors and the 40 guests
who arrived were treated to three
meals prepared by volunteer chef
and overseer Richard Boothe, along
with a wonderfully diverse pot luck
“Happy Hour,” which left everyone
well-fed.
For the activities, there were
two hikes, both led by California
Professional Geologist Jay Schnei-
der who pointed out the various
rock formations (from millions to
billions of years in the making) as
we hiked up the dirt road 7.8 miles
round-trip hike to Baldy Notch. The
views were breathtaking, the trail
was moderate, and we got to see
rocks that were formed over a bil-
lion years ago! The second hike,
also led by Schneider, took guests
on a tw- mile hike to San Antonio
Falls which was flowing quite nice-
ly for this late in the year.
Those who chose not to hike
had the opportunity to relax and en-
joy the sights or to take another
hike of their choice. One of the
guests who stayed behind told
me that he watched two adult
deer with their fawn grazing be-
hind our lodge.
For our sleeping accommo-
dations, there were two dormito-
ries with a capacity for 64 guests
– one for the men and one for the
women, each with rows of bunk-
beds with mattresses. For the
record, I’m a light sleeper but I
found the second-tier bed quite
comfortable and I slept as well as
I ever do.
One of the most enjoyable
parts of this trip, for me, was the
Saturday evening sing-along, led
by a Sierra Club member on her
autoharp, accompanied by an-
other on guitar and percussion.
We discovered that we still knew
the words to many of the old folk
songs we learned as kids like
“Oh Susanna,” “I’ve Been Work-
ing on the Railroad,” and even
“Amazing Grace.”
Having a chance to hang out
in this beautiful depression-era
lodge was truly a gift for me. I
learned that there are three work
parties held here every year (in
April, July and October) and that
Sierra Club members are always
sought-after to help keep the
place up and to run it as an over-
seer. You can also just stay here
as a guest by signing up on open
weekends and for a small fee,
enjoy the mountain scenery, as
long as you are willing to con-
tribute to the cleanup before you
leave.
On our way out, my friend
Bettie and I, decided to visit a
tree that we were told is the old-
est and largest Big Cone Douglas
Fir in existence.
Mt. Baldy is a four-season
location just north of Claremont,
an hour and 15 minutes east of
Los Angeles. Take the Monte
Vista exit off the 210 then turn
on Padua to Mt. Baldy Road.
Harwood Lodge is a beautiful
place to visit any time of the
year. For more information visit:
http://angeles.sierraclub.org/har
wood_lodge.
Richard Boothe, lodge overseer, delights the group with limericks Photo by Pat Kramer
Fall Celebration at Harwood Lodge
By Pat Kramer
PAGE 4
November 2017
CRESCENTA VALLEY VIEW
Those of you lucky enough
to attend the Crescenta Valley
group’s program, Tuesday, Oc-
tober 10th, found out about two
travel adventures centering on
the Channel Islands from Joan
Holtz and Wayne Vollaire.
Joan Holtz will lead a three-
day, three island-cruise to Cali-
fornia's Channel Islands where
vacationers will eat and sleep
onboard and enjoy activities as
hiking, kayaking, snorkeling,
swimming, and bird watching.
The cost for this fundraiser is
$650. All cruises depart from
Santa Barbara. Departure dates
for other Channel Islands tours
this year include May 7-9, June
11-13, July 16-18, Aug. 20-22,
Visit the Channel Islands and Help in These Fundraising Opportunities
al fresco shower is outside the door
with a fence around it and no roof.
Along with large bath towels, bath-
robes are provided for the short walk
between the shower and cabin.
Back at the main building next to
a fire pit where we overlooked a
large water hole, we enjoyed drinks
and appetizers. Several elephants
appeared, not to drink from the water
hole but from the nearby swimming
pool. How exciting, they were less
than twenty feet away! The ensuing
three-course dinner was very good. I
enjoyed a steak while the cooks glad-
ly provided Jon with his requested
vegetarian meal.
After dessert, we returned to a sa-
fari vehicle to do a night game drive
to see the nocturnal animals. This set
the tone for the rest of the trip when I
realized how up close we would be to
the animals in safari vehicles and
how good the guides were in spotting
creatures and getting us close to them
Every encounter fascinating
The next day, after breakfast, we
enjoyed another game drive starting
with a water hole with several lions of
all ages and sexes on one side, ele-
phants on the other. I began referring
to my field guides to find and check
off the creatures we saw on the way to
Sept. 24-26 and Oct. 22-24. For more in-
formation contact leader: Joan Jones
Holtz; 626-443-0706; [email protected]
Saturday, April 21, 2018 to Monday,
April 23, 2018 Wayne Vollaire will lead
with co-leaders Marlen Mertz, Joe Harvey,
and Gigi Harvey vacationers on the popu-
lar Santa Cruz Island boatpack and camp-
logging an astounding, twenty-six
mammals, thirty-two types of
birds and five reptiles that we
would eventually see over the
course of the next week. We
stopped mid-morning for snacks
and drinks, and then continued to
the Nehimba Seeps where some
shallow water was historically
available during the dry season.
This is also an elephant graveyard
with lots of large bones scattered
around.
The next morning, we had a lei-
surely breakfast in the main lodge.
Afterwards, we returned to our
room to pack for the transfer to
our next lodge that was described
as a remote adve CRESCENTA
VALLEY VIEWnture camp. I had
considered Nehimba as a remote
camp but apparently our next one
is even more remote. Bring it on!
Next up, we go to Jozibanini
Camp in the next blog.
ing outing. The adventure is co-
sponsored with West LA and
Lower Peaks.
This is a three-day (Saturday
to Monday) adventure to the
Channel Islands National Park.
Visit Santa Cruz Island in April
when the hillsides are still a beau-
tiful spring-green.
Boat leaves from Ventura at 8
am Saturday morning returning
Monday evening around 4:30 pm.
Friday boat leaves the same time.
Group size limited to 26 partici-
pants. Cost for Saturday to Mon-
day is $130 and includes
boat. Marlen Mertz - 571-335-
[email protected]; Wayne Vollaire
- 909-327-6825 [email protected];
Joe Harvey - 859-358-
[email protected]; Gigi Harvey
- 714-606-1005. Channel Islands National Park
Zimbabwe Blog, From 2
Photo by Jerry Burnham
