First hike of the summer season

Yesterday, I went on my first hike of the summer season.  I decided to keep it fairly simple and easy as I hadn't been hiking in a couple of week mainly because the weather has been really bad the entire month of May.  I didn't want to overdo it on the first day and then set myself back a couple of weeks while I recuperated from an injury.

Since it's summer, I can sleep in, which I did, and then I ate breakfast and decided that I just wanted to hike the Claremont Hills Wilderness Loop, which is in the foothills just above my house.  Usually, I hike there on the weekends, but yesterday, being Monday, the parking lot was uncrowded and I pretty much had my pick of the parking spots.  I walked in and headed up the Burbank side of the trail, meaning I walked the loop in a clock-wise direction.  Best choice ever, at least for this day.

About halfway around, I see lots of people coming back at me, including some people who had passed me earlier.  Strange, until the first couple of people warned me about a bear up on the trail.  COOL!  Yeah, I'm not one to shirk away from a little adventure, so I kept going, as I'd never encountered a bear on any of the trails in the foothills before.  As I got up a little bit farther, I could see the bear lumbering up a side trail on the side of the hill heading up to the ridge, so I just stood there and watched.  That's usually my M.O.  Watch and then remember, "Oh, yeah, you should take some photos."  Well, photos didn't happen, but the image of the bear on the hill is ingrained in my mind.  So not photos of the bear, but I did get a pretty good shot of some Scotch Broom at the side of the trail.

That's a pretty good way to start out the summer season.