A Hike Through Peters Canyon Regional Park

Hiking

Apr 12

Written By Jonar

I drove to Peters Canyon Regional Park on a Friday evening. The day was hot, but cooling down. This was nice, because the last thing I needed was to pass out from heat stroke (something I am cognizant of after some mishaps last year). It was also halfway between my home and my work, so I could wait out traffic. I suppose it is a perk of living here. I guess.

Side note: I miss working remote. People are fighting to stay away from the office. I haven’t had that luxury in a while. I think people should keep fighting for that luxury.

*My limited telephoto range meant that I had to crop a lot of my wildlife shots to get the composition I imagined in my head.*

I did this hike on a whim, so I only had a water bottle with me — which was already half empty. It’s just as well. I didn’t plan on a long hike. I would only cover a third of the whole trail before the park closed after sunset.

I have been here before, back in 2015. It was June, and the summer was hot and dry. The reservoir was dry too, its bed of white mineral deposits gleaming brightly in the sun. I remember trudging under the oppressive heat. It didn’t deter me from finishing the hike.
It should have, though. I would have learned why when I tried to hike in 110°F just six years later.

My goals with this hike were simple: avoid traffic (as I mentioned before), get to the top of a steep hill that overlooks the lower OC plains, and practice taking photos with my new camera.

The whys:

Traffic sucks. It is a waste of my time. I would rather wait out traffic while doing something, anything, for two hours than wait half the time doing absolutely nothing in my car.
- This is why I will argue against people coming back to the office. They take up freeway space for those who don’t have the option to work remote. If you don’t need to be on site to do your work, then stay home. Traffic is bad enough for the rest of us without you all adding to the travel time.
I haven’t gone on a rigorous hike in a long time. Not since last October. While this hike isn’t all that difficult, the hill has a very steep grade. Taking it on would help me assess my current fitness level (spoiler alert: I am, very much, out of shape).
My Fujifilm X-S10 arrived in the mail that week. I am always eager to play with new gear, and a hike was the perfect excuse to mess with settings and increase that shutter count to gross amounts.
- I ended up capturing over two grosses’ worth of pictures!

*In-camera film simulations make it easy to create photos without having to mess with Adobe Lightroom. It’s cut down my workflow by a meaningful amount.*

*I like this photo. It’s splotchy as all heck because of the extreme crop. But, I dunno, I think it’s nice. (BTW, this is the steep hill I was talking about).*

I’d say I achieved all three of my goals. I learned a bit more about how to operate my camera (as one does when they shoot lots of pictures). Though traffic didn’t completely die down by the time I drove home at 8PM, I can tolerate a 30 minute commute with some slowdowns, as opposed to an hour’s worth of stop-and-go “movement”. The hike was a boon for my mental health.

And my fitness? Terrible. I don’t know if you can see how steep that hill is from my photo of that couple. Trust me, it was difficult. I walked up the slope at a steady pace, only stopping for a couple of breathers. However, by the time I made it to the top and sat on a bench, I could feel my blood pressure spike in my head. I even had a couple of palpitations as my pulse rate dropped to a safer level.

My assessment: I need to go out on more hikes, but not overdo it.