The road to Topanga is a good one.
Things lined up to do reconnaissance up in the canyon before signing onto a pending basecamp.
We’re getting closer to go-time with the travelogue and-after three years of my presence being requested by the vortex that Topanga is(in the same breath as Ojai, unable to pull it off either logistically until now) – it was time to pay the zone the respect it deserved.
Even if only to see how many days I could need to cover it, I knew it was the right Globalboho call today, one that’d been high up on the to-do list since the decision this summer to treat socal semesterly.
That first ride up is a trip.
Locals chuckled and cheered my being happily surprised by our lil beach bus hugging what felt like pin curves as the driver slammed up into the canyon like she’d had a bone to pick with someone halfway up there. But in a good way.
The mountains & hills were rife with deeply hued trees of every kind of green as we got to the midway point. I scampered out, bright-eyed and ready to go.
I met a clatch of cool people instantly, which is always nice in GB mode. I’m primed to see with pure eyes and do my best to…let it do what it do.
It’s ruggedly contained, a cool, easy day-trip, like a Solvang, a Big Sur, a Soquel…but with a vortex as palpable as Ojai. It really feels like it’s own thing but it could also be sketched energetically as Joshua Tree crossed with Taos tossed up in the treetops.
If you were cherry picking your way through the mountains above LA proper, it’s a no-brainer.
Stop & see. You just might find your own edge quietly reflected back to you in the wild, like I did.