End Pavement

Thanks to a post over at Dodger Thoughts, “Cycling for the Hit”, I can combine two of my passions in one post — cycling and the Dodgers.

If you’re game enough to navigate the streets of Los Angeles and the hills of Chavez Ravine, well then yes, there is a parking spot at the end of your pedaling rainbow.

A Dodger Thoughts commenter Tuesday passed along this post from StreetsBlog Los Angeles wondering where you could safely lock your bicycle at Dodger Stadium. I asked Josh Rawitch of the Dodgers, and he replied that “Indeed, we allow bicycles to park at the top of lot P to the left of the gates.”

Naturally, there is some concern about whether or not your bike is safe during the game, and whether you’re safe after, but nevertheless, this is a cool thing. Now they just need to get some sort of tram to Union Station, and we’ll be in business.

Back in April last year, I posted about the Malibu Creek State Park trails where you can visit the old locations of M*A*S*H — Sightseeing is painless: The M*A*S*H Hike.

In this LA Times story today, “‘MASH’ camp comes alive”, the news comes that state officials want to re-create the sets as an attraction, since so many visitors come to see them for that reason and come away disappointed.

Of course, it wasn’t just M*A*S*H that was filmed at the park,

The park’s 6,000-plus acres have been the backdrop for thousands of movie and TV scenes since 1927, when it became the Scottish Highlands for a silent movie called “Annie Laurie” that starred Lillian Gish.

It doubled for Wales in 1941’s best-picture Oscar winner, “How Green Was My Valley” and was Shangri-La in 1937’s “Lost Horizon.”

It was the backdrop for a primate-run world in “Planet of the Apes” in 1968 and where “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” were chased over a cliff by a pursuing posse in 1969.

But it is “MASH” that matters most to park visitors, who come from all over the world to see for themselves the Korean wartime world inhabited by Hawkeye, Hot Lips, BJ, Trapper John and the others who filled out the landmark black comedy’s on-camera Army surgical team.

They’re even considering special overnight camping arrangements with possible screenings of the show — projected onto a bed sheet, naturally.

Whatever one thinks of the idea, it certainly seems a unique enough reason to go for a stroll in the great outdoors.

While “creepy” isn’t an adjective you would normally want associated with a hike, this time it’s actually a good thing.

Creepy LA (the “Los Angeles Halloween Blog”) posted yesterday on “Haunted Hikes”, including info on after-dark trips in Griffith Park with the Sierra Club, seeing wolves near Forest Lawn, and more. Check it out if you’re looking for a little more heart-pounding action in your outdoor excursions this month.

Getting the crap scared out of you is a good aerobic activity, right? ;)

Speaking of current conditions, there is reportedly a big honkin’ storm headed toward Southern California late this week.

From the NOAA “Special Weather Statement”:

…STRONG SEPTEMBER STORM POSSIBLE LATE THURSDAY THROUGH EARLY SATURDAY… A STRONG STORM FOR SEPTEMBER MAY MOVE THROUGH SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA LATE THURSDAY THROUGH EARLY SATURDAY. THIS STORM HAS THE POTENTIAL TO PRODUCE WEATHER VERY RARELY SEEN IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA IN SEPTEMBER. THIS COULD BE THE STRONGEST MID LATITUDE SEPTEMBER STORM FOR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA IN AROUND 20 YEARS.

From the Press-Enterprise article “Big September storm on horizon”, there’s an added wrinkle.

With forecasters calling for what could be the most powerful September storm in 20 years to arrive late Thursday, firefighters battling the Butler 2 blaze in the Big Bear Lake area could face winds, rain and snow late this week.

Naturally, there’s a Red Flag warning in effect, thanks to the winds ahead of the storm:

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN LAS VEGAS HAS ISSUED A RED FLAG WARNING…WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 11 AM PDT /11 AM MST/ TO 9 PM PDT /9 PM MST/ WEDNESDAY. THE FIRE WEATHER WATCH IS NO LONGER IN EFFECT. A STRONG LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM WILL DROP SOUTH INTO NORTHERN CALIFORNIA ON WEDNESDAY. INCREASING SOUTHWEST FLOW ALOFT AHEAD OF THIS LOW WILL BRING SUSTAINED WINDS OF 15 TO 30 MPH WITH GUSTS BETWEEN 35 AND 45 MPH TO MUCH OF THE AREA BY WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON. RELATIVE HUMIDITY VALUES ARE EXPECTED TO BE CLOSE TO OR BELOW 15 PERCENT IN MOST AREAS. STRONG WINDS AND LOW RELATIVE HUMIDITIES WILL PERSIST INTO THE EVENING HOURS BEFORE CONDITIONS MODERATE AFTER ABOUT 9 PM.

So fasten your seat belts, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride. ;)

Thanks to Gadling for the story — “Hiking Hollywood: The M*A*S*H Trail” — on visiting locations where M*A*S*H was filmed (not to mention all kinds of other movies and folderol) in the Santa Monica Mountains:

The movie location is located in Malibu Creek State Park. The 4.5 mile hike follows Malibu Creek past Rock Pool (where Planet of the Apes was filmed), Century Lake and eventually onward to the M*A*S*H site itself where fans of the series can reminisce over a stripped-down jeep and ambulance. Not much else remains from the show.