Altadena Above It All

Getting up to speed on kpcc’s new community adventure, The Freeway.

KPCC is just launching this listener-led community of facebook.

I’m one of the select co-hosts. Take a look at my first post and tell your stories!

Hahachacha

A day of blogging about Hahamongna Park

My first visit to Hahamongna  Watershed Park was nearly 20 years ago. An old boyfriend, his kids and I stopped in there to play Frisbee Golf (until we learned we couldn’t use the word Frisbee without violating the all important copyright/patent rules). Had to call it disc golf.

I just discovered there is actually a group called PDGA—the Professional Disc Golfing Association—and Hahamongna is on their site.  It’s very lightweight sporting activity but does demand good aim. And luck.

A few years later I moved to Altadena from the Westside. I’d forgotten about Hahamongna until I started driving around the area to get my bearings. “Oh my God,” I thought when I saw the park again. “That’s the place we played Frisbee golf!” See, you can’t get brand names out of your head if you want to. Kleenex anyone?

Since then I’ve enjoyed years of the dramatic flooding, the changing look of the trees in the basin, the sounds of wildlife and the gorgeous sunsets looking over the area from the ridge at the East entrance to JPL. It is such a gift to have an area so rich with life other than human. Don’t we get enough of people already? Don’t thousands of kids play soccer at the Rose Bowl, just a stone’s throw away? Why place sports fields in a WATERSHED park that regularly floods? That is its purpose. Overflow rain gathers and is channeled through Devil’s Gate. Standing on the bridge watching and feeling the force of millions of gallons of water shoot through that cement gate is more exciting than standing on Hoover Dam.  

I apologize for not having photos today. Many technical and life challenges at the moment. My other blog, Altadena Daily Photo, does have shots of the basin during fires and snow. And thanks to Karin Bugge, Barbara Ellis and Petrea Buchard, many other bloggers are devoting space to this topic today as the Pasadena City Council prepares to vote on the park July 12. Please read these other blogs and find out about all the issues yourself.

Altadena Hiker
A Thinking Stomach
East of Allen
Finnegan Begin Again
LA Creek Freak
Mendolonium
Mister Earl’s Musings
My Life With Tommy
Pasadena Adjacent
Pasadena Latina
SaveHahamongna.org
Selvage
The Sky Is Big In Pasadena
Webster’s Fine Stationers Web Log
West Coast Grrlie Blather