Today Zoe and I did a five mile loop that we've done a few times before, which starts on Mullholland, dips into Mandeville Canyon, and ends up taking you past the Nike Missile base in San Vicente Park, down dirt Mullholland and back to the car. My car is too low to drive up to the trail head, so we parked right off of Mullholland where it turns into dirt Mullholland, right at Encino Hills Drive. If you can park right next to the trail head, a yellow gate to the left of the big cage thing, the hike begins with a gentle flat leg, followed by a narrow track that takes you down into the canyon. The right turn to get onto the narrow path is hard to find, especially at this time of year when the path is overgrown with wildflowers and grasses. Watch out for the poison oak! There are two or three places where it reaches into the path. This path takes you down to Mandeville Canyon Road, where you turn right and walk a few dozen meters to Garden Land and turn left. At the end of Garden Land, on the left, there is another trail head that marks the beginning of a gentle uphill for several miles. This is the workout leg of the hike, which is my favorite part!Turn right at the fork to continue up toward the Nike Missile base, and then turn right again when you reach the top. The trail then takes you past the Nike tower, where the army used to look for missiles during the Cold War, and down dirt Mullholland to the car.
This hike was perfect, because there were some flats for chatting, and a good uphill portion to get the heart pumping. We stopped several times to figure out my new favorite toy, a hiking GPS that keeps a bread crumb trail of the whole hike. According to the GPS we did 5.36 miles, and were stopped for a total of half an hour. We got the hang of the device pretty quickly.
Check out the map I've uploaded. The loop is demarcated in gray, with several important points (waypoints!) marked along the way.
