Katie Clary
Living Editor
Typically, this corner of the Graphic will contain a new trail for you to explore each week. I hope you too can enjoy the Santa Monica Mountains that are quite literally a hop, skip and a bike ride away from Pepperdine.
However, like everything else in Southern California right now, the trails are swimming. So in lieu of a trailhead destination, here are a few ways to bring the outdoors to you, the couch-bound outdoor enthusiast. And if nothing else, read on to find a couple activities to satisfy your inner puddle-stomper.
What to do on a rainy day:
Eat trail mix, turn your couch into a fort and watch hiking movies. A few eclectic suggestions: For everyone with a soft spot for talking house pets, “Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey” promises to make you smile and inspire a healthy dose of fear of mountain lions. “The Lord of the Rings Trilogy” has such sweeping scenery shots that you’ll wish you too had hairy, over-sized feet so you could trek the mountainous New Zealand wilderness alongside Frodo. For the ladies, may I suggest the nostalgic “Troop Beverly Hill,;” and for the boys and former tomboys, “Goonies” is always a winner.
Two words: Mud wrestling. Better yet: Mud sledding in wetsuits.
Take up a new outdoor sport that is indoors, like ice-skating for instance. The largest outdoor rink is in downtown Los Angeles at Pershing Square, open until Jan. 17 and priced at $6 per hour and $2 for skate rentals. But for drier conditions the Culver City Ice Arena is a safer bet (310) 398-5719, although it’s slightly more expensive at $7 per hour and $3 for figure skate rentals. Indoor rock-climbing is another prime rainy day sport. Visit the West L.A. climbing gym Rockreation. It costs $15 to get your hands chalked up; shoe and harness rental costs $5 (310) 207-7199.
While this may sound like crazy-talk to anyone raised outside of the Pacific Northwest, simply go play in the rain. Run in it, walk in it, splash in it, relish in it.
If these still don’t remedy your cabin fever, brave the soggiest hike on campus, namely the trek from your dorm to the cafeteria. Don’t forget the five essentials items to get you there and back: rubber galoshes, umbrella, snorkel, a buddy, and the most sure-fire item on the list, an obliging Public Safety officer with a car.
The good news about the downpour? Once the floods recede, the hillsides will be greener than ever and even better, the misnamed Malibu “waterfalls” in Solstice Canyon and up the Winding Way trail might actually resemble falling water, rather than dripping Los Angeles sludge.
01-13-2005
