The Canyon Nymphs

It's been a long time since the Nymphs have gotten together for a hike – That's the Canyon Nymphs, a name my friends and I gave ourselves because at one time we used to take to the trails on Saturday and Sunday. The core team is Karina Wilson, Kristina Meyers (DJ Haizee), Christine Le and me (Lucy Rodriguez-Watson).

We have hosted guest nymphs, Karen Gutierrez, Laura Somers, Onahoua Rodriguez and any out of town friends willing to take to the mountains with us. We did this religiously every weekend for almost two years, including the summers.

In the summer we started out very early because our treks were a minimum of 5 miles. We would meet at Whole Foods in Brentwood and be ready to go by 7am. We mostly stayed on the Westside, rarely straying from Topanga State Park and Paseo Miramar in the Palisades. We would occasionally do Temescal but at roughly 3 miles, that was barely a hike. Kenter Canyon was visited on one or two occasions and one time, we visited the Betty Ford of hiking trails – Griffith Park. We were amazed at the beer bottles, and various other things we found at that park (crack vials anyone!). It seemed that whenever we tried a new hike, we'd long for the 5 miler of Paseo Miramar, so that's where we mostly hiked.

All good things come to an end and life got in the way so we barely hike together anymore. DJ Haizee moved to Silver Lake, Karina went to London and Christine and I got busy with the film (Love 10 to 1 - check out our blog http://indiefilmlove10to1.blogspot.com/). The original Canyon Nymphs have not hiked together in a long time but I'm hoping to remedy that sometime soon.

I've tried to hike at least once a week since we "broke up" but that was hard during preproduction and production of Love 10 to 1.

I went on a hike after we wrapped and I did a 10 miler (On Thanksgiving Day). I started in Paseo Miramar and went all the way to Topanga State Park and back. It felt so good to hike, and it felt amazing being up there by myself. The ocean breeze was strong but pleasant and even though I had not hiked in about a month, I wasn't tired. I finished the hike in 3.5 hours, which is rare for me. I normally take my time when I hike by myself but I was so excited to be back on the trail after such a long sabbatical that I practically skipped my way to Topanga.

Since Thanksgiving, I've been very good about hiking at least once a week but have mostly been doing it Saturday and Sunday. During Christmas I hiked a bit more and it felt great. This is perfect hiking weather so I strongly urge anyone reading this to take to the mountains and get lost in nature.


xoxo,

Lucy