We had originally planned to hike on back-to-back days over the Memorial Day weekend, but work tasks, family commitments, and general fatigue prompted us to save our walk for the holiday proper. We had tickets to the Dodgers-Angels game that Monday night, so we figured we would hike somewhere close to Cart and Dani’s place in Pasadena before heading to Dodger Stadium later in the afternoon. We decided to try the Sam Merrill Trail, a popular 2-1/2-mile route that ascends the San Gabriels through Las Flores canyon to Echo Mountain, a steep ridge overlooking Altadena. The trail is a gateway to several other options that go deeper into the mountains, though we decided to limit our visit to the White City Hotel ruins found at the southern end of Echo Mountain. Built by Thaddeus Lowe in 1893 below the mountain that now bears his name, the hotel was a resort serviced by an incline railway that brought its guests up the 1,400 vertical foot slope in style. (Lowe, an inventor and entrepreneur, is credited with – among other things – helping the Union army observe Confederate troop movements during the Civil War using hot air balloons, the first known use of aviation technology for military purposes). Although the hotel and railway station burned down in the 1930s, various foundations, concrete stairways, and rusty remnants of railway equipment are still there, lying about ½-mile south of the Sam Merrill Trail. We found the trailhead easily enough at the north end of Lake Avenue in Altadena, parking in a residential area a few blocks away – the absence of convenient parking was our first clue as to just how popular this trail is, especially on a holiday. We started up right at 9am, passing the large gate at the roadway and along a paved section through the Cobb Estate, some private property now preserved as open space that allows public access. We quickly reached the trailhead itself, descending past some concrete spillways before starting up numerous switchbacks that line the east side of the canyon. Though not too steep, there is little level trail in these parts, and we quickly climbed above the adjacent neighborhoods under hazy (smoggy?) skies – while it appeared to be burning off, the haze lingered for most of the hike and served to impair most of the otherwise-outstanding views. After the initial mile or so, the switchbacks began to lengthen as we traveled deeper into the canyon. There were literally hundreds of other people out there with us – we were continually passed by mountain bikers and trail runners, just as we had to constantly adjust our pace as we passed slower hikers in front of us. Some appeared to be out for fitness, some for the scenery, but we were amazed at the number of folks carrying no water and very little in the way of outdoor gear at all. The trail is well-engineered and maintains a very steady grade as it winds its way up-canyon. Eventually, we made a final switchback to the south and gained the ridgeline, passed several trail junctions, and found ourselves at the hotel ruins. One of the more interesting things here is the “Echo-Phone,” a metal megaphone mounted on a stand aimed at the high, rocky ridge to the east – we both yelled into it and were rewarded with very strong echoes a couple of seconds later, and that was pretty cool. What wasn’t so cool was the amount of trash, graffiti, and other signs of human defilement all around us – as we wandered around through the brush, we even encountered multiple makeshift latrines – nice. After maybe 15 minutes total on the summit, we headed back down the trail, which was still teeming with people. Upon reaching the trailhead, we headed quickly for the car, completing the 5.9-mile round trip in a little over two hours. While the mountain scenery was particularly impressive, enough so to make us want to hike in the San Gabriels more, we’ll skip this trail in the future. It did serve well as a proving ground for our new GPS and Chris’ new boots, and it was nice to do something shorter and less taxing than what we’ve been doing these past few weeks.