Mountain Views News          Saturday, March 8, 2014

AROUND SAN GABRIEL VALLEY Mountain Views-News Saturday, March 8, 2014 5 AROUND SAN GABRIEL VALLEY Mountain Views-News Saturday, March 8, 2014 5 
“What’s Going On?”

News and Views from Joan Schmidt 

READ ACROSS AMERICA: 

Monrovia’s Alex Zucco at Options 

Most Monrovians know Alexandra Zucco as the President of the School Board 

who recently was voted back into office because of her skills, commitment and

fine work. 

This past Monday, Alex put on her other hat, Field Representative forAssemblyman Chris Holden, 41st District. Monrovia’s Assemblyman was hard at work in Sacramento,
so in conjunction with Read Across America, Ms. Zucco came to Options and delighted the childrenwith a book she had since childhood, Fletcher and Zenobia. After that great story, the youngsterswere treated to a Dr. Seuss book about feet; Alex then had all the children stand up and form a circle.
All the feet were counted; then if you had various color shoes, shoe laces or Velcro, you had to putyour foot forward at different times! Great fun! 


In Monrovia, adjacent to the “Y” is a bungalow that houses the “Options Head start” and “OptionsPreschool” programs. Because there is SO MUCH MORE than preschool and daycare to Options, I’dlike to share a little background and acquaint readers with Options many great available programs!

In 1981, Options began as a single school age program. Today it is a highly recognizednonprofit child development, family resource and provider support agency that serves approximately10,000 children and families annually with 750+ professional staff. Options operates 100+ after 
school programs and licensed child care centers on more than 60 school campuses and communityfacilities throughout the San Gabriel Valley.

Options’ programs cover every aspect of child development from birth through 12 yearsold. Birth Through Two Years includes prenatal and parenting training, education and support;
infant and child care, referral and support services, daily nutrition and child care financial assistanceprograms to low income parents.

Preschool: 3 to 5 Years provides enriched high-quality half-day and full-day preschool 
education, parenting workshops and trainings, resource, referral and support services for parentsseeking child care, daily nutrition, including healthy meals and snacks, and child care financial 
assistance to low-income parents.

School Age: 5 to 12 Years offers After-school enrichment programs, Before and after schoolchild care programs, Child care referral and support workshops, Parenting workshops and trainings,
Daily nutrition, including healthy meals and snacks, and Child care financial assistance programs tolow-parents.

Child Care Providers have access to Pre-licensing assessments and business support services,
Childhood development resources and support, On-going child care provider training and education,
workforce development and opportunities, childhood nutrition training and reimbursement to 
providers who serve healthy meals.

The MAIN OPTIONS numbers are OPTIONS CHILD CARE SERVICES DIVISION, 13100 
Brooks Drive, Suite 100, Baldwin Park, CA 91706, (626) 856-5900, www.OPIONSCC.ORG 

The OPTIONS PASADENA SATELITTE OFFICE is at 2465 E. Walnut Street, Pasadena, CA 
91107, (626) 449-8221. 

A WINTER VISIT 

By Christoper Nyerges 

[Nyerges is the author of “Guide to Wild Foods,” “Enter the Forest,” and “How to 
Survive Anywhere” who leads regular survival classes. For more information, contact 
him at www.ChristopherNyerges.com or Box 41834, Eagle Rock, CA 90041.] 


I had never been to 
Mount Lowe before, 
though I'd been to 
Echo Mountain many 
times. This was the 
mid-1960s. My friend 
George from the 

neighborhood was in 
the Boy Scouts and he'd been up there with his 
troop. So one winter day he offered to lead the 
way to the old Mount Lowe Camp. 

We hiked to Echo Mountain from the top of Lake 
Avenue, and then hiked into Castle Canyon. I realized 
I was unprepared for snow when we were 
about halfway to Inspiration Point and my feet 
were already wet and cold. I was wearing some 
old suede shoes, which were not waterproof. My 
friend assured me that we were "almost there," 
but every step was getting more and more difficult, 
and my feet were cold. I also saw the value 
in snowshoes during that hike, since my feet kept 
sinking into the holes in the snow that I made 
with every step. I was working hard step by step.
Since then, I have worn cramp-ons on my boots, 
as well as primitive snowshoes that I have fabricated 
from willow branches. The primitive snowshoes 
take about an hour or so to make, and you 
need some long flexible branches (I used willow), 
a knife or clippers to cut the branches, and some 
sort of cordage. 

I did not have snowshoes on that first cold day 
to Inspiration Point and Mount Lowe Tavern. 
Occasionally, where we could not readily see the 
trail due to the thick drifts of snow, we would step 
out too far and our foot would go right into the 
ground and we'd have to jump back to keep from 
falling off the cliffs. 

My friend began to tell me about the "tavern" -- 
I had not heard of it before. He was explaining 
the people who went there, and what they did, 
and for some reason, he did all his explaining in 
the present tense. I had pictures of a modern ski 
lodge up there, and I was mentally counting the 
change in my pocket and wondering if I'd have 
enough for a hot chocolate and maybe, just maybe, 
I'd have enough money so I could buy some 
chicken noodle soup. 

I was looking in the direction of where my friend 
said it was, figuring I'd be the first one to see the 
smoke coming from the chimney. Imagine my 
great shock when we hiked up to the little saddle 
of Inspiration Point and he said, "We're here."
"We're where?" I exclaimed. 

"Inspiration Point. This is where it was. And 
the old tavern is actually down where the camp 
is now." His use of tense seemed more accurate 
now, and after a few questions, I realized to my 
chagrin that I would be having no soup or chocolate 
that afternoon. 

My feet were completely wet, and cold, and only 
moving around kept me feeling somewhat com


fortable. It seemed a little easier hiking that quarter 
mile down to the old tavern site. There was a 
lot of snow, and there was much more left of the 
old site back then than you will find today. It was 
a wonderful and mysterious place with the stone 
walkways, and walls, and little trails. Only the 
cold kept me from exploring even more, though 
I returned many times to the tavern site in the 
years that followed. 

On that day, we struggled to make a small fire, 
using up our matches. We had a tiny fire, which 
we fed pine needles, and we managed to get it 
bigger but we didn't get any warmer. I think that 
all the fire we generated was merely steaming off 
the water in the wood, and we felt very little heat. 
George had some dried soup which we tried to 
cook, and I recall having a "lunch" of lukewarm 
"soup" with crunchy needles. But I was cold and 
hungry and even crunchy not-hot soup was better 
than nothing. 

Occasionally a wind would pass through the area 
and we'd hear the loud wind in the treetops and 
lots of icicles and snow would drop from the 
trees. It was very much a Christmas scene. After a 
while of not-getting warm by the not-warm fire, 
we kicked some snow over it, and ran most of the 
way back down to the city. 

On a more recent visit to Echo Mountain just a 
few years ago, I was hiking around with my hiking 
class from Pasadena City College. It had been 
a drizzly and cold day, and after we explored the 
ruins, we went over by the large fireplace area to 
have our lunch. We were surprised that a man in 
a t-shirt was sitting nearby, and he'd cleaned out 
the fireplace for his shelter. We started talking, 
and we were admiring all the arrowheads he'd 
just made from the bits of glass he'd collected 
from around Echo Mountain. 

He said he was very skilled in wilderness survival, 
and he made some sort of a bet with a friend 
about whether or not he could spend 10 days in 
these mountains with nothing but the clothes he 
was wearing. That was apparently his second day 
there. He knew about some edible plants, though 
there wasn't much to collect. He had the tools for 
making fire with a bow and drill, and he'd made 
a quickie bow and some arrows, and had nearly 
finished making a batch of arrowheads. 

He said he was going to catch squirrels to eat, and 
maybe other animals. We were all mighty impressed 
and asked him lots of questions. I gave 
him my magnesium fire starter, and then we departed. 
I told him I wanted to hear how he did 
in those 10 days, and gave him my address and 
phone number. I never did hear from him again, 
though I assume that if things got really tough, 
all he had to do was walk a few miles down to the 
city. It was winter, and some snow had actually 
fallen close to Echo Mountain, so it would have 
been a cold 10 days. 


SIERRA MADRE FARMERS 
MARKET


 The Sierra Madre Farmer’s Market hours have changed to 3:00pm through 7:00pm 
every Wednesday. Vendors include Dry Dock which has fresh and wild caught fish, 
Rustic Loaf with artisan breads, Cutie Pie with fresh pies and much more!

For those interested in being a vendor contact Melissa Farwell with Raw Inspira


tions at 818-591-8161 ext. 806.