30 Years in Griffith Park with Stag Dateline: Griffith Park - August 24, 2005. Here we Brown are all gathered together again for our Wednesday By Bob (Bobcat J) Thompson night hike. Stag is still leading the hike after 30 years in the Park. About 30 intrepid hikers follow "Moses" Dateline: Griffith Park -- August 24, 1975. After 3 Brown up to the "Promised Land", Mt. Hollywood, years of hiking with the Hundred Peaks Section, Stag and Stag stopping often to let the "newbies" catch up. Brown invited me to come on an evening hike in At 8:15, we are all on top the mountain, me for the Griffith Park. I think, why would a "mountaineer" 888th time, and Stag, who knows how many times! It like me want to hike in a "flat" park dotted with is a "hot August night" and we can see the lights on at picnic tables and barbeques? Little did I know what lay Dodger Stadium and views for miles in every in store for me on a "Stag" hike! direction. After a few minutes in this surreal world, we head back down Needless to say, I said yes, showed- up for the 7 p.m. hike, and the rest is history. The rugged backcountry of the park had miles of trails and "adventures" awaiting us. With friends like Joe Young, Mike Baldwin and countless others over the years, we roamed the hi-ways and by- ways of the Park every Wednesday night for 30 years! With Stag leading the way, we had "close encounters" with rattlers, deer, coyote, tarantulas, mountain lion, bees, 2-legged coyotes, owls, skunks, glow worms, frogs and countless other "critters of the night." We got to know the park like the back of our hands, climbing up to the trailhead and a "tailgate parry" celebrating Mt. Hollywood, Mt. Chapel, Mt. Bell, Mr. Lee, Stag's 30 years of leading hikes in the Park. Cahuenga Peak, Glendale Peak, Beacon Hill and countless other "bumps in the night". Neither rain Here's to the next 30 years. "Hip-Hip-Hooray" for nor heat nor snow nor gloom of night would stay Stag and all the great leaders in Griffith Park who, these hikers from the swift ascent of their peaks! over the years, have made Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights in the Park an "adventure" to look forward to. "See ya next week, Stag!" Scanned from Griffith Park Guardian, Fall 2005 Issue (Griffith Park Hikes Committee newswletter)