Spring Update!

Hello friends!

Sober Living Home

MINISTRY UPDATE: Here I am again with a tardy ministry update along with the latest doing's in my life. And the Latest? I've Moved! I had been praying about whether God wanted me to be doing working for Him in a Sober Living home, when an old friend of mine asked me for advice on—of all things—obtaining a new manager for the Sober Living Home that he owned.

Room for my Stuff

    Thank you, Lord! I'm now near South Pasadena in a room just large enough to fit my Library. There are 10 beds here for men who are coming from treatment centers or elsewhere and want to build new lives without a dependency on alcohol or drugs. I'm still helping each week with a new ACNA church being planted by Fr. Charles Myers, along with a weekly Bible study and family picnic in the park for all our homeless friends and anyone else that may come by. I have also begun helping in a Pasadena convalescent home to strengthen those who don't want to return to their  former lives in drug addiction, and I'm still teaching the Common Solution Recovery 12-step class every other month or so.




My Work Camp for working on the Ken Burton Trail

 HIKING AND CAMPING: My last email ministry update was July of 2011 (bad, bad, Rolin!), although for those with the link to my web log, I did post a hiking/camping update in February:
http://resurrectiongulfcoast.blogspot.com/2012/02/gabrielino-trail-17-bridges-tour.html

Since the Gabrielino Trail was closed, I had to find another way to get to the Oak Wilde Trail Camp deep in the upper Arroyo Seco, which according to the literature on the front counter of the Ranger Station boasted seven campsites with tables and stoves, supported by pit toilets and hitching rails for the horses.

7 Foot Brush

The only other way into the campsite was the Ken Burton Trail starting at the end of the Brown Mountain Fire "Road" (which hasn't been passable by vehicles for many years). But no one had been down that way for at least 3 years, and the trail had disappeared under heavy brush as much as 9 feet tall.

     If I put my face to the ground, I could see what was left of the trail, not much more than a rabbit burrow from one end of the brush patch to the other. So, back down the mountain to bring back a machete and other tools. I worked on the trail once a week from late September through early December The photo at left shows one result of that work, after hacking my way through scrubby greenish-brown brush pepered with red-leafed poison oak (ouch). Took me some time and a doctor's visit to recover from that little episode. 

7 Foot Lupine Blossoms

     And when I returned that way again last week, what to my wondering eyes should appear but lush greenery and delicate Lupine blossoms caressing my face from both sides as I pushed through the same trail segment. Big improvement over the poison Oak!

     At the end of the trail in the bottom of the upper Arroyo Seco should have been the seven-site Oak Wilde Trail Camp.

Instead I found devastation:

Oak Wilde Campsite

a boulder-strewn plain swept clean by the floods after the huge  Station Fire. One campsite remained, half buried in mud. Behind the table in this photo can be seen a stovepipe sticking up  out of the mud where the camp stove lies buried.
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Sword in the Stone

DISNEY TRIP: Alex, the young man I cared for in Pennsylvania for almost three years, is now living in California with his relatives out here. Here he is with his friend at Disneyland, where I had the opportunity to take him on his first visit there, at the age of 13.  He is doing well in school and is glad to be back in California after many years absence.

Backbone Trail with Snow

TRAINING FOR MOUNT WHITNEY CLIMB: I have a July 3 reservation to hike the 22-mile round trip to Mount Whitney, at 14,500 feet the tallest mountain in the 48 States. It is a 6,000 foot climb, so I am training twice weekly to get in shape. For exercise at high altitude, I attempted to scale 10,000-foot Mount San Antonio (Old Baldy) last month, where I was turned back by the depth of the snow at the end of the Devil's Backbone Trail at about 9,000 feet.

Backbone without Snow

     I had much better luck on the second attempt last Saturday. I experienced a bit of dizzyness, probably due to the altitude, so  I hiked it again last Wednesday and was improved. I need to  spend more time at altitude.


Mount Baldy Up Close

Old Baldy itself is hidden from view from the ski resort at Baldy Notch and from most of rest of the 3+ mile trail up to the summit from there. But on rounding the slope of Little Baldy we were presented with the impressive view above.


Topside of Baldy

 I was accompanied Saturday by my friend and mentor Fr. Richard Menees (left) and by Tony Pietrolungo of Saint James Newport Beach, who I hope will join us on our July 3 assault on Mount Whitney.

Friends, I will endeavor to do better in my quarterly reports, and will send you an update when I find out whether our assault on the Mount Whitey Trail will successfully take us topside there.

In Christ,
Rolin

Gabrielino Trail: 17 Bridges Tour

Like a protective arch over Pasadena, the 28-mile Gabrielino trail
begins in the Arroyo Seco just west of the city, climbs 2000+ feet to turn east along the Angeles Crest and climb 1,000+ feet more before plunging south towards the city of Arcadia.

Here at the trailhead in Pasadena, its entrance sign ignores the Gould Mesa campground just two miles ahead and holds out the promise of Oakwilde campground, halfway to the Switzer picnic area on the Angeles Crest Highway.

Literature at the ranger's station describes Oakwilde as having 7 campsites with stoves, plus pit toilets and hitching rails for the horses: so let's take a stroll up the arroyo and see what it looks like, bearing in mind the devastations of the Station Fire and the subsequent floods. ....

Passing the Jet Propulsion Labs (JPL) on the opposite side of the arroyo, we cross what I call the Baroque Bridge, built in an era when bridges were supposed to be not only functional but also expressions of architectural art. But the very next bridge sports wooden planks and danger warnings.
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About a mile in we pass by the Lower Brown Mountain road which launches eastward into the foothills, while the El Prieto trail and creek snakes their way along the bottom of a steep canyon. Both of them end at the "Upper" road, also known as the Brown Mountain Fire Road.
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Back in the rock n' roll days the Eagles Live album included the song "Seven Bridges Road." By my count, the lower arrroyo has seventeen bridges and/or places where bridges used to be.
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For many of these creek crossings, you will need good balance or acceptance of getting your socks wet.
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While some of these bridges may be missing due to the recent floods, most of them don't appear to have been in existence for many years.
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Gould Mesa campground is a pleasant space with 3 campsites, fire rings, toilets, and trash containers. It is maintained via a service road that climbs up out of the arroyo to the west.
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This bridge was taken out when fire burned away its wooden planks.
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This new and wonderful horse bridge is a pleasant surprise.

Still more river to cross.

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At Paul Little picnic area (below left) the Gabrielino Trail leaves the canyon floor and climbs out on the right, but it's marked as closed, saying "Respect it!"
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Following the canyon floor brings us to the Brown Mountain Debris Dam. With all that water falling maybe 60 feet, one would expect a good-sized lake on the other side.
Surprise: it's filled up with dirt and rock.

Climbing the canyon wall (respecting the closed trail, of course) we can get a picture of the situation. Downstream is the rocky creek flowing among trees (above) while looking upstream (below) we see a sandy creek and low brush. But where is Oakwilde Campground? We're stymied: stopped short maybe a mile short of our goal.
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Time to get out the map. From the south, marked in red, is the portion of the Gabrieleino trail we've just followed to where we were stopped at the Paul Little picnic area.

From the north, starting at the Switzer picnic area, is the Gabrielino trail going south to Oakwilde, which is circled. One small problem: the ranger tells me that the portion of the trail south of the junction with Bear Canyon is also closed.

From west of Oakwilde there used to be a trail or service road leading up to the highway, but it is also closed, taken out by a landslide many years ago.

What's left? From the east, of course! There's a 3 mile trail marked on the map as the "Ken Burton Trail" which ends at Oakwilde. That trail starts at the end of the 5½ mile Brown Mountain Fire Road, which in turn starts at one of my favorite campgrounds, Millard Canyon.

So if these 8½ miles are passable and we hike them, we should be able to put our eyes on this mysterious "Oakwilde Campground," which from 1911 through 1938 existed as the Old Camp Oak Wilde tourist resort. And that, in fact, is what we will do next, and we'll see it in the next post. Stay Tuned!

Trail Trials: from Tuxachanie to Gabrielino

From Tuxachanie (Mississippi)...One of my discoveries in Mississippi was the Tuxachanie Trail, which offers a 22-mile hike through southern Mississippi's Desoto National Forest. I kept returning to the trail until I had hiked all of it--or at least all of it that was open to the public (and some that wasn't).
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One of the gems along that route was this plank bridge. The horse portion of the trail splashed for 50 yards or so through the low-lying wetlands along Spike Buck Creek, while this plank trail offered a way for hikers to get through without sloshing mud and water up into your boots. The reward on the other side of the creek was a trail camp which boasted an actual picnic table.

To Gabrielino (California)....
This past July 12 I set out to explore the Arroyo Seco northwest of Pasadena and stumbled across the trailhead for the Gabrielino Trail. I determined to learn more. Here is Gould Mesa Trail Camp, just an hour up the trail. I decided to base camp here on my next visit and try to get farther up the Gabrielino trail, perhaps all the way to the rumored "Switzer Falls".

There are a number of bridges on the trail for autos, but many of them, along with the roads around them, have been destroyed by the recurring floods. This is a more recently-constructed bridge, built to accomodate the equestrian traffic on the Gabrielino Trail.

"Arroyo Seco" is Spanish for "Dry Gulch," an appropriate name only for the lower reaches of the canyon after the City of Pasadena has sucked all the water out of it for its thirsty citizens. The lower portion of the arroyo is the pathway for the nation's first freeway, now an extension of Interstate 110. With its tight curves and abrupt on- and off-ramps, it is a challenging drive during rush hour.

Once above the intake point for Pasadena's water plant, the creek crossing shown at right is more typical of what will confront a hiker on the Gabrielino trail. Some of the crossings are quite a bit more challenging than this one, especially for me as I work with strength and balance limitations on my surgery recuperation trail.

At the Gould Mesa camp, there is a road that leads off the side, climbing to meet the Angeles Crest Highway (California 2) just above the city limits of La Cañada Flintridge. I encountered this sign, which reminded me of the time I drove up CA-2 and came across the place where the Gabrielino Trail reaches the crest of the Angeles Forest--and wished I had time to hike the trail.So I think that's exactly what I'll do. Bit by Bit, I'm going to see if I can reach each section of this 28.5 mile trail. Watch this space for the photos!

WELCOME TO THE WEST COAST!

Although I have been here along the West Coast since last September, I have been mostly tending to my family and to my personal health, notably for hip replacement surgery March 15. But now God has guided me to Pasadena, California, where I am beginning in ministry once again to the homeless, addicted and recovering communities.

I am working alongside the Rev. Charles T. Myers, who is planting an urban church with an outreach to the addicted and recovering: it is Saint Michael's in the City, which has been meeting for the last seven weeks at 679 East Washington Boulevard at 5pm, not to mention its long-standing Bible Study each Thursday 6pm at Starbucks, 679 North Fair Oaks Avenue.

I am preparing to teach the Common Solution Recovery 12-step class developed by Church Army in Branson, Missouri, and have potentially 7 students who will be attending starting the first weekend in August. I last taught this class in 2007 to the homeless workers that I took into my cabin in Gulfport, Mississippi on the campus of God's Katrina Kitchen.

And I'm still hiking on trails! Watch for a post here soon on the Gabrielino Trail in the Angeles National Forest.

Please pray for me and my ministry. As elsewhere, there are people here hurting and dying from the afflictions of drugs, alcohol, and other addictions.

Thanks,
Rolin

Welcome to the Gulf Coast!

The log postings below cover ministry during the initial period of rebuilding from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina along the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. For the later ministry of Rev. Capt. Rolin Bruno before my move back to the West Coast, see my personal web log over here .

Free Church of the Annunciation Family

Palm Sunday Procession

Here is Fr. Jerry Kramer's latest update on Church Army Gulf Coast's graduate, Van. (He's at the foreground of the foto inset at right.):

Joining us today for the first Sunday in a while was our beloved cook, Van. He's been away, taking some time to rest and learn skills to stay well. After a warm round of applause, Van told the congregation that Annunciation is the only real family he has and he's grateful for our accepting him, loving him, and standing with him. That's the kind of thing that makes all the hell we have to wade through absolutely worthwhile.

Van and his New Family

Hi, all! Long time no post. Here's a quick update on the success story of Church Army Gulf Coast graduate Van. When Van came to us he was broke, homeless, living under the Gulfport pier, and addicted to crack cocaine.

But now he is doing wonderfully in his role as chief cook for the rebuilding efforts of the Free Church of the Annunciaton in New Orleans. He has been welcomed enthusiastically by the community and is relishing the role of being one of a beloved member of the extended church family, while he cooks for dozens—and even hundreds—of volunteers who come to help New Orleans rebuild from the devastation left behind by Hurricane Katrina. Fr. Jerry Kramer posted his photo in their latest newsletter, which I'm sharing with you here.

You can keep up with my own latest doings in my personal web log, where I expect to post a new entry within the week.

Feather Falls Fotos (Fixed)

Last November I posted a report of my hiking and camping trip to Feather Falls in California. At 640 feet high, this is the fifth tallest waterfall in the United States. There's no way to capture the entire falls in one shot without a fisheye lens, so I took multiple shots and sent them to my brother Roger. He stitched them together and here are the fruits of his visual composition. Roger normally spends his time producing digital music: his musical compositions can be found over here.