Milt McAuley was first introduced to the Santa Monica Mountains 36 years ago, courtesy of a Sierra Club hike. In the time since, he has returned to the mountains thousands of times, hiking or bushwhacking his way through virtually every known route in the range.
These treks inspired McAuley to pick up a pen and to write about the trails he hiked and the things he saw. To date, he has self-published seven guides to the Santa Monicas, all of which have sold tens of thousands of copies. His prose may not be reminiscent of Hemingway, but McAuley's books by far remain the most detailed and accurate of the local hiking guides.
McAuley, 79, is a longtime resident of Canoga Park. After a 21-year career as an Air Force pilot, he retired in 1961 and worked in the aerospace industry for nine years. On the home front, he founded Canyon Publishing and has kept a keen eye on issues affecting the Santa Monicas, from development to the long-proposed plan to construct the 70-mile-long Backbone Trail from the Pacific Palisades to Point Mugu.
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Question: Your books always drive home the point that you're amazed every time you set foot in the Santa Monicas. Why?
McAuley: I can't just walk a trail once and get the feel for it. The trail is different every time you walk it. The wind might be blowing differently or different plants might be in bloom. Yesterday, I must have seen 50 different identifiable wildflowers. Each time on the trail I find something new that I didn't know existed there before.
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Q: How much have the Santa Monicas changed since you started walking them?
A: There is a lot more development--but there are also a lot more people who accept trails through their property. These easements were almost unheard of in these mountains until the past few years.
For example, a lady bought a house in the mountains. An easement for the Backbone Trail already existed there. She knew little about trails and she put up a barricade to the trail.
Then one day the National Park Service sent two people, me and a work crew I was directing, to the lady's house.
The first thing the park service wanted to do was cut a four-foot-wide strip through this lady's flowers. I pointed out that we didn't need to do that--the bigger problem was the rock sitting in the middle of the trail about 250 yards away.
