Trails

After reading Eric Bailey's article regarding the horse trails ("Trail Advocates Push to Get Development Plan Back on Track," July 19), I felt I must respond. I was a member of the ad hoc committee on trails appointed by the Board of Supervisors in 1981. We recommended to the board that mandatory dedication be changed to voluntary dedication, which we believed it should have been from the beginning, knowing that many property owners resented being told they must give 20 feet of their property for these trails.

That ray of light you see peeking through all the clouds darkening California's future? That's the sun. More specifically, solar power, in which California is the hands-down national leader. The state's installed solar generating capacity of about 1.2 gigawatts - the equivalent of two big conventional power plants and enough to fill the electrical demand from nearly 200,000 homes for a year - easily outstrips the next 10 highest-ranked states. It's also the fastest-growing solar market in the country.

Put a little Greene and Greene style on your table. San Diego artist Michael Nowack specializes in ancient Chinese glaze formulas for his Arts and Crafts-like plates, pictures and vases. Available at Freehand in Los Angeles.

It was the end of a long day in a stuffy Simi Valley office building. Ann Romney had been under oath for more than four hours, testifying in a sometimes contentious deposition about a pricey horse she sold that may or may not have been afflicted with a condition that made him unrideable. In the airless room, Romney was getting annoyed. "That really is -- that really is irritating," she said when the opposing attorney implied she didn't know who looked after her horse in Moorpark when she was at her home in Boston.

Carlsbad in bloom Nourished by winter rains, the Flower Fields at Carlsbad Ranch in San Diego County have begun to bloom. The peak at the 52-acre property is expected from late this month to the middle of next when more than 100 varieties of ranunculus, orchid, poinsettia, anemone, rose and other buds will carpet the rolling hills. The Flower Fields, 5704 Paseo del Norte, Carlsbad, are open 9 a.m.-6 p.m. seven days a week until May 10. Admission is $10 for adults, $9 for seniors and $5 for children.

They have trekked for three months from Omaha, Neb., to Utah, reenacting the migration of the Mormon pioneers 150 years ago. On Monday, just a day before the end of the journey, an Idaho group fell to the peril of the trail when their mules bolted on a steep hill, breaking up the wagon and throwing out three adults and three children. Three were hospitalized for minor injuries.

* DRINKS ON THE HOUSE. When we stopped for the night in Jeffrey City, Wyo., the Ore House Bar was kind enough to invite us all over for free beer. Half of the participants on the Mormon Trail Wagon Train are not Mormons, so they took the Ore House up on the offer. When the bar owners found out that the rest of us don't drink alcohol, they cheerfully ladled out soft drinks.

Rolling Hills has banned mountain bikes and all other wheeled vehicles from the 24 miles of equestrian trails that wind through the private, gated community. Council members unanimously adopted the law Tuesday after equestrians cited several instances in which horses had been spooked by cyclists. The council feared that serious accidents could result if cyclists continued to use the trails. Motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles were already banned from the trails.

If you plan to spend the day on the trails in a Los Angeles County park this weekend, you'll need something besides sunscreen and a water bottle--you'll need a permit. After much political wrangling, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has finally begun enforcing the controversial fee system adopted last fall. Hikers, mountain bikers and equestrians are now required to buy a $23 annual permit--or a $6 three-day pass--for the right to wander through the 330-mile network of trails.

Having spent many summers walking in Switzerland, I was delighted to see the articles on the Engadine ("Destination: Switzerland," June 30). Though well-known destinations were mentioned in the articles, there are innumerable trails, less frequented, that range from easy to challenging. One favorite, reached by postal bus from St. Moritz, climbs from Maloja Pass up to a tiny settlement overlooking three lakes, and winds through the wildflowers and by cascading streams back to lakeside villages in the valley.

After spending a season fighting age, battling immaturity, struggling with old habits and jabbing with a new coach, the Lakers have ended up where we pretty much thought they would. Out of breath and on the ropes. Their veteran star is exhausted and annoyed. Their kid center is angry and distant. Their power forward is uncertain and embattled. And their season is officially on the brink after they blew a 13-point lead in a 103-100 loss to Oklahoma City on Saturday in the fourth and perhaps deciding game of their first-round playoff series.

Slow and steady. Nice and easy. Efficient and unspectacular. That's what impressed the Clippers so much about playing against the San Antonio Spurs. "They play the same way whether they are down 20 or up 20," Blake Griffin said. "And they always play hard. " In fact, the Clippers had the Spurs down by 24 points in the second quarter of Game 3 of the Western Conference semifinals at Staples Center on Saturday. The Spurs cut it to 10 by halftime and took the lead in the third, never turning back.

CAIRO - A mechanic hammered a fender and boys wandered amid tin and rust as Adham Bishr, his opinions flaring on an agitated afternoon along the Nile, said Egypt's next president should give him a job, not tell him how to worship God. Men gathered around Bishr in a scrap of shade, arguing over inflation and politics before disappearing into the grit and anger of a neighborhood at Cairo's edge. The men, mostly unemployed drivers, mill hands and laborers, want work; their sons, college students with dim prospects, wonder whether the future will bring enough money to take a wife.

OKLAHOMA CITY — This is the loss that will haunt the Lakers for months, years, perhaps even longer for Kobe Bryant, if their season ends again in the Western Conference semifinals. They led the Oklahoma City Thunder by seven with two minutes to play but fumbled badly, 120 seconds of chaos creating a 77-75 Thunder victory Wednesday in Game 2 at Chesapeake Energy Arena. What looked like a tied-up series turned into a 2-0 Thunder lead amid a flurry of blunders and missed shots by, stunningly, Bryant.

In March, when I wrote that the tax increase proposals by Gov. Jerry Brown and civil rights attorney Molly Munger were unimaginative if not doomed, I got an email from Munger. She did not agree, at least with regard to her initiative. "Unimaginative?" she wrote, inviting me to meet with her. This week, I decided to take her up on her offer after watching Brown admit that the financial mess he told us about in January was nothing compared to the mess we're in now. Frankly, I don't know how the January estimates were so far off the mark, with a $9-billion hole turning into a $16-billion hole in less time than it takes to grow tomatoes.

The Clippers have put themselves in this predicament, on the verge of making NBA history -- and not in a good way. They suffered a 90-88 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday night at Staples Center in Game 6, leaving their best-of-seven first-round playoff series tied at 3-3. The Clippers have lost two straight games and now must play a seventh game on the road, with Blake Griffin (sprained left knee) and Chris Paul (strained right hip flexor) still not close to 100% healthy.

I spend a lot of time on the fire roads and trails in the mountains south of the county road portion of Mulholland. There are not many of us there. The trails are a well kept secret. The majority of people living in the Valley would be surprised to know that running, hiking, mountain biking and walking in such beautiful surroundings are just minutes away from a glow-in-the-dark neon Ventura Boulevard. I've run from the Valley side over the mountains to the beach, failing to see another person.

If you go WHERE TO STAY The luxury Harbour Grand Hotel, 23 Oil St., North Point; (852) 2121-2616, http://www.harbourgrand.com . Away from the bustle of the shopping and business district, but alongside the Fortress Hill subway stop, making it easy to reach hikes. Doubles from $178. Harbour Plaza 8 Degrees Hotel, 199 Kowloon City Road, Tokwawan, Kowloon; (852) 2126-1988, http://www.harbour-plaza.com/en/home.aspx?hotel_id=hp8d§ion_id=home&subsection_id=overview.

Birds twitter and sunshine twinkles through groves of bamboo and banyan trees adorned with cascades of orchids. With every step, my Vibram boot soles crush hibiscus blossoms littering a pathway, while butterflies flutter around a group of elderly folks welcoming the morning with the gracious silent semaphore of tai chi. At a clearing where remnants of a World War ll gun emplacement rust, half-swallowed in greenery, an opening in the jungle reveals...