Irvine Park

Irvine Park

Noel Laflin

8-4-20

Four years ago today, my friend Jay and I paid a visit to Irvine Park in order to shoot some pictures.

Until that day, I don’t think that I had been to the place since my teenage years, when I thought nothing of riding my old Schwinn fourteen miles in order to get there – and then another fourteen miles to get home. Back then I only saw the park as a destination and a place to get a drink of water, or maybe buy a Coke and a burger, before turning around to pedal my way back through the endless orange groves that seemed to magically connect the park to my parents’ house.

Over time – a half century, to be precise - I paid the ancient oaks, sycamores, hawks, squirrels, peacocks, woodpeckers, creek bed, and narrow-gauge train winding its way around two lovely lagoons (all nestled in our local foothills) little heed, as the once-endless orange groves disappeared, old familiar roads changed course, and I exchanged a bicycle for a car. But that first car, along with its numerous successors, never found its way back to the park – not until four years ago today.

Since then, I have been making up for lost time, hiking its roads, hills and creek. And, as luck would have it, I only live four miles from the park now, have a pass, a camera, and a desire to explore and document the place – its flora, fauna, geology, and history through every season – some might argue, obsessively.

But I’ve got to tell you – although some of you might have guessed it already – it never gets old - at least, not for me.

And as it never gets old, it keeps me from getting old – or so I like to tell myself.

However, time to end here as I just saw our neighborhood red-tail hawk pass over, flying in a northeast direction - towards Irvine Park. He was calling out too. I'll take that as a sign.