We have this friend of over 30 years duration, and have had several experiences where his car caved in when we were far from home.  On one of these occasions, he was visiting me in Monrovia, and we were driving somewhere, and his car kicked the bucket somewhere around Downey.  He called on a friend, a fellow Westsider, to come over and give us a ride back to Monrovia.

On the way back, Mr. Westside was exclaiming that he never knew there was anything this far East.  Finally, we said, “Yep, it’s pretty nice out here, except for the occasional Indian attack.”

Which is just a roundabout way of saying that people on the west side of LA have a different way of looking at us here in the San Gabriel Valley.  We can’t tell you the times our friends on the Westside demur coming over here to visit us:  “But it’s so far!  Why don’t you come over here instead?”  Because, you know, it’s much shorter to drive from Altadena to West LA than vice versa.

So here’s the second mention we’ve found in a week about the “secret” Sam Merrill Trail — practically a savage, unexplored land, except for the squads of hikers and their dogs who traverse it every day.  What distinguishes this LA Weekly story is that it’s written by Wil Wheaton, who is actually a very funny writer (and has a pretty smart wife, as the article demonstrates).  And as an added bonus, we remember him best as the much-despised Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation.