Healthy Hikes

The turkey isn’t the only one getting stuffed on Thanksgiving. If the mashed potatoes are starting to weigh heavily on your conscience as well as your hips, relief is as close as your hiking shoes.

You can walk off some of that excess baggage this weekend. It’s a great time to go: The weather is cooler, and the recent rains have given the hills a touch of green.

If you’re a hiking novice, or you simply enjoy getting out there with a group, several naturalist-led hikes are scheduled this weekend:

For the guilt-ridden, the Turkey Trot Fun is billed as a gentle three-mile family hike into Happy Camp Canyon Regional Park near Moorpark, and is led by Roseann Mikos, a docent for the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.

“People will have stuffed their bodies full of food, so this will be a good time to hike and burn off some of that big-time food,” Mikos said.

This free outing runs from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Sunday. Hikers should meet Mikos at the park entrance, north of downtown Moorpark. (From Los Angeles Avenue, take Moorpark Avenue north, turn right on Broadway and park at the end.)

This 3,700-acre park is an uncrowded jewel nestled surprisingly close to suburbia. Originally, it was part of a huge cattle ranch run by the pioneering Strathearn family, and as recently as the mid-1980s, cattle roamed this wide canyon.

The route Mikos follows takes hikers to a natural spring in an oak woodland where the giant trees are as much as 500 years old.

“It’s beautiful,” said Mikos, who has a slew of interesting nuggets about the wilderness area and the animals that call it home. The rains have not only made the area greener, she said, but they’ve made it easier to spot deer, bobcat and mountain lion tracks.

For a more strenuous hike, also on Sunday afternoon, considering joining the Rancho Simi Trail Blazers as they head up Rocky Peak near the east end of Simi Valley. The Trail Blazers do this five-mile leg-stretcher every Sunday, so you can join them and make a habit of it if you want a regular workout.

The group meets at 4 p.m. at the trail head, and just getting there is a bit tricky. (Take the Kuehner Drive exit off the Simi Valley Freeway, go south and stay on it as it becomes Santa Susana Pass Road. Near the top of the pass, an overpass takes you right to the trail head.)

The Rocky Peak Trail is actually a dirt fire road that climbs steeply the first mile, then levels out for a gentler incline. The elevation gain is 1,140 feet, and the peak measures in at 2,712 feet.

From the top and along the route, the views are striking, especially at dusk when the lights from Simi Valley begin to twinkle. But the landscape is even more extraordinary. Dramatic sandstone outcroppings and cliffs dot the terrain. It’s no wonder that the area was a draw for the makers of those old Wild West movies.

The Rancho Simi Trail Blazers not only hike weekly for recreation, these volunteers also build and maintain trails.

If you want a serious workout, you can join a National Park Service ranger Saturday for a six-mile trek that includes Sandstone Peak, the highest point in the Santa Monica Mountains.

The top is a lofty 3,111 feet, but this route isn’t a straight climb up. The trail winds into the canyons and wide-open spaces of Circle X Ranch, where the outing begins at 8:30 a.m. (To get to the trail head, take Yerba Buena Road, located off Pacific Coast Highway just north of the Los Angeles County line. Drive inland about five miles to the ranger station, then one more mile to the parking area on the left.)

Circle X Ranch was a working ranch until 1948 when a Los Angeles service club bought 160 acres and gave it to the Boy Scouts for a wilderness retreat. The Scouts added to the acquisition, and by the time the park service got it, the spread was about 1,600 acres.

On the way to Sandstone Peak, hikers will see some amazing volcanic rock formations. One, called Balanced Rock, looks just like that: a giant rock precariously balanced. And another, called Split Rock, is exactly that.

BE THERE

For information, call:

Happy Camp Canyon hike, 529-4828, or the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, 310-589-3200.

Rancho Simi Trail Blazers, 584-4400.

National Park Service, (818) 597-9192.