BLAZING AN OLD TRAIL : RELAY RIDERS RETRACE 1,468-MILE JOURNEY TAKEN BY DE ANZA.Byline: Brian Norton Daily News Staff Writer Horseback riders, joggers and bicyclists joined Sunday in the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. leg of a 1,468-mile relay commemorating Juan Bautista De Anza's overland journey from Mexico to San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden more than 200 years ago. The relay started in Griffith Park Griffith Park is a large public park at the eastern end of the Santa Monica Mountains. It is situated in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. The park covers 4,210 acres (17 km²) of land, making it one of the largest urban parks in North America. , went to Universal City and then on to the Sagebrush sagebrush, name for several species of Artemisia, deciduous shrubs of the family Asteraceae (aster family), particularly abundant in arid regions of W North America. The common sagebrush (A. Cantina can·ti·na n. Southwestern U.S. A bar that serves liquor. [Spanish, canteen, from Italian, wine cellar.] and Leonis Adobe in Calabasas. Today, the relay will continue with participants leaving the adobe at 9 a.m. and stopping at 11:30 a.m. at Juan Bautista De Anza Juan Bautista de Anza Bezerra Nieto (July 1736 - December 19, 1788) was a Novo-Spanish explorer for the Spanish Empire. Life Juan Bautista de Anza was born in Fronteras, Sonora (near Arizpe) into a military family on the northern frontier of New Spain. Park located on Lost Hills Road near Las Virgenes Road, south of the Ventura Freeway The Ventura Freeway is a freeway in southern California running from Ventura to Pasadena. It is the principal east-west route through Ventura County and in the southern San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County. . Tuesday, it will continue on to the Ventura Mission. Horseback riders in Spanish costumes began the relay in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico, on Oct. 12. The group is expected to arrive at the San Francisco Presidio at the end of November and to complete its journey Dec. 7 at the Antioch bridge in Contra Costa County. The relay is commemorating the 220th anniversary of the founding of San Francisco. De Anza blazed his trail from October 1775 to March 1776 in search of an overland route to supply missions established by the Franciscans in the 1760s. His journey was particularly important for the Spanish in protecting San Francisco from encroachment by Russians coming down the coast from the north and British coming from the northeast. Congress approved the bill authorizing the Juan Bautista De Anza National Historic Trail Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail: see National Parks and Monuments (table). in 1990. Kathy Vrablick, who lives in the Bay Area town of Rodeo, was one of the volunteers helping to conduct the San Fernando Valley leg of the relay Sunday. ``It's been one of the best organized parts of the relay,'' she said, expressing gratitude to Los Angeles County and city officials for their help. ``The Los Angeles Mayor's Office has bent over backwards to help us,'' she said. At the end of today's trip, the group is scheduled to arrive at Reyes Adobe Park off Reyes Adobe Road in Agoura Hills. There will be refreshments and an adobe tour in the morning at the Leonis Adobe, and musical entertainment at the luncheon stop between 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. in the Lost Hills-Malibu Canyon area. CAPTION(S): Photo PHOTO Riders, near the Autry Museum in Griffith Park, follow in the tracks of Juan Bautista De Anza. Tom Mendoza/Daily News |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion