Topline:
Natalie “Swell” Dillon and fellow Pacific Crest Trail alumni carry fresh food over Bishop Pass to surprise and support current hikers, a growing tradition known as “trail magic.”
What is trail magic? Trail magic ranges from a shared snack to a ride from a stranger, rooted in goodwill and the belief that “the trail provides” and now, more hikers are stepping up to give back.
Read on... to see what they encountered on their journey.
Natalie “Swell” Dillon, an avid backpacker who lives in Bishop in California’s Eastern Sierra, completed the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail in 2022.
And every year since, the occupational therapist — who’s also a member of her local search and rescue team — has spent a full weekend back out on the PCT to support those making the same journey she did.
These acts of kindness — offering tired, hungry thru-hikers everything from food and snacks to rides to the nearest town — are colloquially known as “trail magic.” And this year, Dillon decided to “go big” and invite other thru-hikers who’ve previously conquered the PCT to join her in her most ambitious trail magic plan yet: hiking 12 miles up and over nearly 12,000-foot Bishop Pass with as much fresh food as they could carry.
Dillon hiked the trail the same year as my partner, and as someone who completed the PCT myselfback in 2019, I found myself on Dillon’s invite list and joining her on her mission.
So if you’re new to the concept of trail magic or have always wondered how to get involved, keep reading for what you need to know.
At its most basic level, trail magic is “an act of goodwill or a remarkable moment,” according to the Pacific Crest Trail Association — anchored in the sentiment that “the trail provides.”
Some trail magic is serendipitous. On my own PCT hike, for example, it came in the form of a particularly juicy peach handed to me as I took my first steps into Oregon, followed by a ride from a stranger who saw three hitchhikers and stopped — even though she’d never heard of the trail before. As for the “remarkable moment” aspect, spotting nearly 100 dogs on a particularly popular stretch of trail near Tahoe added immense joy to my day.
I was also the grateful recipient of several coordinated pieces of trail magic from established “trail angels” who are known in their communities to offer help to hikers, including hot coffee and breakfast in a remote lakes area of Oregon, cold Gatorades after a particularly difficult day of hiking and much-needed rides to and from trailheads.
Taking on a long trek like the Pacific Crest Trail is no easy journey. The demands of hiking 20–30 miles per day for 12-plus hours often prompt many backpackers to bring only the most calorie-efficient foods in an attempt to save weight.
The PCT can also be mentally challenging. During my hike, in certain sections of the trail, I found myself without new company for days on end.
All of this can make coming across fresh food and a group of new people incredibly refreshing. And in a section like the Sierra Nevada mountain range, where hikers travel through 300 miles of unbroken wilderness and very little in the form of access to luxuries, it can be positively transformative — not to mention surprising, as the only ways in and out are extremely rugged.
Dillon said she was inspired to start doing both organized and spontaneous trail magic after her own experiences receiving “countless encounters of trail magic” on her PCT hike — including one standout moment when she stumbled upon a trail angel offering water and a “huge buffet of breakfast and lunch foods” in a hot section of Southern California. “We feasted for hours.”
“All of those acts of generosity from other people really fueled me forward in ways that were essential to finishing a thru-hike,” she said.
To make this year extra special, Dillon asked everyone she knew who had hiked the trail in previous years and lived within a day’s drive of Bishop to meet her one weekend in early June, loading pounds of fresh fruit, vegetables and other surprises into our packs to hike 12 miles up and over the nearly 12,000-foot Bishop Pass and spend a full day cooking and socializing with hikers in the High Sierra.
“Even for us in our three-day weekend together, we created a little ‘tramily,’” she said. “And instead of being driven by trying to get to Canada, we were all driven by this idea of trying to provide a superb trail magic experience for this year’s hikers.”
These hikers included Simon from Belgium, who goes by “Presoak” (many long-distance hikers are given or choose their own “trail names”). “Trail magic in the middle of freaking nowhere!” he exclaimed upon seeing our group, shocked to come across us so deep in the wilderness.
Simon had been traveling for the past four years and became inspired to visit the U.S. for a long-distance trail this year by a podcast about the Appalachian Trail on the East Coast.
“It’s amazing,” he said of his PCT hike so far. “Every day is getting more beautiful than the last.”
Simon’s reaction, Dillon said, is exactly why she chose Bishop Pass for her group weekend of trail magic — aside from its proximity to her home and the challenge it offered her fellow angels, she wanted to bring an element of surprise to the several dozen hikers we met that weekend.
“Something that was cool about this weekend was creating a vortex of hikers that stopped, took off their packs [and] lounged for not 30 minutes, not an hour, but like two or three hours,” Dillon said, noting that some hikers were just as excited to run into one another as they were for the trail magic itself. “It’s just a facilitator of joy, really. You see joy in the surprise of it — the theme of community.”
As well as offering food and a morale boost in the wilderness, trail angels can offer a hand when it comes to a thru-hiker’s logistics — and their safety.
Mark Trent, who lives in McCloud near the PCT in the Mt. Shasta area, manages a Facebook group dedicated to organizing rides and places to stay for hikers in Northern California.
Trent said he started bringing sodas and other goodies to hikers when he first moved to the area around a decade ago. Now, he’s become an instrumental force in the support system for hikers passing through the area, especially during wildfire season.
For the past several years, fires have closed trailheads in the Mt. Shasta region, a key resupply stop for PCT hikers. And when that happens, “angels have to turn into getting people off the trail and down to safety,” Trent said. He’s also performed trail maintenance, provided fresh food and a place to stay and even gone out to help hikers stuck alone navigating dangerous snowfields.
“I do a little bit of everything,” he said. “We’re so remote up here that there’s not a lot of services. And public transportation is lacking, to say the least.”
If you don’t have enough time to do a whole weekend trip and you don’t live by a long trail, don’t count yourself out of becoming a trail angel.
If you find yourself in a town — or even out hiking near a long trail like the PCT — consider keeping your eyes peeled for backpackers who may appreciate some fresh food. You could, for example, consider packing a few extra snacks in your pack.
If you feel comfortable doing so, you could also consider offering rides. Because Dillon lives in Bishop, where hundreds of thru-hikers pass through every year, she often runs into hikers at her local grocery store, around town or at local trailheads, and will offer rides to their next stop.
“When you’ve already walked over 700, 800 miles, walking 2 miles to the grocery store and then another 2 miles back from the grocery store can feel tiring,” Dillon said.
The PCTA offers a few good suggestions, too, including paying a hiker’s tab at a restaurant — either in person or by calling from home and asking if there are any hikers dining that day that you could treat.
But most of all, keep it simple, Trent said.
“Find a local angel group [online] and just look it over and see what is necessary,” he said. “The hikers will tell you themselves.”
As for what not to do as a trail angel starting out, remember: Trail magic in its purest form is a serendipitous moment, so the more of that energy you can bring, the better.
The PCTA suggests choosing less popular locations or times of year, when your magic won’t create a crowd or compete with local businesses. And never leave food or beverages unattended on the trail, because they’re likely to get eaten by animals before any human stumbles upon them.
“Overdone trail magic is no longer magical,” the organization said.
The spirit of trail magic also asks that you don’t accept anything in return. If a hiker offers to pay, Trent said, he does his best to decline — but if they insist, he will just use the money to feed the next hiker.
Or as Dillon puts it, as an alumna of the PCT: “Participating in trail magic and providing trail magic for the PCT hikers is a way of giving back to the community.”
Topline:
Pasadena residents fighting a school district plan to remove nearly 200 trees scored a win Thursday night. On Thursday, the district’s board voted unanimously to attempt to save up to 57 of those trees.
The background: Pasadena Unified School District officials had said 193 trees across 11 campuses need to be cut down to clean up soil contaminated by the Eaton Fire. Local residents condemned the plan, including a Pasadena teen who spent more than eight hours in the branches of an oak tree slated for removal at the district’s headquarters.
What happens now? The adopted motion is no guarantee trees will be saved, but it directs staff to evaluate other ways to remediate soil around certain mature, protected trees.
Pasadena residents fighting a school district plan to remove nearly 200 trees scored a win Thursday night.
Pasadena Unified School District officials had said 193 trees across 11 campuses need to be cut down to clean up soil contaminated by the Eaton Fire. But on Thursday, the district’s board voted unanimously to attempt to save up to 57 of those trees.
The adopted motion is no guarantee trees will be saved, but directs staff to evaluate other ways to remediate soil around certain mature, protected trees.
The vote came after major public outcry from local residents, including a Pasadena teen who spent more than eight hours in the branches of an oak tree slated for removal at the district’s headquarters.
Last May, the school district released the results of soil tests taken after the Eaton Fire, which found elevated levels of toxic metals, primarily lead and arsenic, at 13 campuses. (You can see the reports for each campus here).
Then, late last month, the district announced it planned to remove nearly 200 trees to excavate one to four feet of contaminated soil at the remaining 11 campuses it has to clean up. Officials said they need to get the work done before students return from summer break.
The plan angered many residents.
Chapman University soil scientist Christine Sierra O’Connell said removing contaminants is critical, but cutting down too many trees could swap out one problem for another.
“You could easily imagine taking down all these trees, and the next time there's a big heatwave before the end of the school year, these campuses are super hot,” she said.
She said areas like sports fields and open soil playgrounds make sense for excavation, but a variety of methods can be used to remediate soil near trees, including phytoremediation, in which plants are used to take up metals in the soils.
“In my opinion, PUSD should not be moving forward with a wholesale excavation strategy without circling back and deeply investigating whether or not alternative soil remediation strategies can be utilized around the root beds of these large, mature, important trees,” O’Connell said.
The district’s facilities director, Michael Dunning, said at the Thursday board meeting that he and his staff will assess 57 mature, protected trees where it may be possible to use an “air excavation method” to clean the soil at their base.
“It does take longer periods of time,” Dunning said. “It does come with some risk. We could go through the cost of trying this method at each tree and still not come to a conclusion.”
If the district doesn’t clean up the soil to accepted levels, they’d have to enter into a “land use covenant” with the state’s Department of Toxic Substances Control. That would require certain areas to be permanently closed off, or possibly made impermeable with concrete, as well as additional training and staff for maintenance, which could cost the district $30,000 per year in perpetuity, Dunning estimated.
“I’m not certain that our budget could withstand such a thing,” said Boardmember Michelle R. Bailey.
The original full excavation plan is estimated to cost $6.6 million, though the district would be reimbursed by the state if the contamination is reduced to public health standards.
Benjamin Stanphill, Southern California division chief at the state Department of Toxic Substances Control, told board members that the agency is "somewhat agnostic” about the method of contaminant removal and that they’d consider approving a plan involving bioremediation or phytoremediation methods.
Meanwhile, the district said in a statement that staff and arborists “will continue refining site-specific approaches, site by site, tree by tree… with the goal of maintaining as many protected trees within the removal areas as possible.”
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LACMA is turning a stretch of Wilshire Boulevard in front of its new David Geffen Galleries into a living gallery on Saturday.
The backstory: The Art Parade is the creation of gallerist Jeffrey Deitch, who first put on the event in New York’s SoHo from 2005 to 2008.
The details: The inaugural L.A. edition will include 1,400 participants marching down Wilshire. There will be a massive, mirrored inflatable sculpture, a custom-painted 1959 Cadillac powered by humans and an 18-piece marching band.
Read on ... for the details.
LACMA is turning a stretch of Wilshire Boulevard in front of its new David Geffen Galleries into a living gallery.
The Art Parade is the creation of gallerist Jeffrey Deitch who first put on the event in New York’s SoHo from 2005 to 2008.
The inaugural L.A. edition will include 1,400 participants marching down Wilshire. There will be a massive, mirrored inflatable sculpture, a custom-painted 1959 Cadillac powered by humans and an 18-piece marching band.
“It’s going to give you the feeling of Mardi Gras, but obviously not New Orleans. I think what people are going to recognize is just the enthusiasm and excitement for this moment here in L.A.,” Naima Keith, senior vice president of education, public programs and regional partnerships at LACMA, told LAist.
You can also expect a cotton candy-themed entry from Meow Wolf, the group behind a number of immersive art museums that is slated to open an installation in L.A. later this year. L.A. artist Gary Baseman, whose exhibition recently opened at Johnie’s Coffee Shop at the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue, will present “Peace Thru Purr.”
The Art Parade
LACMA, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles
Sat, June 20, 6 p.m.
Free
More info on LACMA’s website.
Keith said Art Parade is in line with LACMA director Michael Govan’s mission to make the Mid-City art institution and the surrounding space a communal “living room.”
“It’s a celebration of L.A., of L.A. artists, of the vibrant art community that’s here,” Keith said.
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The next time you vote in California, doing it by mail may work differently. The Trump administration and Republican National Committee are fighting to change how these ballots are handled and counted, in ways that experts say could end up disenfranchising voters.
A looming ruling: Fourteen states, including California, count mail-in ballots after Election Day, as long as they are postmarked by then and arrive within a certain window. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to hand down a decision soon that could end grace periods like that in a case involving Mississippi’s election law.
Universal mail-in voting: President Donald Trump’s March executive order, among many things, tasks the U.S. Postal Service with being a gatekeeper for who gets a mail-in ballot. If implemented, some eligible voters could face trouble getting a mail-in ballot. This also depends on states sharing voter information with the federal government, which California has so far refused to do in other situations.
Could this happen by November? These changes could apply to the general election this year. We don’t know yet if the Supreme Court’s ruling will affect California, or if it could be delayed. The executive order on USPS is being challenged in court in multiple cases, so while the agency is moving forward with complying with the executive order, there’s a chance it will get held up.
Read on…. to learn more about how these changes could affect our elections.
Most California voters cast their ballots by mail, but two big federal changes are in the pipeline that could impact how those ballots are handled and counted in the November election.
One could come from a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that’s expected soon, and another through the United States Postal service, which is working to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order that would give the agency the final say over who receives a mail-in ballot.
The efforts come as Trump and his allies have scrutinized mail-in ballots for years, claiming without evidence that states with longer count times and universal mail-in voting are allowing widespread cheating. Research shows fraud rates remain extremely small.
Fourteen states, including California, count mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day, as long as they are postmarked by then and show up within a certain window. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to hand down a decision that could end that kind of grace period.
The case in question is Watson v. Republican National Committee, which centers on whether Mississippi’s five-day grace period for late-arriving ballots is constitutional under federal law. In California, that period is seven days.
Geoffrey Skelley, chief elections analyst at Decision Desk HQ, told LAist the RNC’s argument centers on a federal law enacted in 1845 that set Election Day as the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, and that’s why votes shouldn’t be accepted after it.
A decision on that is expected to come within the next month, according to Wren Orey, who directs the elections project at the Bipartisan Policy Center. The Washington D.C.-based think tank works with both sides of the political aisle to craft policy suggestions.
Orey told LAist it’s looking like the justices will side with the RNC and overturn Mississippi’s law. However, it’s not known how broad the ruling could be. The Purcell principle, a legal doctrine that discourages last-minute changes to election procedures, could also be invoked.
“ It’s possible that the Supreme Court rules that this specific statute is unconstitutional, but their judgment doesn’t go into effect until after the election,” they said.
Some critics say the Supreme Court has unevenly applied this principle, pointing to how a ruling affected Alabama’s primary when voters had already begun casting ballots.
Just over 400,000 ballots arrived during California’s grace period in 2024 — that’s 2.5% of voter turnout. Orey said these usually come from areas that take more time for mail carriers to deliver, so it could disadvantage rural residents, for example. It’s unclear if there would be a carve out for service members and overseas voters under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, which get rejected at higher rates.
The Bipartisan Policy Center’s research shows about the same rate of late ballot rejections between states with a grace period and those without, Orey said, suggesting that voters adapt to their state’s deadline.
“What isn’t clear, though, is how long it takes for voters to adjust,” they said, adding that they’ve seen some evidence of rejections going up immediately after a grace period goes away.
Skelley said a lot of voters would likely become aware and adjust in part because of how publicized the decision would be, but it wouldn’t solve everything.
“Now, does that mean some would be affected and might miss out on a chance to vote?” he said. “Yes, that’s perfectly plausible.”
California is also notoriously criticized for how long it takes to count ballots, even though that’s a feature, not a bug, of our election process. If the justices decide to end grace periods, don’t expect big changes to that.
That’s mostly because our slowness stems from the volume of mail-in ballots received on Election Day, Orey said. Those need to be verified, opened and flattened to be processed, which takes more time than if you voted in person.
Another looming change comes from Trump’s March executive order which, among many things, tasks the U.S. Postal Service with being a gatekeeper for who gets a mail-in ballot.
This is happening in the name of preventing noncitizens from voting, which is already rare and gets prosecuted.
USPS released its proposed rules earlier this month. Under the proposal, states would be required to send names of eligible mail-in voters to USPS, who would add them to a centralized list. If your name isn’t on that list for some reason, the Postal Service won’t mail your ballot.
The U.S. Postal Service has released its proposed rule to implement Trump’s executive order. USPS is accepting public comment through July 2.
This also depends on whether states agree to share voter information with the federal government, which California has so far refused to do in other situations.
“ Let’s say California and some states like it don’t give the federal government the information that they want,” Skelley said. “Presumably, that would mean that some people who have been voting by mail would not be able to get their mail ballots, and so they would have to figure out alternate ways to vote.”
Under federal law, states and Congress can determine how elections are run, so Trump’s executive order is seen by some as unconstitutional. It’s being challenged in court in multiple cases — one of which California is part of.
Among the concerns, it’s unclear what recourse voters would have to resolve errors, how accurate the data will be and what would happen if a voter requested a mail-in ballot after USPS’s deadline to add voters to the list.
Orey said they have talked to state election officials who don’t have a lot of trust in the Postal Service to handle ingesting and updating lists from every state, based on how the agency manages current operations and deadlines.
“We have no evidence to indicate that the infrastructure exists to begin with, or is at all functional,” they said.
Under Trump’s executive order, the final rule is due by the end of July — that is, of course, if it’s not delayed by the courts.
These rules would apply to federal elections, but not to primaries or ballots under the UOCAVA (the act for service members and overseas voters), according to the proposal. If you want to have your say, USPS is accepting public comment through July 2.
Topline:
Soccer wasn’t always a popular sport in the U.S. At an LAist-hosted documentary screening and talkback, attendees witnessed how the 1994 World Cup changed the trajectory of U.S. soccer forever.
What was the event? Summer of ’94 chronicles how soccer rose to popularity in 1994, the first time the U.S. hosted the World Cup. The talkback, moderated by LAist’s Libby Rainey, featured Alan Rothberg, the president of U.S. Soccer in the 1990s, and Chris Leggett and Amanda Farrand, both producers of the film.
Why now? Since that World Cup, public interest in soccer has only increased. The producers said that the film aims to increase interest in volunteer coaching ahead of this year's World Cup and the U.S.’s 250th anniversary of independence.
Where can I watch the documentary? You can stream Summer of ’94 on Fox One.
Go deeper: Things to do and see during the World Cup. Here's the only A-Z guide you'll need
Although thousands have flocked to SoFi stadium for the World Cup, soccer wasn’t always a fan-favorite sport in the United States.
The sport’s rise to popularity began when the U.S. hosted its first World Cup in 1994. At that time, the men’s soccer team was virtually unknown.
Summer of ’94, a new documentary directed by Chad N. Walker and Dave LaMattina, chronicles the U.S. team’s unlikely run during their first home World Cup.
At a screening in LAist’s Crawford Family Forum Room, viewers got an early look at the film. LAist’s Libby Rainey later moderated a talkback with Alan Rothberg, the president of U.S. Soccer in the 1990s, and Chris Leggett and Amanda Farrand, both producers of the film.
Rothberg recalled several of the team’s challenges, and also pointed to soccer’s low popularity as a spectator and player sport at the time of the World Cup.
He said that factored into his decision when choosing a wild-card coach, Velibor “Bora” Milutinović, to lead the 1994 team.
Rothberg said “there was a lot of pressure to hire an American coach” for the home team. But he said he “felt there was a necessity to have a coach with international experience.”
Milutinović also emerged as a centerpiece of the documentary, which the producers said they didn’t expect.
“We just started falling in love with Bora, and after one interview with him, where he started [...] coaching the directors, we were like, this guy is magic,” Farrand said.
Leggett said that players were able to better understand Milutinović’s strategy through the documentary. He said that during the interview process, “what was very obvious was [the players] were really digesting and getting to understand Bora as well.”
A lot of red, white, & denim coming atcha in May. 🇺🇸⚽️ pic.twitter.com/M2Yfnfo94b
— Alexi Lalas (@AlexiLalas) March 13, 2026
Rothberg said that since that World Cup, funding for U.S. soccer took off. The team’s performance, “enabled us to immediately follow up and create Major League Soccer,” he said.
At that time, the organization had a $50 million surplus, which Rothberg said they used to create a nonprofit for “underserved communities.”
In 1999, the U.S. hosted the Women’s World Cup in major stadiums.
“[FIFA] had so little confidence in the women's game at that time that they wanted us to play in small stadiums in the Northeast, and we persuaded them,” Rothberg recalled.
Now, Major League Soccer has invested over $11 billion in facilities and stadiums, and the U.S. is hosting the World Cup this summer, including eight matches in L.A.
Rothberg said that since that World Cup, public interest in soccer has only increased. Now, we might even be underselling how popular the sport is.
“Soccer has been underestimated to this day. It's still the number one participant sport in the country,” he said.
Farrand said the film sought to inspire not just future players, but also volunteer coaches.
“If we could use this moment and this movie to inspire former players and parents to lean into coaching, we could really make a difference,” she said.
She added that volunteer coaching is “an act of civic participation,” which she encouraged attendees to consider ahead of the U.S.’s 250th anniversary of independence.
Both Rothberg and Farrand pointed to the Women’s World Cup, which will be hosted by the U.S. in 2031, as the next landmark event.
You can find where to stream on the documentary's website.
