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:
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting agreed today to fulfill a $36 million, multi-year contract with NPR that it had yanked after pressure from the Trump White House.
Where things stand: The arrangement resolves litigation filed by NPR accusing the corporation of illegally yielding to Trump's demands that the network be financially punished for its news coverage. The argument, part of a broader lawsuit by NPR and several stations against the Trump administration, focused on CPB funding for NPR's operation of a satellite distribution system for local public radio stations. NPR announced Monday it would waive all fees for the stations associated with the satellite service.
How we got here: The judge in the case had explicitly told CPB's legal team he did not find its defense credible. CPB lawyers had argued that the decision to award the contract to a new consortium of public media institutions was driven by a desire to foster digital innovations more swiftly.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting agreed Monday to fulfill a $36 million, multi-year contract with NPR that it had yanked after pressure from the Trump White House.
The arrangement resolves litigation filed by NPR accusing the corporation of illegally yielding to Trump's demands that the network be financially punished for its news coverage. The argument, part of a broader lawsuit by NPR and several stations against the Trump administration, focused on CPB funding for NPR's operation of a satellite distribution system for local public radio stations. NPR announced Monday it would waive all fees for the stations associated with the satellite service.
The judge in the case had explicitly told CPB's legal team he did not find its defense credible. CPB lawyers had argued that the decision to award the contract to a new consortium of public media institutions was driven by a desire to foster digital innovations more swiftly.
"The settlement is a victory for editorial independence and a step toward upholding the First Amendment rights of NPR and the public media system in our legal challenge to [Trump's] Executive Order," Katherine Maher, President and CEO of NPR, said in a statement. "While we entered into this dispute with CPB reluctantly, we're glad to resolve it in a way that enables us to continue to provide for the stability of the Public Radio Satellite System, offer immediate and direct support to public radio stations across the country, and proceed with our strong and substantive claims against this illegal and unconstitutional Executive Order. We look forward to our day in court in December."
In its submission Monday evening to the court, CPB did not concede that it had acted wrongfully — nor that it had yielded to political pressure from the administration.
Instead, in a statement posted on its website, CPB asserted its side "prevails" as a result of the settlement.
"This is an important moment for public media," said Patricia Harrison, President and CEO of CPB. "We are very pleased that this costly and unnecessary litigation is over, and that our investment in the future through [Public Media Infrastructure] marks an exciting new era for public media." CPB had awarded a rival contract to PMI, a newly created consortium of public radio organizations including several major stations, to ensure the digital distribution system functions properly. That contract will continue, CPB said.
Federal subsidies for public broadcasting stopped on Oct. 1 as a result of a party-line vote over the summer by Congress, called a rescission. Only a skeleton crew remains at CPB, which was created as a nonprofit corporation more than a half-century ago to funnel federal subsidies to public media. While PBS has had layoffs and NPR is monitoring its own finances, many local stations across the country have been hit hard.
Over the course of the litigation this fall, mounting evidence appeared to demonstrate that CPB's board chair and executives had acted against NPR in what turned out to be a futile attempt to salvage the corporation's own future.
In hearings last month in Washington, D.C., U.S. District Court Judge Randolph Moss told CPB's legal team they had not made a credible case for why the corporation reneged on the contract just a day after a top White House official warned senior CPB leaders against doing business with NPR. A trial had been set to start on Dec. 1.
CPB's change of mind — and NPR's ensuing lawsuit — sparked consternation and unease within the larger public media ecosystem. The two organizations had served as partners for decades. But that relationship frayed earlier this year, as the system came under attack from the Trump administration.
Trump's public campaign against NPR and PBS started in earnest soon after he returned to the White House. Trump kicked it into high gear in late March with a series of social media posts.
In early April, CPB leaders sought to get money out the door before Trump took action against public media. On April 2, CPB's board approved the extension of a contract with NPR to distribute public radio programs, including those not produced by NPR. The arrangement stretched back four decades. The amount included millions still due on the then-current contract.
The next day, CPB's board chair and two senior executives met with a top White House budget official who attested to her "intense dislike for NPR." The budget official told them CPB didn't have to "throw the baby out with the bathwater," according to a deposition from CPB executive Clayton Barsoum submitted as part of NPR's legal filings.
And the day after that — just 48 hours after that board vote — CPB reversed itself. CPB executive Kathy Merritt informed NPR's top official over the satellite and distribution service that it had to be spun off: it could not be part of NPR. NPR refused to do so. CPB revised the scope of the contract and solicited new bids. NPR's submission proved unsuccessful.
Meanwhile, the White House was ramping up the pressure. It accused NPR and PBS of bias. On April 14, for example, it issued a formal statement that called their offerings "radical, woke propaganda disguised as 'news'." NPR and PBS's chief executives have rejected the accusations of bias.
On May 1, Trump issued an executive order that no federal money should go to the two public broadcasting networks. NPR and three Colorado public radio stations then filed suit against the White House, saying they were being unlawfully punished because the president did not like their news coverage. They contended the executive order represented a violation of First Amendment protections. Their suit names CPB as a defendant as well for, in their characterization, bending to the president's will. In Monday's legal filing, CPB agreed that the executive order was precisely the sort of government interference that Congress sought to prevent in establishing CPB as it did.
In the summer, Republican leaders in the U.S. Congress, urged on by Trump, pulled back all $1.1 billion for future public broadcasting that had already been approved and signed into law by the president.
Throughout the legal battle, NPR has said, regardless of the outcome of the case, it would work with Public Media Infrastructure.
NPR's broader constitutional case against Trump's executive order purporting to ban federal funding of public media continues. A hearing on its merits is scheduled for December.
Disclosure: This story was reported and written by NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik. It was edited by Deputy Business Editor Emily Kopp and Managing Editors Gerry Holmes and Vickie Walton-James. Under NPR's protocol for reporting on itself, no NPR corporate official or news executive reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.
Copyright 2025 NPR
Topline:
The family of Stacey Darden, who died in the Eaton Fire, has filed a lawsuit claiming that Genasys Inc., hired by L.A. County to provide evacuation warnings, was negligent that night. While it provided warnings in enough time to the houses on the east of Lake Avenue, they came too late for those on the west, her lawyers say.
Why it matters: The Eaton Fire in January led to 19 deaths, 18 of them west of Lake Avenue. It’s the first lawsuit targeting the alerts system in Altadena, according to a spokesperson for L.A. Fire Justice, the law firm behind the lawsuit.
Second company sued: The lawsuit also accuses SoCal Edison of negligence in the maintenance of its transmission equipment and the clearing of vegetation around its transmission facilities.
The backstory: Texas-based lawyer Mikal Watts helped file this latest suit. See a copy of the it here. The defendants are seeking a jury trial and unspecified damages.
What's next: Genasys Inc. did not reply to a request for comment. SoCal Edison spokesperson Jeff Monford told LAist: “We are reviewing the lawsuit that has been filed and will respond through the legal process.”
Topline:
A long-awaited vision for Huntington Drive is finally coming into focus. In the future, the busy corridor will have dedicated bus lanes, protected bike lanes, two lanes of vehicle traffic in each direction, a thin median, and wide sidewalks.
About the project: Huntington Drive Multi-Modal Transportation Improvement Project runs on an approximately four-mile stretch of the street between North Mission Road near LAC+USC Medical Center and Alhambra/South Pasadena. This had much more public support than the competing alternative, which featured a wide median rather than wide sidewalks, according to Mary Nemick, a spokesperson for the Bureau of Engineering.
Why it matters: Currently, Huntington Drive has three vehicular lanes in each direction, the bike lanes are unprotected, and about 25% of the corridor lacks sidewalks. Though pedestrians and bicyclists account for only 1% of peak-hour trips, they account for 54% of severe or fatal injuries from traffic collisions, according to a project document.
What's next? Nemick said the next step is to hire a consultant to create design and engineering documents. This phase is expected to take about two years before groundbreaking can occur.
A long-awaited vision for Huntington Drive is finally coming into focus. In the future, the busy corridor will have dedicated bus lanes, protected bike lanes, two lanes of vehicle traffic in each direction, a thin median and wide sidewalks.
This was the plan chosen by the City for the Huntington Drive Multi-Modal Transportation Improvement Project, which runs on an approximately four-mile stretch of the street between North Mission Road near LAC+USC Medical Center and Alhambra/South Pasadena. This had much more public support than the competing alternative, which featured a wide median rather than wide sidewalks, according to Mary Nemick, a spokesperson for the Bureau of Engineering.
Nemick said the next step is to hire a consultant to create design and engineering documents. This phase is expected to take about two years before groundbreaking can occur.
Currently, Huntington Drive has three vehicular lanes in each direction, the bike lanes are unprotected, and about 25% of the corridor lacks sidewalks. Though pedestrians and bicyclists account for only 1% of peak-hour trips, they account for 54% of severe or fatal injuries from traffic collisions, according to a project document.
The design budget is about $10.5 million, Nemick said, and the overall project cost will be determined after designs are completed.
The project is being funded by some of the money previously allocated for the construction of the 710 Freeway extension, which was abandoned in 2018 after decades of local opposition.
Topline:
The Columbia Memorial Space Center in Downey held a groundbreaking ceremony Monday for a roughly 40,000-square-foot expansion that will include indoor and outdoor science learning areas and space for special exhibits. The centerpiece of the buildout will include an interactive display of the Inspiration space shuttle mockup, where visitors can go inside the cargo bay.
The backstory: Built in 1972, the 35-foot-tall model made of wood, plastic and aluminum functioned as a prototype and fitting tool for all of the orbiters that launched into space.
What’s next? The new building that will house the space shuttle mockup should be open to the public in about two years.
Read on... for when the public could visit the shuttle.
The Columbia Memorial Space Center in Downey held a groundbreaking ceremony Monday for a roughly 40,000-square-foot expansion that will include indoor and outdoor science learning areas and space for special exhibits.
The centerpiece of the buildout will include an interactive display of the Inspiration space shuttle mockup, where visitors can go inside the cargo bay.
Built in 1972, the 35-foot-tall model made of wood, plastic and aluminum functioned as a prototype and fitting tool for all of the orbiters that launched into space.
“We’re super excited to be able to put it on display for the public, really for the first time in forever,” Ben Dickow, president and executive director of the Columbia Memorial Space Center, told LAist.
The expansion will also allow for educational areas, where students can learn about the pioneering engineering and design work that went into building the model at Rockwell International in Downey.
Last fall, after sitting in storage for more than a decade, the full-scale model was moved a few blocks to a temporary home.
The Space Center said renovation work on the mock up will take months and include rehabs of its 60-foot cargo bay and flight deck.
Dickow said Downey is where all of the Apollo capsules that went to the moon and all of the space shuttles were designed and built.
“This is part of the L.A. story as much as entertainment or anything like that,” Dickow said, adding that it’s a legacy he feels like Angelenos sometimes forget. “The space craft that took humanity to the moon, the space craft that brought humanity into lower earth orbit and built the international space station, these are human firsts... and they all happened right here.”
The Space Center is looking to raise $50 million that would go toward building plans, special exhibits and more.
Dickow said the new building that will house the space shuttle mockup should be open to the public in about two years.
By early next year, he said the plan is to have the shuttle model available for bi-monthly public visits as it undergoes renovation.
