Eaton Canyon Trail Closure Doesn’t Stop Memorial Day Tribute

A group who planned a Memorial Day horseback ride and hike up Eaton Canyon had to figure out another way to pay tribute to fallen veterans and their families after Los Angeles County closed Eaton Canyon trails Sunday and Monday.

Jennipha-Lauren Nielsen had arranged with some of her friends, one of whom would play “Amazing Grace” on bagpipes, to work their way up to the second switchback vista for a Memorial Day service that would be streamed live on Zoom at 5:30 a.m. Monday morning.

“We just want to make sure the veterans don’t think we forgot,” says Nielsen.

But then officials closed the trails, and Nielsen said she wasn’t surprised. “It was literally being trashed. Materials, diapers, masks, gloves, I mean, just food waste. And the volume of people was extraordinary. I’ve never seen so many people come in, and so early. It was just incredible.”

Nielsen said she immediately looked for a Plan B, and called her friend, Alan Zorthian, whose ranch sits high on the hill at the top of Fair Oaks in Altadena.

“Alan was a go. Absolutely,” said Nielsen. “We’re all part of Doo Dah.”

She says instead of riding horseback or hiking the group drove up to the Zorthian Ranch. Nielsen says she was joined by her mother, Justin Celek and Justin McDonald of Pasadena Scottish Pipes and drums, Celek’s girlfriend, and Zorthian.

The five started the 35-minute service with a prayer, tolled an honor bell seven times to represent the seven stages of a veterans life, and recognized victims of COVID-19 in Pasadena, South Pasadena, Altadena and Sierra Madre.

They also thanked frontline workers battling Coronavirus, and grocery workers and others helping keep the community moving.

The service will be streamed again Monday at 12 p.m. at bit.ly/PasadenaMemorialDay2020 and will be posted at www.facebook.com/ProjectPasadena.