Hiking the Holy Jim Trail

Today my friend Katie and I took a hike through the Holy Jim Trail in Trabuco Canyon, which I think is one of the best hikes in Orange County.  You feel like you are not in the OC, with the maple, sycamore, oak, and fig trees, wild sage, flowing creek, and waterfall.  It gives a nice idea of what the land looked like before the Irvine Company did their thing.  The trail was named for James T. Smith, who was known as"old cussin' Jim" because of his colorful language. A beekeeper who settled in the north fork of Trabuco Canyon, he enlarged a house built in the 1870s and planted the original fig trees, which have since sprouted everywhere in the canyon.