Susan Valot

@susanvalot

Public radio reporter. Podcast producer/host (Quanta magazine). Professor. Hockey player. Globe trekker. Hiker. Work has been heard on KCRW, NPR's "Only A Game," KPCC. I’m also a freelance audio editor for podcasts. www.susanvalot.com

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Susan Valot@susanvalot· 25d

It’s going to be a while before I fully have my hockey legs back. But another win for the Darkside tonight.

Women wearing black hockey jerseys and helmets with cages and holding sticks sit on a hockey bench, watching their teammates, play further down the ice.

Fog hovers above newly resurfaced ice at around midnight, after games were finished being played. Fog on the ice is a rare occurrence in Southern California and is due to the high humidity currently outside.

Susan Valot@susanvalot· 26d

We cut tonight’s planned 5-mile hike short because of the humidity. Ugh! So we did a little more than three miles instead, tried a new-to-us-but-oops-we-lost-the-trail trail and saw two coyotes.

The setting sun shines through trees onto a dry grassy hillside.

A red bougainvillea brilliantly flowers next to a trail and white fence with green hill sides in the distance.

A coyote stands on a wide trail in the distance, surrounded by trees and palm trees, and canyon hillsides.

In dense green vegetation, a coyote’s head is circled with a red outline to show how it is hidden among the leaves.

Susan Valot@susanvalot· 29d

We did a creek crossing today. Ha ha! I’ve only seen water in this a couple times. The trail cuts between horse properties, but at one point today, the light hit it just right and it was so pretty. And in the chicken coop… hmmm… someone doesn’t belong.

Trees on left and a small, dry creek bed and a trail, following higher up along the creek on the right, covered with dried, chopped down mustard stems.

A trail cuts through vegetation behind horse properties with some dead plants on the left and then trees, and then pink bougainvillea on the right and more trees beyond that with a white fence. The sun is shining in such a way that there are various colors of green.

Chickens are in their coop as a duck sits next to them.

Susan Valot@susanvalot· Jul 13

My friend and I always “forget” how steep this trail is until we’re on it. It’s a loop that snakes up a canyon and then back down between rural backyards. The peacocks were out. And I’ve never seen such a brilliantly white bougainvillea.

A dirt trail goes uphill toward the blue sky, among California chaparral.

A peacock hangs out in front of a barn with his plumage trailing down.

A dirt trail covered with dry leaves, cuts down a canyon with lush trees and vegetation.

A white bougainvillea is in full bloom in front of a small barn, surrounded by other trees and a blue sky.

Susan Valot@susanvalot· Jul 12

After my first hockey game in 2 1/2 months last night, followed it up with a short-ish hike today. So humid though! But cool clouds!

Monsoonal clouds pepper the blue sky, looking out toward hills and the Pacific Ocean in Portuguese Bend Reserve in Palos Verdes, California.

Susan Valot@susanvalot· Jul 10

The “short” loop at a foggy Three Sisters tonight. Seems like such a short hike would be easy, but it’s steep! But I was able to power up the hill with only one break, if you don’t count stopping at the sign at the top of the loop. A guy who appeared to be in his 80s jogged past me. Doh!

A wide dirt trail descends down a hill toward some houses and a fog bank, covering where the Pacific Ocean is.

A narrow dirt path squeezes by a cluster of cacti and other chaparral with a fog bank in the distance.

A distant solo runner who appeared to be in his 80s, traverses a dirt trail over a small hill with the ocean in the distance and a fog bank obscuring the horizon.

A Strava chart shows the steep downhill and uphill of the hike with the first 0.7 miles going downhill and then going straight uphill back to the beginning with an elevation game of 525 feet over about a half mile.

Susan Valot@susanvalot· Jul 9

Pageant of the Masters VIP night in Laguna Beach. (Pretty much their preview night.) plus a stop at my absolute favorite gelato place outside of Europe in a passageway that dates to the early 1930s.

Entrance into the Irvine Bowl on the Pageant of the Masters ground with a large poster of a panting hanging over it and people waiting to get in.

Two women with dark hair sit and smilein the audience with red stadium seats.

The passageway by Gelato Paradiso in Laguna Beach surrounds a charming tree with lights hanging in it. There’s a stairway that goes up to a white door and a hanging light that looks like a gas lamp. It’s reminiscent of the passageways by the Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland, but it predates that. The gelato line stretches down the passageway, but moves fast.

Susan Valot@susanvalot· Jul 6

I came away with 3 LA Press Club Awards this year. 2nd place for breaking news/news feature for my fire mosaic story & 3rd place for radio journalist of the year & use of sound for my Yosemite trash story. A highlight was a speech about protecting democracy by a journalist from the Philippines.

Filipina-American journalist Maria Ressa speaks behind a podium while wearing a blue and black suit in front of a sea of journalists at the LA Press Club Awards on June 28, 2026. She had to get special permission from the Supreme Court in the Philippines to take a flight to come to the event, where she was being honored.

Susan Valot@susanvalot· Jul 6

Had the reserve to myself tonight, with distant World Cup cheers. A lot of bunnies out tonight.

Yellow flowers with brown centers are in the foreground with chaparral behind and the ocean and a fog bank in the distance.

Looking over greenery toward a hillside with three pine trees and a fog bank beyond.

A trail cuts through trees and chaparral with a fog bank and setting sun in the distance, turning the sky orange.

You can see where the hillside has slid in the distance with a fog bank and orange sky from the setting sun.

Susan Valot@susanvalot· Jul 5

Two afternoons/evenings. Five batches of peach jam. One batch of peach jelly, which I had to redo and still don’t know if it worked. Might be syrup! One batch of peach-plum-apricot jam. Nothing better than homemade. Happy Fourth!

Susan Valot@susanvalot· Jul 4

Took a break from peach jam making for a hiking loop and then we got accidentally locked in and had to climb over a fence. 😬 Luckily, my ninja powers are still intact!

Trail going through trees with wispy clouds and a blue sky, and a pipe carrying methane on the left hand side because this is a former landfill.

Woman in white walks on dirt path toward closed gate, trying to figure out how we are going to get out. We didn’t realize that the gate would lock when it did. It only does so on Fourth of July week. Green trees provide shade.

Susan Valot@susanvalot· Jul 3

Back to my normal trails. (Still trying to get back into the work groove!)

Brown dirt trail with dry leaves on the ground, going uphill with trees along the sides and a blue sky.

View out over green trees into the Los Angeles basin, which is covered with a layer of haze so that you can barely see the mountains in the background, and you cannot see downtown Los Angeles.

Susan Valot@susanvalot· Jun 30

I forgot to post my stop at Moaning Caverns out of Sonora, with its spiral staircase that came from a WWI warship. A couple of people bailed from the tour because of claustrophobia from the squeeze to get to the staircase. And the shadow in the 3rd pic looks like the Statue of Liberty.

Spiral staircase from a WWI warship descends into a cave. People are coming down the stairs.

People squeeze between two cave walls as they descend into the cavern.

Stalactites and cave formations are lit by lights, casting a shadow that looks like the Statue of Liberty.

Susan Valot@susanvalot· Jun 28

Home. But not yet. Two accidents in less than a mile.

Gridlock freeway traffic on the infamous 405

Susan Valot@susanvalot· Jun 27

It’s totally normal to buy about 50 pounds of peaches, right?!? (Canning and jam making ahead. My grandparents used to also do this, so kind of a family tradition. Also cool to drive by the community college where my grandma took art classes.)

Two purple boxes of California peaches sit in the backseat of a car.

Susan Valot@susanvalot· Jun 27

Spent a little bit of time in California’s Gold Rush area (Sutter’s Mill), then a final night (of the trip) at Calaveras Big Trees. (Bears were roaming the campground at night, but no foot sniffing this time.)

Susan Valot@susanvalot· Jun 25

Bumpass Hell, Lassen.

Susan Valot@susanvalot· Jun 25

Hiking the back way into Bumpass Hell at Lassen, the only route that’s open. Kind of depressing, but then you come upon open spaces with wildflowers.

Susan Valot@susanvalot· Jun 25

Burney Falls Loop Trail and then into the burn zone at Lassen.

Susan Valot@susanvalot· Jun 25

More Crater Lake. That’s not the sky in the first pic. That’s the water.

That’s not the blue of the sky, but the blue of the water of Crater Lake with pine trees in front of it.

The rimmed edge of Crater Lake with the blue water, reflecting the mountainous edge

Susan Valot@susanvalot· Jun 25

A stop at Crater Lake. The blues really are amazing. Another burn zone here.

Susan Valot@susanvalot· Jun 25

This was the other day. That would be a hard no for me. (I’ve got a stronger cell signal on a trail than I do in the campground!)

Susan Valot@susanvalot· Jun 25

Bumpass Hell at Lassen National Park. I feel like I was 8 or 10 the last time I was here.

Susan Valot@susanvalot· Jun 25

Hiking to Bumpass Hell and I weirdly have a cell signal.

Susan Valot@susanvalot· Jun 25

Stopped at Burney Falls yesterday. No reservation needed on weekdays.

Woman with brown hair and red t-shirt in front of waterfall with multiple streams.

Waterfall over volcanic rock in forest with multiple streams of water.

Susan Valot@susanvalot· Jun 24

So weird to drive for miles and miles through burned forests, bend after bend, turn after turn. Then to Toketee Falls (Oregon), where someone was doing some crazy tricks on a wire.

Waterfall and basalt columns with a guy on a wire doing tricks over the water.

Susan Valot@susanvalot· Jun 24

Mt Shasta, along Highway 97 as I listen to a podcast about an anthrax attack that I vaguely remember.

A snowy Mount Shasta with clouds gathering around the top with grasses and pine trees in the foreground

Susan Valot@susanvalot· Jun 24

Lassen is barely visible from the clouds in the distance.

Road through grassland with hills in the distance, and Mount Lassen on the distance and white puffy clouds in the sky.

Susan Valot@susanvalot· Jun 23

I got a kick out of this.

Woman with brown hair and in black T-shirt in front of a sign that says “Susan Creek Recreation Site.” The woman happens to be named Susan.

Susan Valot@susanvalot· Jun 23

I had to laugh. It took me a minute to realize I’m in Springfield. Except not THAT Springfield.