Locksmith in Topanga, CA

Topanga is unincorporated canyon country in the Santa Monica Mountains, a scattered community of cabins, studios and hillside houses reached by narrow roads off the boulevard. Many homes were built or added to by their owners over decades, and plenty of people here work from home.

Canyon houses collect doors. A main cabin, a studio someone built in the seventies, a shed turned into an office, a gate at the road and a padlock at the bottom of the steps, each with whatever lock was handy at the time. Damp winters and dry, dusty summers are hard on cylinders, and wood doors swell until the deadbolt drags. The useful visit is usually a walk around the whole lot: freeing the doors that bind, replacing the cylinders that have seized, and putting the gate, the steps and the house onto one or two keys.

About twenty-four miles in a straight line, which is the 35 to 55 minute band, but here the canyon drive sets the time, not the distance. We come down the 118 and Topanga Canyon Boulevard through Chatsworth and Woodland Hills, and the winding stretch below the summit is slow for everybody. A side road or a dirt drive adds a few minutes, and we say so when you text.