After a restless sleep, I did not want to go, I did not want to go. Rain poured down through the night; I wasn’t even sure if the trails were open. But I didn’t run yesterday, so I had to go. I had to. I’m not going into another trail race untrained.
It was cold, cold, cold in Aliso Canyon!
I saw 2 runners just ahead of me as I set out on Aliso Creek Trail. And they turned back on the paved portion before I arrived to Wood Canyon. And then another runner ran past, and she turned back too before I arrived to Wood Canyon. I worried that the trails were closed up ahead. But they were open, so I turned onto Wood Canyon Trail, shoving gloves and scarf into my pack.
About 1 1/2 Miles In Layers Start Coming Off
Running Meadows Trail, Headed Toward The BIG Climb
The BIG climb was so dang muddy, I was sliding backward trying to make my way to the top. I could run very little of the trail, finding opportunities when grass grew along the edges. I laughed out loud over the fact that it was one step backward for every two steps forward. It didn’t help any to scrape off the mud. The next step simply added those couple pounds of mud right back onto my shoes. One biker behind me turned back to find another route as I grudgingly, yet happily made my way to the top.
No More Layers – I’m Warm!!
Top of Meadows Trail!!
A wonderful cold breeze blew in my face as I ran along Top of the World. Instead of venturing down West Ridge right away, I headed off onto Park Avenue Nature Trail and took it down, down, down toward the canyon road. I hoped to find a route over to Laguna Coast so that I can increase the size of my loop in a couple of weeks. Turns out there’s plenty of routes down and plenty of routes back up to West Ridge Trail. I took an overgrown single track back up (I love those single tracks!)
Looking across at Laguna Coast and Pacific Ocean
Back On Wood Canyon Via Cholla Trail (How to run this? Gingerly along the grass edges : )
View of Wood Canyon from Wood Creek Trail
Plenty Of Spider Webs To Run Through On Wood Creek, But Leaf Litter helped To Get A Grip In The Mud
Maiden’s Hair Fern Along Wood Creek Trail
One Of The Hundreds Of Mushrooms Growing In The dense, Shady Portion Of Wood Creek Trail
Elevation Profile: +1,935 ft.
Miles logged this morning: 12.53
Dang we are so lucky to have these trails in our back yard!
ReplyDeleteNice work through the sticky stuff!
So, so true Stuart. And I can switch it up so that I never get bored : )
ReplyDeleteI'm suprised the trails were open! The bikes do so much damage when everything I wet and soaked. Stunning views though with the clean skies!
ReplyDeleteGlenn I was surprised they were opened too -- I feared the whole time they were going to close them and kick me off.
ReplyDeleteI was gonna say the same thing about the bikes. But I was too chicken : ))