Change of Scenery / Day Two of Hard Week

I should have wondered why I didn’t see a single other runner this morning.  I even only saw a few hikers.  I’ll tell you why no one was out in The Laguna Wilderness or Crystal Cove this morning.  No one came out to play because it was so humid, the air was so thick, even breathing was laborious. 

When I arrived home, my back and hands cramping, I told my husband, “That was hard!” 

“How many miles did you run?” he asked.

“Fourteen.”

“And you expected it to be . . . ?”

I did kind of expect a breeze since I ran so close to the ocean.  I did expect lower temperatures since the skies were overcast.  Expect the unexpected is what I often say.  Today was case in point.

Running in these adverse conditions has got to make me stronger.  Besides that – the trails were gorgeous.  AND, I rarely run these parks, so I needed to guess a 14 mile route.  Can you believe, I was almost right on.

Running No-Name Ridge (seriously that’s the trail’s name), headed toward No-DogsTrail (yup):

Making a turn at bottom of Crystal Cove to run up El Moro Canyon:

I LOVE EL MORO CANYON:

After a (kinda) quick jaunt up Nice and Easily Trail (which wasn’t so easy, but it was nice), I hopped onto Missing Link (below):

From Missing Link I ran El Moro Ridge looking for my second favorite trail here, Old Emerald Falls.  As usual, I made a wrong turn, so I got a little extra mileage added on searching:

Finishing up Old Emerald Falls:

Climbing the wretched Emerald Canyon:

Almost to the top (Bommer Ridge):

An exhilarating roller coaster profile: