Day 49: I drove up Ortega Highway to Blue Jay campground for a run with Steve Harvey. Our mission was to remove the trail markings from Big Baz’s 18k trail race that took place over the weekend. We took off the bright orange ties from branches, smeared away chalk arrows in the dirt. Of course, I had lots of fun too. I rarely run this part of the mountains, basically only during Baz’s races. The trails are a joy – technical, single-track. Love it.
What great fun it was to learn about some of Steve’s ultra running adventures. The icing on the cake was his guided tour up to Sugarloaf Peak. I’ve run past this peak in Baz’s races. I didn’t know that it was THE Sugarloaf Peak. And I’ve never actually made the rocky climb to the peak. We could see for miles – miles and miles of lovely solitude.
Steve taking the lead with sack in hand to hold the collected ties:
The scenery is so different on this part of the mountains with these huge orangish boulders protruding everywhere:
Heading up to Sugarloaf Peak:
View from the Peak:
Another tie to remove:
8.35 miles run (13.44 km):
What fun! Beautiful pace to be! And 50 awaits!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful place to be I mean. Late afternoon at work here...
DeleteThanks Johann. Most certainly beautiful. And amazing too to have so much solitude in such a crowded part of the state.
DeleteWow! What a cool trail! I want to run that one day. Btw- I never saw the post where you tagged me...going back through your blog looking now
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading Rachel. I hope you found the post. The trails off of Ortega Hwy are amazing. I rarely make it up there because it just takes too much gas.
DeleteVery nice! Love the pics.
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by Michael!!
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