Car Wreck Trail

Friday, March 18, I headed out to Wood Canyon after work around 1PM. With my normal quick out-and-back in mind, I headed up Cholla, and ran along West Ridge to Top of the World. But I had a lot on my mind and didn’t want to return home so quickly. So, after running back down West Ridge, I turned off at Mathis and headed down an old technical favorite, Car Wreck Trail. It’s a tricky trail, rocky and steep, named after a wrecked car toward the bottom. And it helped me a great deal, as I needed to focus so closely on the trail, that I didn’t have time to ponder the craziness in my mind.

Though it’s tough, Car Wreck Trail is beautiful:

Car Wreck Trail eventual turns into another (I think it’s called Thousand Oaks Trail?) which in turn dumped me right back out onto Mathis, At the creek crossing at Mathis, I took a seat on the rocks and got caught up in the sound of rushing water. It had a great calming affect. Not sure how long I stayed, but it was a while, possibly twenty minutes.

And then I was off again along Wood Canyon, and I must have noticed five different snake tracks. One of them looked extraordinarily large. Sorry to have missed that one!

The wind picked up further into the canyon, and the grass fields swayed in waves. Mesmerized by the flow, I abruptly stopped along the field and watched the fields of grass move up and down like an ocean. It nearly took my breath away.

7.78 miles, 1,136’ elevation gained