Wet and Muddy Conditions

We are having one of  our wetter rainy seasons this year. Sometimes we skip right past the rainy season with just two or three rains. And sometimes, we get a deluge for weeks and weeks. Such is the case right now. Everything is green. Everything is clean. The weather is perfectly cool, sometimes even cold. There's snow even occassionally in the local mountains, and the mountains just west of those (The San Gabriels for example) are still covered in snow. The rain is delightful (oh, except for all the driving I do freeway flying between three campuses). Creeks are full. Waterfalls fall once again. It is perfect trail season right now. PERFECT. Too bad our dang county park system has got the door closed tight on all the local trails. They're all closed due to "Wet and Muddy Conditions!"

A window opened up on the last day of February, and I got off to Wood Canyon Thurday late morning. The creeks were flowing and the skies were blue. Like I mentioned, perfect trail weather. I took the easy canyon route with two detours: 1) up to a bench that overlooks the canyon, and 2) Wood Creek Trail, a magical shady trail that crosses over Wood Creek and winds through a thick forest of trees.

Since I am behind in everything, I'll cut this short and end with the stats and pics. 

9.07 miles, 650' elevation gain. 

No Time to Post–But I’m Gonna Anyway! (Wood Cyn)

Super-duper behind on everything, literally everything in my life. But I do manage to get in my hikes here and again. This one was from over a week ago (Nov. 4) – I took a nice little stroll through Wood Canyon in Aliso Viejo, with a detour onto Wood Creek and Cave Rock trails. It was lovely and quite therapeutic. I saw 2 coyotes and 5 deer – and all at once. Alas, I was not able to retrieve my camera fast enough. Also, it suddenly came to me to check out the creek for crawdads, because it’s fall! And that’s when the crawdads show their faces. I’ve been searching out crawdads since I was 17 years old when my husband and I started dating. We used to catch them in Walnut Creek in Covina California and put them in his aquariums. Sure enough on this hike, I found several walking about the creek floor on my way out. On the way back however, I checked again, and those orange fresh water crustaceans had completely disappeared. I did catch a picture of the crawdads who appeared to be angrily waving their claws at me, and I caught a lot of other cool pictures of this lovely, local canyon named Wood Canyon. I’ll just let them tell the story because I don’t have any time. None. Zero. Zilch!

7.75 miles

Wood Canyon Trail:Wood Creek Trail:My Crawdad friends (look closely through the water):Cave Rock Trail (a hidden gem in Wood Cyn):

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

Cooler Temps–I can feel autumn approach

I completed my 23rd day of fitness streaking today – which requires doing an activity for a mile or more every day.  That activity of course wouldn’t be something like driving, or crawling (though I suppose crawling for a mile would be difficult enough to qualify).  I hit day one so many times during this endeavor, that 23 has been my highest number in this facebook group to date.  This of course, means the pressure is on.  At day 23, I don’t want to start over again at day 1.

After spending the first three days of my workouts at the gym this week, I knew I had one thing to do today (besides make breakfasts, pack lunches, get three boys off to school, wash dishes, do laundry).  And that one thing was to run.  And since my week begins on Monday, I needed to get in some good mileage since I was already behind (zero at the end of 3 days – I call that behind). 

Thankfully, the weather cooled for me today.  I didn’t hit the trails until after 10AM.  I started off slowly, and a little weak. And I finished slowly, and a little weaker.  But that’s okay.  Really.  I completed this 14.53 mile route in the same time it takes me to run 13.25 miles in the same park (Aliso/wood Canyons).  Regardless of any of this, it was all a-okay with me – I was running trails, and you can’t beat that!

To make a long, long, long, long story short, I made my way down to a nice size pool in Wood Creek, looking for signs of autumn. It seems that just when the summer rolls over into autumn for good, the bright orange crawdads make their appearance in the creek.  I didn’t see any crawdads, but I did notice a bobcat cross Wood Canyon not twenty-five feet away from me.  I caught her backend as she rushed off into the brush.  I ran back up to the trail, but I was too late.  I stood there for a bit, peering into the thick brush.  I saw nothing, but heard something heavier than a bird or squirrel moving about in the branches and dry leaves.

A View into Wood Creek from Wood Canyon:

I pushed hard on my way up to Top of the World.  I tired easily, and hiked a couple of the steep inclines.  In my defense, I did try to power hike them.  Still, I found myself with my hands on my hips.  I experienced delight hitting my turn around point in this out-and-back.  I stopped for a quick pose at Top of the World, phoned my husband and headed on back in slightly warmer temperatures.

I focused so hard on keeping my pace from falling too terribly, that I almost missed the two deer that bounced like bunnies alongside me on Wood Canyon Trail.  By the time I realized the two does’ presence, they darted off at a quicker pace.  As I reached for my camera, I told myself, “Forget it – you have hundreds of deer pictures.”  Besides that, I didn’t want to stop.  I wanted to finish up at a decent hour. 

Quick Stop at Top of the World:

Yes, today’s 14.5 miles were difficult.  But they were not terrible.  Misery factor was close to zero.  Yes, I ran rather slowly, but I was running trails, and that’s still the best!

Elevation Profile: