Fact Finding Mission

One of the things I love doing with my runs is connecting trails.  Or at least trying to.  For a while I’ve been thinking about a new running route to Aliso/Wood Canyons.  As it is, my routes are all street, and dangerous in some parts.  The most direct route posts a new roadside memorial at least once a year. 

The towns around here are filled with bike paths.  My thought was that if I could just connect them to La Paz Lake (Laguna Niguel Regional Park), I’ve got my route.  If I run out the back of the park, I’m at Aliso/Woods. 

I can catch a bike trail pretty easily and safely pretty close to my house.  So, I drove a few miles inland to pick up that same trail this morning.  Did I look at a map to see for sure if and how these trails would lead me to La Paz Lake (also known as Laguna Niguel Lake)?  Heck no.  That would take all the fun out of this fact finding mission.  One thing I did promise myself was:  No Bushwhacking.  I wanted to do this running adventure without trouble.

Ready to take the bike path down into a small valley:

And we’re off:

I could hear the foghorn very clearly shouting from the seashore.  Visibility was minimal.  Because I’ve lived in the area for almost 24 years, I know these cities very well.  BUT today, without view of the natural landmarks, I felt at a loss over the exact direction I ran.   

Right away, I found a dirt trail, which I of course ran down (gleefully).  Deep down, I hoped for a creek side trail for most of the run.  Every single leg I ran dead-ended.

Dirt!  Awesome!!

Dead end!

Dead end!

Dead End!

Dead End!

Okay, maybe this one is it:

Dead End!

Eventually, I had to run back up to the bike trail.  The road curved here and there, ventured up and down rolling hills.  I could hear cars up ahead, and I really could not decipher which road I approached.  Then I looked up and saw a favorite restaurant we used to dine at pre-children.  Niguel Road!  I was headed in the correct direction.  Best part was, the bike trail travelled beneath the road. 

I came upon plenty of runners, lots of hikers and I continued to run that bike path until it finally ended at an enormous baseball park.  I wondered how it could have been that I had never in my life seen these baseball fields. They must have been buried deep in a neighborhood.  Or perhaps the thick fog camouflaged the fields from my recognition.  The bike path continued up to the left and dumped me out in a neighborhood.  I really had NO IDEA where I was.  I wasn’t lost.  I knew that I was in Laguna Niguel.  But where?  I didn’t recognize the street names and I still couldn’t see the land formations.  I saw plenty of runners.  I didn’t ask; just waved.  I enjoyed the mystery.  And then I came to stop light at this beautiful water feature:

I took a left because I felt like that was the correct direction.  It was.  With no bike paths in sight, I made my way across a main, very busy road and ran onto another paved trail.  I knew my exact location at this point and was very confident I would run into the lake in about a mile or two. 

And I did:

I witnessed this gentleman reel in a rainbow trout.  I ran down the bank to capture his picture:

By the time I began my run back, the fog had cleared and I was one happy runner.  A fact finding mission did not turn out as hoped.  But I did make it to the lake.  And I didn’t get into any trouble.  I call that success.  Oh yes, on the way back, I found a dirt trail that cut some distance off the out-and-back and met up with the same bike path where I began this fact finding mission. 

Miles run today: 11.54

New Goal Late in the Game for 2012

Still not training, still resting while running.  I plan to continue my “rest” until early December.  Some will wonder how I can rest and run.  It’s fairly simple.  I’m running trails merely for the sake of running trails.  I have no other goals, but to enjoy.  I don’t care whether I run them slowly, whether I feel weak or strong.  I don’t care about negative splits.  I just want to enjoy the trails. 

Yesterday it dawned on me that I was less than 200 hundred miles from hitting 2,000 miles this year.  While deciding on a year-end mileage goal, I settled on 2,012 miles for 2012.  Being that the goal is less than 200 miles away, it’s a doable goal, even while “resting.”

This morning it was a usual routine for me.  Being that the boys (and myself) are on Thanksgiving break (an entire week), I decided to wake early for a run.  I woke to my 5:30 AM alarm, pushed the snooze button on my phone, turned over and slept until my alarm sang out once again.  Then I walked out to the living room, cuddled up on the couch and fell back asleep. 

I finally woke at 8:00 AM and was out the door driving to Aliso/Wood Canyons at about 8:30.  The trails were full of mountain bikers.  I saw runners mainly on the asphalt portion of Aliso Creek Trail.  The skies were gray, the weather pleasurably cool. 

Stretching out extremely tight calves in Wood Canyon (sure I’m still a little sleepy & OH BOY, do I need a haircut!!):

Entering Meadows Trail:

I turned onto Meadows Trail for a clockwise short-ish loop to the Top of the World and around back through Wood Canyon.  I kind of lost myself in the trail and found myself looking down as I ran.  I try never to look down because it makes difficult for a straight column.  I know, it’s difficult not to sometimes look down on trails, especially on technical trails.  Even then, I tend to look out, always a few steps ahead – kind of like a chess game, always thinking a few moves ahead.

Anyway, I was running, looking to the dirt with no thought, nothing going on in my mind.  I was just “being.”  Then suddenly I looked up and saw that I was about to crash into two deer.  No lie!!  They were on the trail feeding on brown grass along the trail’s edge just a few feet away.  This seemed to occur in slow motion, but really only a couple seconds passed.  It’s as if the animals didn’t notice me until I noticed myself.  When I became aware, they became aware.  I scrambled for my camera, they looked up,  and if I could read their minds and they thought human thoughts, I would say they thought, “Oh crap, it’s a human!”  And they ran off.

I caught a photo of them as they ran off:

And then I turned a bend in the trail and saw a buck and two more does:

Running up Meadows, a biker to pass (& I did):

About to clear Meadows Trail (Whew!):

A stainless steel home at Top of the World, a lovely home, but I can’t help but think about ALL THE FINGERPRINTS, and constantly wiping them down:

Running down Mathis Trail:

Mathis on a beautiful day as the gray clouds depart for lofty white clouds and blue skies:

Running the final stretch, I ran a short detour to catch a look at some historic farm equipment (a harvester):

Holy Jim Aid Station / Chimera 2012

I had one more trail to mark on my way into the Holy Jim Aid Station.  I thought marking Trabuco Canyon Road would take forty-five minutes.  Ended up taking an hour and fifteen minutes!  Yikes.  Still, I arrived at least an hour before the first runner hit our station

On the way, I saw this car turned over.  A volunteer fireman had already inspected the scene, found nothing and was waiting for the police.  I just couldn’t understand how someone could flip a car right there.  The fire guy said it happens at least once a month.

What the runners saw on Trabuco as they approached our station:

The day was wonderful.  The runners were gracious.  Our crew was great, some previous running friends, some new running friends.  We had some music, lots of food and drink.  The racers were in good spirits, even those suffering.  We saw the hundred miler racers twice (at 28.5 and 38.5 miles), the 100k racers just once.  Amazingly, the winner of the 100 mile ran this BEAST of a course in under 17 hours.  This is truly shocking.  I talked to him earlier in the day, and he was so casual, unbelievably calm.

Everyone who attempted this race were superstars.  Really.  I was in awe.

Some scenes throughout the day:  

Mark Rohren, Me, Mike Epler, Alison Chavez:

The first place runner Fabrice Hardel:

Robert Whited:

John Hockett & Alison Chavez:

Greg Hardesty (#14):

The Jester (#6):

Stephen De La Cruz (#33):

Welcome to Holy Jim Aid

Kurt Erlandson (on left):

Marking Bedford

Tomorrow is a big day in the trail / ultra running community around here.  Saturday begins Chimera – a 100 mile / 100 km race in the Saddleback Mountains.  My mountains.  No, I’m not running this beast.  But I am working it.  If you are running, and aren’t in bed yet, and are reading this post (though you probably should be sleeping :) say “Hi” when you see me!

I’ve had a great time witnessing the awesome amount of effort put out by the race directors and dozens and dozens of volunteers to pull this thing off.  I feel honored to be part of this.  I had my truck loaded with supplies for our station earlier in the week.  I’ve been receiving updates via e-mail over the past week from our station captain as well as the volunteer director (who happens to be running in this race too).  I’ve got everything stacked in the kitchen to take with me tomorrow for the long day ahead.

At one point during this prep, I was asked if I could mark the single-track Bedford.  I didn’t know Bedford, so I thought it wouldn’t be wise.  I declined.  Then I found out that Bedford is the trail that I call Silverado Motorway.  That’s when I thought, “No way!”  I’ve only run down that trail, and being on my “break,” I thought a three mile steep switch-back was too much.

But then it went on “unassigned.”  And I finally volunteered.  Heck, I could add it into my Friday run.  Double heck, I could do the Silverado Loop, that 17 mile loop that I’ve only run twice, but counter-clockwise.

With trail marking tape in hand, and a rain coat, gloves and head warmth shoved in my hydration pack, I headed up Maple Springs at about 9:30 this morning.   Reports said 30% chance of rain.  I wanted to run.  And I didn’t want to chance being out there in cold rain.  The skies were gray, the weather almost cold.  It was perfect for a three mile uphill run. 

I took a quick left onto Silverado Motorway / Bedford and began marking the heck out of that trail.  I marked it for the runner who has never been on Bedford, who is alone, and who is beginning to get paranoid about whether he/she took a wrong turn.  (I apologize now to the person who takes down the markers : )

Running up Bedford wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.  Granted, I stopped several times to mark the trail.  The difficulty came after Bedford.  It was false summit after false summit after false summit.  Funny thing is, when I ran this loop reversed, it seemed like The Main Divide was mainly uphill.  Ends up, today, The Main Divide was mainly uphill, rolling hills yes – but add in those false summits – that’s difficult.  Fun difficult.  I could see for miles, and I didn’t see evidence of a single soul out there.  I felt completely alone in the mountains.  It was beautiful.  Not only for the eyes, but for the soul also.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a ranger truck drove by.  The driver slowed and casually said, “Everything okay?”  I was kind of glad that if I were to have collapsed on the divide, someone would have eventually driven by.

FINALLY, I made it to “Four Corners.”  I had ran 9.65 miles.  It felt like twenty, a lovely, lovely twenty.

“Four Corners” :

I lazily ran the 7 plus miles down Maple Springs to close up this loop.  By that time, people were driving up the mountain for an afternoon drive.  I saw one cyclist, two motorcyclists.  No runners.  Sure, this run took me longer than usual.  But I’m NOT TRAINING.  Plus, I was marking the trail for Chimera.  Yes!