Day 50

Today was the 50th day of my running streak.  Fifty was a big day as far as I was concerned, so I didn’t want to use a “minimum card,” and run a couple miles.  But time was short and gasoline was low.  You see, today was early-out day for my two youngest children, which means they ended school about 2 hours early.  AND it’s late-in day for my oldest, which means that he went to school a WHOLE HOUR LATE. 

There wasn’t a chance in heck that I wasn’t running today.  I packed a rain jacket in my hydration pack because we were supposed to get a downpour.  Actually, I hoped for lots of rain.  I thought that would make day 50 big!  With little time and little gasoline I felt it ideal to leave my truck in the boys’ school lot and run.  I ran out to the bike trail and headed toward Santiago Peak.  I knew that I wasn’t going to get far, but I wanted to see if I could learn something, anything new.  We learn something new every day, right?

The river walk (aka) bike trail where Trabuco Creek meets San Juan Creek:

Though the weather was cold for my parts, and the sky gray, I overheated pretty quickly and had those gloves off in a jiffy.  I was really hoping for rain also, so I could get that rain jacket out of my pack.  It made me feel heavier than usual. 

After running the river walk to its end, I ran through some neighborhoods to pick up the El Camino Real trail that coincidentally runs through El Camino Real Park.    Zig-zagging through the park, I crossed the train tracks to pick up Trabuco Creek Trail.

El Camino Real Park (why did I take a picture here – well, it’s right in front of the restrooms, and since I was already stopped, I thought this was a good time to strike a pose):

I felt good when my feet hit dirt.  Amazingly strong.  I really had no idea that I could run 50 days in a row.  My confidence (in running ONLY) has been lifted.  Then my heart lifted when I came head-on with the creek.  I crossed it gleefully, then ran beneath the train tracks onward to the orange groves.

I found the orange groves so lovely that I had to stop and take another photo.  And here’s what I learned today:  DO NOT sit down in this field – not if you don’t want a thousand microscopic thorns poking in your hands and legs, plus about fifty tinee, tiny green aphids crawling all about your skin (Oops.  I totally forgot to search for tics.  LOL.  These adventures – they are so fun to reminisce about & I just did a quick tic check : )

Stopping to spy on a lady bug before taking off, I brushed off the aphids and did my best to wipe away the stickers.  I was laughing though.  Why?  Because this is me:  The middle-aged woman who runs from her childrens’ school and sits down in a patch of grass to photograph herself without thinking about things like STICKERS and bugs.

So, the rain did fall on my run, but hardly.  I barely even felt the drops.  And it wasn’t nearly enough to take out the rain jacket.  Still I hoped (but to no avail).

Running onward, I made my way beneath the freeways more comfortably this time.  Still, I kept alert, as it is dark, and there’s so many nooks and  crannies (hiding places) beneath Interstate Five. 

Approaching the “Bridge that’s not the answer.”

A little after mile five I turned around and began my run back, but not before seeing a man on his tip-toes looking into the backyard of a house.  That spooked me some.  I of course thought the worst, figuring he was casing the joint for a burglary or something.  By the time I returned, he was gone.  

After running the trails and El Camino Real Park, I decided to make a run through The Los Rios District, which is an historic area in our parts, dating back to the 1800’s.  I love all the colors there, even on this gray day. 

Back at Trabuco Creek:

Cutting through the train station to Los Rios District:

Lots of delightful scenes crossed my eyes during my run through the “district,” but I couldn’t stand around and take pictures all day, like I would wish to.  Here are just a couple:

A lovely run for my 50th day, EVENTHOUGH it didn’t rain.  10.30 miles run this morning (16.58 km).

Sugarloaf Peak

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):

Carbon Canyon: Telegraph, Four Corners, Bovinian South Ridge, Easy Street Loop

Day 48:  I carpooled with running friend Kelly to meet up with running friends Hank and Judi and a new running friend and fellow blogger, Lisa (Mom to Marathon).

I had no preconceived notions for today’s run.  I looked forward to running new trails and running with friends.  If anything, I was a little afraid that I wouldn’t be able to keep up.  I was a little tired on my 48th consecutive day of running.  Turns out, Lisa’s on a running streak as well – day 66!  When she told me that she’s aiming for 100, I started thinking, “I might be able to do 100.”  Then I had to shake myself, “Snap out of it Lauren!  You said you would stop Jan. 31.  THEN you said you would stop at day 50!!!” 

From left to right, Me, Judi, Lisa, Kelly (Hank had not showed, so we took off without him, but then I realized that I dropped my camera and had to run back.  Wouldn’t you know it!  Hank had just pulled into the lot as I made my way back to the ladies.  It seemed like fate : )

The trails were lovely, green with lots of shade, and when not shady, we had the comfort of a cool breeze.  Judi did a wonderful job of mapping out a lollipop loop for us.  We ran through Telegraph Canyon up to Four Corners.  That’s right “Four Corners.”  I guess there’s more than one “Four corners” in this state, on this planet.  Comment if you would be so kind, if you have a “Four Corners” on your trails.  I would love to see how many there are.

A quick stop at “Four Corners” before heading upward (Hank, Judi, Kelly, Lisa, me):

From “Four Corners”, we ran Bovinian Delight Trail to South Ridge.  Hank and Kelly took the lead, when suddenly we three ladies saw Hank turn around and run fast back toward Kelly.  Then Kelly turned around to run as well, and yelled to me to get out my knife.  Well, all kinds of things ran through my mind, most of all MOUNTAIN LION.  We hollered out “What is it?”  Kelly pointed, but I wasn’t really focusing on the direction, I was just mentally prepping for the possible scenarios.  I knew that it wasn’t a rattlesnake, because they had by then ran way out of striking distance.  Besides that, I wouldn’t need a knife for a rattlesnake.  Chance were that a bobcat wouldn’t cause them any problems.  And a mountain lion, well, it would have caught up with Hank by then.  Still, mountain lion was all that I could think, so for a split second, I thought that we might have a scenario of 4 ladies attacking a mountain lion as it pounced on our friend.

Turns out, and this is very odd, I’ve only heard of this happening a few times from others, a couple coyotes crossed the road in front of Hank.  Then a 3rd one crossed, a very large one.  But then on his/her crossing the animal actually charged at Hank.  Scary!!  I usually see only scrawny coyotes, but once on one of my solo runs I saw a very large coyote in the mist, and he really spooked me. 

Afterward, we all stood about rapidly and nervously talking about the incident, then went forward on that same trail, fortunately with no encounters.  Lisa laughed and said to Kelly and me, “I can’t believe you carry knives.  Man!  I gotta get me a knife.”  That comment cracked me up.

After all the excitement (more so for Hank and Kelly) we ran on some more for GORGEOUS views.  Then we took Easy Street Trail back down to the canyon.  Though “Easy Street” was easy running because it was downhill, it was not a trail that you’d want to trip on (I don’t mean “trip” as in “trip-out”, but that too.  I mean fall.  A fall would plummet you down a cliff with a possibility of severe injuries).  Oh the exhilarating fun of being a trail runner.  : )

Miles run today:  13.61 (21.90 km):

The Bridge is NOT the Answer

Day 47 of my running streak I returned to piecing together The Epic Run.   (For new readers, this is my quest to run from Doheny Beach to Santiago Peak in Saddleback Mountains).  Today I took the advice of my friend Tom Fangrow who reminded me of a run we took together back in 2009 – the one where we got kind of  lost in the mud, and he lost his eyeglasses only to find them beneath MY SHOES!  That was the trail, he recently told me, that I had to take for this quest.  He told me NOT to cross the bridge that I’ve been crossing off of Trabuco Trail, the one that takes me to Trabuco Ridge.  Funny . . . all along, I thought the bridge was the answer.

The bridge is NOT the answer.   I was a bit leery at first, because the bridge route did get me to my destination on my last scouting trip.  This morning,  I met another trail runner on a bike (Howie) on my way toward Tom’s Way, and he also confirmed that I was headed toward Arroyo Trabuco.  I ran for a while next to the golf course, and after a mile or so, came to this fountain spot that I immediately recognized.  I had refilled my water here on that run way, way back.  Relieved that I wasn’t yet lost, I had to stop and strike a pose:

From the fountain onward, the run was pretty straight forward, the trail fairly level (well dang right level RELATIVELY : ).  When the trail forked, both routes were obviously well-traversed trails, so I took the lower.  And I’m not sure, but I could swear I took the same wrong trail that Tom and I took about 3 years ago when we found ourselves boxed-in, surrounded by deep mud.  I’m not sure, but if it was the same wrong turn, I certainly wasn’t going to take it to its dead end.  So about here (below) I turned around and ran back to the fork so that I could run the “upper” trail. 

Now, when I write “upper” trail, I in no way mean UPPER as in the Trabuco Ridge Trail I had been taking to piece together The Epic Run.  This trail was just slightly higher than the first choice.  I hit some single-track, I came across another runner.  There was even a tiny bit of shade (NO shade on my prior route).  The only trouble I had was finding the route to cross to the other side of the creek.  Tom mentioned that I’d find a route just before Crown Valley.  The biker Howie suggested running up to Crown Valley Parkway running across the road, then back down to the trail on the other side.  I ran everything that looked like a trail just before Crown Valley, only to dead end.  And I decided that running up to the road wasn’t ideal.  From Crown Valley I ran back again, looking for the route.  And I phoned my husband so that he could read back to me Tom’s note.  I still found nothing.  Eventually, I ran a bit past the Crown Valley underpass and found a clear singe-track trail down to the creek.  I crossed the creek, getting my feet wet, then ran a sandbar to the trail that runs along the other side – my destination.

My destination:  beneath the Crown Valley underpass on Arroyo Trabuco, so, so grateful for Tom pointing out this route.  Why?  BECAUSE THIS NEW ROUTE KNOCKED ABOUT AN HOUR off my original route of The Epic Run.  Thanks Tom!

Running back with a look over my shoulders and a click of the camera to catch a glimpse of Santiago Peak:

My lovely view while stretching at the truck:

Miles run today:  6.16 (9.91 km)

One-Track Mind

Day 46 of my longest running streak (by far):  6.42 easyish out-and-back miles run to Top of the World in Aliso/Wood Canyons.

Running up Cholla Trail:

View of Wood Canyon from Cholla:

Santiago Peak from West Ridge:

Pacific Ocean / Catalina Island view from Park Ave. Nature Trail:

Top of the World:

Santiago Peak from West Ridge:

Running back down Cholla Trail: