The temp was in the 30's and it took a couple of minutes for my car's engine to warm enough to thaw the coating of ice on the windshield. I was headed for a run in the San Gabriel Mountains and was wondering how cold it might be.

Due to fire concerns, Los Padres, Angeles, Cleveland and San Bernardino National Forests remained closed this weekend, so I headed back up to Kernville to meet some friends and run the Whiskey Flat Trail -- a sizzling trail in the summertime that has been on my running to-do list for years.

The numerous interconnecting roads and trails of the eastern Santa Monica Mountains can be combined to create trail runs ranging from a few miles to marathon length or more.

Los Angeles sometimes gets rain in September, but usually it is the result of tropical moisture from a dissipating hurricane, or perhaps the passage of the tail end of a weakening front. It is rare to see a low as cold, deep and energetic as the upper level low that deluged many areas of Los Angeles county Friday afternoon into Saturday.

Thunderstorms raked the San Fernando Valley Friday night, and several locations in and around the Valley recorded more than an inch of rain over the course of the storm. Los Angeles set a new rainfall record on Saturday, recording 0.40 inch of rain, and rainfall records were broken across the area.

In Southern California the first rain of the season often doesn't occur until October or November and is always savored. Especially this year, when Los Angeles has recorded only 3.21 inches of rain in the last 15 or 16 months, and a developing La Nina threatens to put the kibosh on Winter rain.

I celebrated the rain by doing an out and back run to "Fossil Point" on Rocky Peak fire road. Based on the size of the mud puddles on the dirt road, this unseasonable storm appeared to be wetter than any in last year's record dry rain season. Here's a panorama of the view northwest from the fire road to Oak Ridge, the Santa Susana Mountains and beyond.

Some related posts: San Fernando Valley from Rocky Peak, Rainy Morning on Rocky Peak Road.

Update 7/26/08. There have been recent USB driver (4-28-08) and firmware (5-07-08) updates, and the PC software has been replaced (7-04-08), but the most significant change is that SportTracks now supports the GH615 via a plugin. Since I use SportTracks I have not looked closely at the new "g-Sports PC Utility" software, but it appears to be more functional than the original "PC Utility" software. Some significant quirks remain. When the GH615B is set to STATUTE(ft, mph) units, the elevation still displays in miles -- e.g. 1.702 miles instead of 8987 ft.

Update 9/10/07. Shortly after writing this post I learned that the GH-615B has been discontinued in the U.S. in favor of the GH-615M, which includes a heart rate monitor.

Chugging up Mt. Baden-Powell, I pushed various buttons on the GlobalSat GH615B, searching for the screen that displays elevation. I had seen it on a run during the week, and now I couldn't find it. Wait... What? My elevation is 1.702 MILES??

When my Forerunner 205 had to be returned to Garmin a second time, it seemed like a good time to see if there were any new GPS-based running watches I could use for tracing the routes of my trail runs. The description of the GH615B on the GlobalSat web site looked promising. Like the Forerunner 205/305 it had a watch-like design, and the specs said it also used the newer, more sensitive, SiRFstarIII GPS technology.

Despite an ongoing heat wave and excessive heat warnings, temps were surprisingly moderate for the 42nd running of the Mt. Baldy Run to the Top race. This year the men's overall winner was Eric Martin in a time of 1:10:04, and the women's overall winner was Brigid Freyne in a time of 1:30:41. For all of the results see the Run to the Top web site. Many thanks to the race organizers, volunteers, USFS, Mt Baldy Ski Lifts and the Mt. Baldy Fire Department for a great race!

Here are a few images from the race (Flash 8 required), a Google Earth image and Google Earth KMZ file (updated) of a GPS trace of the route.

Related post: Mt. Baldy Runner

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Sandstone Peak and Boney Mountain from Simi Peak

I hadn't done this course in midsummer, but a long run close to home, and an early morning ascent of Simi Peak sounded like a nice change of pace. A dawn start from El Scorpion Park put me on the peak and back to the car before temps got out of hand.

A grizzled guardian of the San Gabriel Mountains, the Wally Waldron Tree stands defiantly astride an airy, rock strewn ridge, just below the summit of 9399 ft. Mt. Baden-Powell.

Mt. Wilson, Occidental Peak, Mt. Markham, San Gabriel Peak, Mt. Disappointment, and Mt. Deception from the summit of Twin Peaks, in the San Gabriel Mountains.

Mt. Markham (5742') is the craggy peak along the skyline, just right of the centerline of the photograph. The bump to the left of Mt. Markham is Occidental Peak (5732'). To the right of Mt. Markham is the highest peak in the group, San Gabriel Peak (6161'). To the right of San Gabriel Peak are Mt. Disappointment (5960'), and Mt. Deception (5796'). The indistinct summit of Mt. Wilson (5710'), and the observatory, are on the left.

Guardian of the rugged San Gabriel Wilderness, Twin Peaks (7761') has an isolated, high mountain feel. Its flanks drop more than 5000 feet to Devils Canyon on the southwest, and Bear Canyon on the southeast.

We climbed Twin Peaks while doing a point to point run from Buckhorn to Three Points. Including the peak, the run/hike was about 13 miles, with an elevation gain of about 3200'. Here's a Google Earth image and Google Earth KMZ file of a GPS trace of the route.

Related posts: Manzanita Morning, Three Points - Mt. Waterman Loop

This was my first time back to Mt. Pinos since being caught in a fierce thunderstorm last July. No thunderstorms this time -- just wonderful running on the air-conditioned ridge between Mt. Pinos and Mt. Abel.

My route was the same as that described in the post Vincent Tumamait Trail. Here's a Google Earth image and Google Earth KMZ file of a GPS trace of the route.

Related posts: Thunderstorm, Vincent Tumamait Trail

 
Cirque Peak from Cottonwood Lakes Basin

The sky was brightening in the east, and sunrise was approaching when I met Miklos and Krisztina at the Denny's in Sylmar. We were already wasting light. The plan was to drive from near sea level up to Horseshoe Meadows, at about 10,000' on the Sierra east side. The hike/run we had in mind was a keyhole loop from the Cottonwood Lakes Trailhead up (old) Army Pass and then down New Army Pass. If we felt OK at the top of Army Pass, we would also do Mt. Langley (14,026').

 
Ridge between Mt. Baden-Powell and Mt. Burnham

Standing on the summit of Mt. Baden-Powell (9399'), I squinted through the haze at Mt. Baldy (10,064'). Nope, no snow. It's not often that the highest elevations of the San Gabriel Mountains are snowless on Memorial Day weekend. If nowhere else, there will usually be a patch of white on the north side of Mt. Baldy.