The view above is of crags in the Circle X area and the Channel Islands from the Etz Meloy section of the Backbone Trail in the Santa Monica Mountains.

From today's out and back run on the Backbone Trail from Kanan Road to a viewpoint on Etz Meloy Mtwy fire road. The fire road continues west about a mile and links to the Yerba Buena segment of the Backbone Trail.

The segment between Kanan Road and Yerba Buena Road includes the two remaining gaps in the Backbone Trail -- the 0.1 mile Etz Meloy gap and the 0.4 mile Upper Trancas gap.

Here are a few additional photographs from the run:

Etz Meloy Motorway

Chaparral Currant

Oak Grove

The post on the XTERRA web site said the new Crystal Cove 15K course had been approved, and also mentioned something about a "gnarly" hill. I thought I better check it out, and followed a link to the course info on MapMyRun.

The elevation profile didn't look too bad. It had the usual ups and downs you expect to see on a Southern California trail run. In Tour de France fashion, MapMyRun categorizes the more difficult climbs on a course from Cat 5 to Cat 1 with Cat 1 being more difficult.  Climbs that are crazy difficult are rated Hors catégorie (HC). A climb has to be at least 0.3 mile long to be categorized.

Two categorized climbs were noted on the MapMyRun elevation profile of the Crystal Cove 15K course: a Cat 3 that began about a half-mile into the race and climbed about 775' over 3.4 miles, and a Cat 5 that started at about mile 4.7 and gained about 130'. The gnarly climb was supposed to be somewhere around mile 5, but the MapMyRun profile indicated that section had a grade of 2.6%??

The gnarly hill was waiting for us around a sharp corner at mile 4.75. Locals refer to it as the Elevator, but the runners I talked to call it THE WALL. Since you ride an Elevator, but have to crawl up and over a wall I'm going with THE WALL. Whatever you call the thing, it was the steepest pitch I've ever encountered on a race course, and steep enough that hikers often descend it on their backside. (It's steeper than it looks in the video!)

And once you've clawed your way over THE WALL you're not done -- the hill continues another 0.4 mile and averages about a 15% grade. I pushed on up the climb, propelled by the thought that the MapMyRun profile showed it was nearly all downhill from around mile 5.7 to the Finish -- I would have almost four miles of downhill bliss.

Or not! It was in the middle of the uphill around mile seven that I was beginning to wonder when the "good" downhill was going to begin. It had to start soon; the course was only about 9.5 miles long! After struggling to keep my pace up through a long stretch of level terrain around mile eight, I wondered -- probably out loud -- if the course was going to fall off the edge of the earth.

From madness comes revelation, and in this case the edge of the world. The last mile-plus of the course plummeted nearly 700 quad-numbing feet to the Finish.

Reality check: Here's a higher resolution elevation profile generated in SportTracks using my GPS track from this year's race. You can see there was a lot more to the course than shown in the MapMyRun profile. There are several tough climbs, ranging in grade from about 5% to 15%, and the last big hill was definitely gnarly! The course was great, and much more interesting than the MapMyRun profile suggested.

Here's a Crystal Cove State Park Trail Map (PDF).

Craig had never done any rock climbing, but was doing a great job of scrambling up the steep gullies, and climbing the short sections of knobby, low angle volcanic rock. We were climbing up through a maze of brush and rock formations on the steep ridge that follows Boney Mountain's western escarpment. The scramble up the western ridge would be well worth the effort. The route is a shortcut to the Backbone Trail and some of the most spectacular running in the Santa Monica Mountains.

Our run had started at Wendy Drive & Potrero Road in Newbury Park. We were doing a 20 mile loop that was about as varied as a trail run can be. In addition to the 1.5 mile ascent of Boney Mountain, there would be about 13 miles of single track trail, 4.3 miles of dirt road, and even 1.7 miles of paved road.

After getting through the maze to the Backbone Trail we would do the classic run down the Chamberlain Trail to the Old Boney Trail. From the bottom of the Chamberlain Trail there are four major variations. Three of these lead to Big Sycamore Canyon and one loops directly back to the start of the climb up Boney Mountain:

- Turn left (west) on the Old Boney Trail and at the junction of the Serrano Valley & Old Boney trails follow the Serrano Valley Trail and then the Serrano Canyon Trail to Big Sycamore Canyon. This was the route we were doing today.

- Turn left (west) on the Old Boney Trail and follow it all the way to Big Sycamore Canyon.

- Turn right (east) on the Old Boney Trail and at the junction of the Blue Canyon & Old Boney trails, continue down the Blue Canyon Trail to the Danielson Multi-use area in Big Sycamore Canyon.

- Turn right (east) on the Old Boney Trail and at the junction of the Blue Canyon & Old Boney trails, turn up the Old Boney trail and  follow it  over the shoulder of Boney Mountain and back to the point where the ascent of Boney Mountain began.

In Big Sycamore Canyon there are many options. Today we would run up Sycamore Canyon Rd to Wood Canyon Rd and pick up the Two Foxes Trail. This trail continues up-canyon and eventually rejoins Sycamore Canyon Rd, which would take us to the Upper Sycamore Trail, and from there to Danielson Road and Satwiwa. Here's an interactive Google Earth browser view of a GPS trace of our route. This PDF map from LAMountains.com shows many of the trails in the area.

Note: There is an easier alternative to the western ridge route on the north side of Boney Mountain. The route starts near the Danielson Memorial, and ascends a use trail up the eastern ridge on the north side of the mountain. In places the (unmaintained) trail is very steep, eroded, and rubbly but it is more straightforward and less technical than the western ridge.

Some related posts: What a Great Day for a Trail Run, Sandstone Peak from Wendy Drive, Boney Mountain Views

The Burger Run is one of those runs that is much more difficult than its 14.5 miles and 2000' of elevation gain would suggest. For one thing the Whiskey Flat Trail ain't no namby-pamby city trail. It's a rustic single track trail in the Southern Sierra that runs along the Kern River from the outskirts of Kernville up to Johnny McNally's Fairview Lodge and Restaurant -- and burger stand.

The trail is single track all of the way, with so many ups and downs you'll think you're riding a Magic Mountain roller coaster. It seems around every corner there is another creek or a ravine. The running is varied and technical, ranging from sweet pine-needle-lined stretches of trail to gnarly, V-rutted, overgrown, rocky, sandy, steep sections that test your trail running skill.

For a time it looked like a big low moving down the coast might cause some weather problems, but overnight rain turned to partly cloudy skies race day morning, with near perfect weather for the runners and walkers.

Many thanks to race director Mike Lane, all the volunteers, McNally's, Indian Wells Brewing Company, and all of the friendly hikers and runners. Proceeds from the race benefit Run 4 A Way, a local non-profit group dedicated to enhancing the fitness and well being of the local youth. Results and finish line photos are posted on Run 4 A Way's Facebook page.

Here's an interactive Google Earth browser view of the Burger Run course and an elevation profile generated in SportTracks. Following are a few additional photos. Click for a larger image:

Aid Station #1	Sock'em Dog Rapid	Steep Climb
Runner, River & Road	Kern Peaks	Ten Miles In

I don't say this very often, but it was great to be running on pavement -- smooth, even, consistent pavement. All I had to do was put one foot in front of the other and chug on down the blacktop.

I was running down Valley of the Falls Drive from the Vivian Creek trailhead to the Momyer Creek trailhead after ascending San Gorgonio Mountain (11,499'). San Gorgonio is the highest peak in Southern California, the nearest higher peaks being Charleston Peak (11,916') west of Las Vegas, and Olancha Peak (12,123') in the Sierra Nevada.

The viewpoint above is a few hundred yards up the Pacific Crest Trail from Angeles Crest Highway at Inspiration Point. Craig and I had paused near the start of our trail run from Inspiration Point to Islip Saddle to check out the view. 

The mountain across the way is Mt. Baden-Powell (9,399').  Three miles away as the bird flies, our earthbound route along Blue Ridge, down to Vincent Gap, and then up the forty-something switchbacks to the top of the peak would total around nine miles. From the top of the peak it would be about eight miles to Islip Saddle.

Zooming in on the peak, the white arrow marks the location of the Wally Waldron Lodgepole Pine. For more than a millennia this grand tree has stood high on this mountain, resisting the strongest of winds and the most perfect of storms. Not all are so durable. A lodgepole pine feet away from the Wally Waldron tree was toppled in a storm last Winter.

Given the short-sleeve weather, the most unexpected discovery on today's run was ice under the trees just up the ridge from the Wally Waldron tree. The ice had been deposited on the trees a few days before, when an unseasonably strong storm set a new rainfall record for the date in Los Angeles.

The running on the PCT between Mt. Baden-Powell and Islip Saddle was outstanding and the views superb. Along the way we did the short climb to the top of Throop Peak, checked out the Mt. Hawkins Lightning Tree, and enjoyed the cold spring water at Little Jimmy Spring.

Some related posts: Perils of Winter, Surprises of Summer; Wally Waldron Lodgepole Pine; PCT from Inspiration Point to Islip Saddle

We'd just arrived in Calistoga for Amanda & Brett's wedding, and I was looking through the "where's the ice machine" info provided by the B & B. A couple pages down, past the wineries and restaurants was a list of local hiking trails. What better way to work off the torpor of I-5 than to do a trail run?

The trailhead for the Oat Hill Mine Trail was just a half-mile away and in a few minutes I was jogging north on Hwy 29 toward Silverado Trail road. I had about two hours before I needed to be back. The sun would be setting in a couple of hours anyway, so I could run up the trail about 75 minutes before turning around.

Other than the brief description in the B & B info, I had not researched the trail. It looked like it worked up the east side of a ridge through oak, pine and fir toward some volcanic outcrops. On a hot day the trail would be brutal. This afternoon the temperature was around eighty, and in the long shadows of the ridge, it was relatively cool and shady.

Since it follows an old mine cart road, the grade of the trail is generally not too steep and is very runnable. It's rough and rocky in places, but most trails I run are rough and rocky in places. Heads up - the trail appears to be multi-use. Judging from the bear scat there are some bears (and other animal life) in the area as well.

Low on the trail there were oak and pine framed views of the vineyards north of Silverado Trail, and higher up nice views of Napa Valley.

I could have pushed it a little further up the trail, but the natural spot to turn around was the top of Bald Hill. A short use trail leads to the top from the saddle northeast of the hill. Oddly shaped fingers and pinnacles of weathered volcanic rock (andesite) form its summit.

The volcanic bluffs known as the Palisades encompass much of the view to the North. To the northwest is Mt. St. Helena, abutting the west end of the Table Rock-Palisades escarpment. To the west is Napa Valley, and in the distance, the coast near Bodega Bay.

The Oat Hill Mine Trail page of the Napa County Regional Park and Open Space District web site has more info about the trail, including a PDF brochure, trail map and a self-guided tour of the geology along the trail. The round-trip length of the run from near Brannan & Lincoln in Calistoga was a little under eight miles, with an elevation gain loss of about 1500'. From the trailhead it's about a mile less.

With a car shuttle, the approximately 11 mile route linking the Table Rock, Palisades, and Oat Hill Mine trails looks like it would be an outstanding trail run. The Table Rock trailhead is about 8 miles north of Calistoga on Hwy 29. Next time!

Today was the first chance I'd had to get back to Mt. Baldy since the Run to the Top was called 45 minutes into the race on Labor Day. Thunderstorms were the problem that day, but not today. The waning moon was the only blotch of white in the cloudless sky, and it wasn't going to cause any weather problems.

Part one of the plan for today's run/hike was to do a "run to the top" of Baldy using the ski hut trail. That would help make up for the incomplete race on Labor Day. Part two was to do some peakbagging and climb West Baldy, Mt. Harwood, Thunder Mountain and Telegraph Peak. Relatively close together, these peaks can be done as part of an 18 mile adventure, with an elevation gain and loss of about 6000'.

Climbing Baldy via the ski hut trail is about three miles shorter than the Run to the Top route via the Notch, but takes me about the same amount of time. Ultimately it's the rate of climb that can be sustained that determines your speed up the peak, and the elevation gain by either route is about 3900'. The ski hut trail can be busy, but I enjoy climbing the peak by this route. The tradeoff is that it is steeper and is less runnable.

Without some weather to stir things up, the views from the summit of Mt. Baldy were a little hazy, but San Gorgonio and San Jacinto could still be seen off to the east, Saddleback to the south, and Mt. Baden-Powell and other peaks of the San Gabriels to the northwest. I could also see Telegraph Peak sitting behind Thunder Mountain, and wondered how the trail between them was going to be.

After doing the half-mile jog over to West Baldy, I returned to the summit of Baldy and descended to the Baldy-Harwood saddle. Mt. Harwood is another one of those peaks I've run past many times. Harwood sees far fewer ascents than Baldy, but enough so that a path has developed from the Baldy-Harwood saddle up its broad west ridge. Today, save a a red-tailed hawk cruising by, its summit was empty.

Continuing along Harwood's elongated summit, I began to work down the peak's east ridge, staying on its crest. The east ridge is steeper and much less traveled than the west ridge. It is an extension of the Devil's Backbone and its north side is a steep, crumbly precipice that drops more than 3000' to Stockton Flat. The views along the ridge are excellent, but some care is required.

The east ridge of Mt. Harwood rejoined the trail at the Devil's Backbone. From there it took about 15-20 minutes to run down to (just above) the Notch and start up the service road that leads past the new snow making reservoir to the top of Thunder Mountain. I'd been to the top of Thunder several times and by several means -- by ski lift, by mountain bike, and by foot during the Baldy Peaks 50K. In that race Thunder had been the final challenge after climbing Mt. Baldy twice -- once from the village and once from Manker Flat.

Maybe because of pushing the pace on the ski hut trail, I was pretty worked going up the road to Thunder, and wondered if I was going to be able to make it to Telegraph Peak before my loosely set turnaround time of noon. I'd hoped to get back down to the car and on the road by around 1:30 pm, and felt like I was running a little behind.

But Telegraph is a compelling peak, particularly when viewed from the northwest, and from Thunder Mountain it only took about 30 minutes on the Three Tee's Trail to get to its summit. In another 30 minutes I was back at Thunder Mountain, and looking forward to the five miles of downhill that would take me back to the car.

Related post: Mt. Baldy Run (Part Way) to the Top 2011

A run or hike doesn't have to be long or difficult to be enjoyable! It had been a while since I'd done San Gabriel Peak, Mt. Markham, and Mt. Lowe; and although I'd run within a quarter-mile of the summit of Mt. Disappointment several times, I'd never done the last bit up to the peak. All four of these peaks can be done in a (round trip) run/hike of less than ten miles, with a cumulative elevation gain/loss of around 3000'.

Somewhere around the junction of the 210 and 605 I saw a flash of lightning to the south. As if the flash had been a warning, a gust of wind buffeted my car, and a blizzard of dust and debris blew across the freeway. Then it started to rain. Not good -- especially when you're on your way to a race that ends on top of a 10,000' mountain.

The Cottonwood Pass - New Army Pass loop is a longtime favorite that I try to do at least once a year. There's nothing quite like running at 11,000' through a forest of gnarled foxtail pines -- some perhaps a thousand years old -- then working up a glacier sculpted basin to one of the higher passes on the Sierra crest.

The trail run is the closest high altitude loop to Los Angeles that is almost entirely over 10,000'. Although its 21 mile length and 3400 'elevation gain/loss appear relatively moderate from an ultrarunning perspective, keep in mind it is a high mountain run that reaches an elevation of 12,300', and includes 12 miles that are over 11,000'. Nearly three miles are above tree line. It's kind of like driving to the top of Mt. Baldy and then starting your run from there.

This year a record-setting snowpack pushed back the date the loop could be done (as a trail run) to late July. I'd hoped to do it two weeks before the Mt. Disappointment 50K, but thunderstorms and flash floods quashed that plan. The next opportunity to do the loop was on Saturday, but once again thunderstorms were in the forecast.

A look at the SWFRS Bald Mountain #5 web cam midday Saturday confirmed the sketchy weather. The camera showed developing clouds from Olancha Peak on the south to New Army Pass, Mt. Langley and Mt. Whitney on the north. We wanted to enjoy the run in short-sleeves and shorts, so postponed the run to today.

And today the weather was perfect! A plus was that Saturday's rain had dampened the sometimes sandy and dusty trails, improving their condition and refreshing the landscape.

One of the interesting aspects of the run was that patches of snow remained from last Winter's heavy snowpack. Not only were there patches of snow on New Army Pass, and elsewhere above 12,000', but there was snow in lower, more exposed locations such as on the southeast-facing slopes above Chicken Spring Lake. Much of this high altitude snow will carryover into this Winter.

Here's a Google Earth browser view and elevation profile of a GPS trace of the loop. The view can be zoomed, tilted, panned, etc. Additional info, a slide show, and more photos are available in previous posts about this loop.

Some related posts: Cottonwood - New Army Pass Trail Run, Cottonwood - New Army Pass Loop, Mt. Langley in a Day from L.A., Climate Change and the Southern Foxtail Pine

Runners on Edison Road During a Recent Training Run

No matter if you run at the front, middle, or back of the pack, there's the race you plan, and the race you run.

Based on the course info, it looked like the 7th edition of the Mt. Disappointment 50K was going to be more difficult than in 2009 and 2010, adding both mileage and elevation gain. Because of the closure of Mueller Tunnel and the damage done by the Station Fire and subsequent floods, we still wouldn't be running up and over the shoulder of Mt. Disappointment, or down to Clear Creek and around Strawberry Peak, but the 2011 course would make up for that with its own very memorable sections.

To try and cope with the difficulties of the course, I'd put in extra miles and done more back to back Saturday-Sunday runs. But in one of those uh-oh moments a couple of miles into the race, I could feel in my legs that I was probably going to need to adjust my expectations. I wasn't injured. I wasn't getting over a cold or flu. My stomach wasn't upset. I felt pretty good. But there was this nagging bit of fatigue in my legs...

The new wrinkle for 2011 was that we turned off Mt. Wilson Road half-way to Red Box and ran down the Valley Forge Trail. In a training run a few weeks before the race, the Valley Forge Trail had been an obstacle course overgrown with Turricula. Trail work by Hilliard, Rowlan & Company had restored the trail, and today it was in great shape. Here's an interactive Google Earth browser view of the 2011 course and the courses in previous years, and an elevation profile of the 2011 course.

At the bottom of the Valley Forge we turned onto the Gabrieleno Trail, and started up the canyon of the West Fork toward Red Box-Rincon Road. The change in grade from level to uphill confirmed it. I stepped aside so two running friends could pass. Maybe it was a tapering or over-training issue, or maybe it was just "one of those days." Whatever, the legs were just not cooperating. 

The irony is, this was probably a good thing. The day turned out to be the hottest of any Mt. Disappointment race to date. The lurking leg fatigue forced me to not push the pace, which made dealing with the temperature easier.

And hot it was! The forecast had looked decent just two days before the race, but Friday temperatures exploded in the mountains, jumping 10-12 degrees in 24 hours. The hot temps on Friday carried over into Saturday, making race day just that much warmer. 

Here are the race day temperatures at Clear Creek and Chilao for 2005-2011, and Mt. Wilson for 2009-2011. And these temps are the temperature off the ground and in the shade! A better indication of the temperature in the sun  is the "fuel temperature." This is the temperature of a ponderosa pine dowel in direct sun. Here are plots of the race day fuel temperature at Clear Creek and Chilao for 2005-2011.

Because I wasn't pushing the pace I didn't hesitate to take a little extra time at aid stations. I can still feel that ice cold sponge on the back of my neck, and the cold water running down my back. This year there were numerous small stream crossings, and I think there was at least one small stream between every aid station. This was "free" cooling, and I paused a dozen times to dump water over my head. Thanks to the West Fork San Gabriel River, I was soaked from head to toe for the first steep, sun-baked section of Edison Road. This was also the case on the Silver Moccasin Trail in Shortcut Canyon and on part of Kenyon Devore.

Hot day or not there were some remarkable performances. Heather Fuhr was not only was the first place woman, she was fourth overall and set a new women's course record of 5:07:11. Perennial favorite Jorge Pacheco sped through the tough Mt. Disappointment course in 4:46:29, winning the overall and setting a new course record in the Men's 40-49 Division.

Once again the event was superbly organized by race director Gary Hilliard and the Mt. Disappointment 50K Staff, with the help of an extraordinary group of volunteers, runners, SAR personnel and sponsors. Thank you!

Related post: Mt. Disappointment 50K 2010 Notes