Winter vetch is a vining legume you'll see in patches along trails in lower elevation chaparral in Southern California. It's flowers are an unusal purple, and a closer look reveals various shades of violet, purple and rose.

Its capability to add nitrogen to soil gives it value in crop rotation and no-tillage farming. It is an invasive plant, not native to California.

From today's run in the Simi Hills.

We've had some great running weather in Southern California this Spring, with more than our usual share of cool days and postcard skies. Remarkably, the highest temperature recorded at Downtown Los Angeles so far this year was in the final few days of Winter, when the temperature hit 88 on March 16.

The title photograph is from a recent run in the Simi Hills.

The great view confirmed it -- we had run uphill. The new section of the Backbone Trail was so well-graded that the 850 feet of elevation gain from the trailhead at Encinal Canyon Rd. seemed almost effortless. For the next 14 miles, we would run through one of the most scenic areas of the Santa Monica Mountains; a rough and rugged highland with a character that might put it halfway around the world, rather than 35 miles from downtown Los Angeles.

On this May Day morning, the canyons were cool, the sun warm, and the skies clear. From the craggy heights views extended from Catalina to the Channel Islands; and from Topa Topa to the San Gabriel Mountains. Winter rains had produced a profusion of wildflowers, accenting the trails with the whites, blues, yellows and reds of Spring.

It was an extraordinary day in which mile after mile of trail would pass underfoot with surprising ease. It was the best kind of training -- a run in which the training was an afterthought, and the focus was on the experience, rather than the logbook.

Here's an interactive Google Earth view of the 23 mile route from Encinal Canyon Rd. to PCH at Sycamore Canyon. The elevation gain on the run was about 2500 ft., and elevation loss about 3800 ft. Continuing to the Ray Miller trailhead by way of the Wood Vista, Overlook and Ray Miller trails would add about 3 miles and another 1000 ft. of gain. Another option would be to run through Serrano Valley to Sycamore Canyon. The Fireline Trail is a short distance down canyon from the Serrano Valley Trail, and could also be used to link to the Overlook and Ray Miller trails.

And here's a photo of the Yerba Buena segment of the Backbone Trail when it was under construction in 2003.

Related post: Boney Mountain Crags

From today's trail run to Castle Peak in the western San Fernando Valley.

From today's 8 mile trail run to Saddle Peak and back on the Stunt High and Backbone trails.

From today's run of a variation of the Boney Mountain Half Marathon course from Wendy Dr.

Related post: Above Satwiwa

This year's Kern River Festival had the best weather and water the event has seen for several years. Racers had a great flow for paddling the waterfalls, steep drops, and slides on Brush Creek; and boaters enjoyed paddling a challenging slalom course through the whitewater of Riverside Park in downtown Kernville.

A new event this year, the Hooligan Boat Race, was a spectator and participant favorite. Inspired by the event at the FIBArk River Festival, paddlers constructed their own boats out of "non-boat" materials and attempted to paddle their creations from upstream of the bridge in Kernville, down through the class II rapids in Riverside Park.

The photograph above is of "Al's Original Bucket Boat." Usually a bucket boat refers to a raft that isn't self-bailing, but in this case the boat is made of buckets, and the paddles from bucket lids.

As you might expect there were some outrageous designs, and not every boat made it to the finish line.

Next year the Hooligan Boat Race is expected to be even more popular. The Kern River Festival is held annually, the third weekend in April, in Kernville, California. In 2011 it is scheduled for April 16-17. (Easter is April 24, 2011.)

I heard a news report the other day that Southern California's rain season would end in two weeks. While Southern California typically receives the bulk of its precipitation in the months of November through April, the rain season doesn't turn off like a switch on May 1. There certainly can be significant rain in May, and even June.

The water year for Downtown Los Angeles (USC) is from July 1 to June 30 of the following year. So far, Downtown Los Angeles (USC) has recorded 16.17 inches of rain during the current water year. This is more than an inch above the 1971-2000 annual climate norm for Los Angeles of 15.14 inches.

Our Sunday-Monday storm put Downtown Los Angeles at 1.51 inches of rain for the month of April -- well above the climate normal of 0.83 inches. The normal amount of precipitation for May is 0.31 inches, and for June is 0.06 inches. But those are just averages. On occasion we receive much more than this, and sometimes much less. On the up side, according to NWS data, in April 1965 Los Angeles recorded a total of 6.02 inches of rain. In May 1921, 3.57 inches was measured; and in June 1999 0.98 inch was recorded.

Although the current El Niño has weakened, convection is still somewhat enhanced in a broad region of the equatorial Pacific, and the MEI, ONI, and GWO indicate the continued presence of El Niño. This could result in more active Spring weather than usual, and more opportunities for rain in Southern California.

At the moment, the next opportunity for some Southern California rain looks to be next week, around Tuesday or Wednesday. We'll see!

The title photo is from a run on the Chumash Trail at the end of March.

Updated April 9, 2011.

Chinese houses (Collinsia heterophylla) along the Secret Trail in Calabasas, California. From a trail run on March 30.

Was originally identified as Davidson's Blue-Eyed Mary (Collinsia bartsiifolia var. davidsonii). Took a closer look at flowers in the same colony this year, including  the internal structure of the flower. The presence of a curved basal spur > 1 mm on the two upper (stamen) filaments;  corolla throat as wide as long; and calyx lobes generally sharp-tipped (per key in Jepson) distinguishes the species as the more common Collinsia heterophylla.

One of the largest Southern Pacific Rattlesnakes I've seen at Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve -- formerly Ahmanson Ranch. This one was on the East Las Virgenes Canyon Trail (aka Main Drag).

I counted 12 rattle segments, and as this HD video snapshot shows, the snake was nearly as long as the dirt road was wide.

From a run on Wednesday from the Victory trailhead to Las Virgenes Creek.

A couple of weekends ago, I was running up toward the Hub on Fire Road #30 with a couple of runners training for Leona Divide. One of them stopped suddenly, and pointed, "That's a scorpion!"

It was -- about an inch or so in length. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but somehow I just didn't expect to see a scorpion out in the middle of a fire road, on a run to Trippet Ranch.

The title photo is a view from Eagle Springs Fire Road, between the Hub and Trippet Ranch, in Topanga State Park. Saddle Peak is in the distance.

Even though it was Summer, it was cold. Except for the clinking of our climbing gear, it was still and quiet at 13,000 ft. The sun had not yet risen, and I was perched on an icy step just below the bergschrund of Palisade Glacier. Tom had just crossed the large crevasse, and the brightly colored red rope ran through my hands as he worked up the ice of U-Notch couloir.