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.

Showy tarweed (Madia elegans ssp. densifolia) blooming along the Mokelumne River. The seeds of tarweed were an ingredient of pinole -- a food staple of several California native cultures made from ground seeds. The plant's common name refers to the sticky nature of the its foliage.

From a run on Saturday morning.

Study of a wall of the Electra Powerhouse on the Mokelumne River.

It's growth exhausted, this dessicated stalk of hummingbird sage (Salvia spathacea) is a relic of Southern California's 2005-2006 rain season. A robust member of the mint family, the flowering stalks typically grow to a height of 1-3 ft., but in this case the full stalk reached about 4 ft. The 2006-2007 rain season was too dry to produce flowering stalks in this area.

From a run at Sage Ranch Park on August 22, 2007.

Related post: Dealing with Drought

View of the Kern River valley, upstream of Kernville, California, from a hilltop near Bull Run Creek.

View east from the Misha Mokwa trail over Ladyface and the San Fernando Valley to the San Gabriel Mountains.

The peaks of the Mt. Wilson area are those in the distance, rising above the marine layer. Mt. Baldy, about 75 miles distant, is the high peak, just left of the centerline of the photograph, in the haze beyond the Mt. Wilson ridgeline.

Related post: Balance Rock, Mt. Wilson Area Peaks From Twin Peaks

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.

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