Celebrating Two Years of Marriage

Okay, so let's be honest. Me and running? Not really happening since the move. I'm still really struggling with nerve pain in both feet that just keeps getting worse, what with being on my feet all day at work. Added to which, I still can't quite convince myself that desert scenery is really my cup of tea. I'm still working on it :).

In the mean time? Let's relive some California running together :)

So, let's rewind to June 27th. Picture a young couple, their furniture gone from their home, having just returned from 2 nights of backpacking. This is their last taste of California, before they head to this:

If you can put yourself in their shoes, you can understanding how wonderfully excited they would be to be staying in such an amazing place.

In true to form fashion, we arrived early so that we could go on a wonderful trail run before check in. Ed left the planning up to me, which was good and bad. The bad part was that one of my favorite trails (troop 80) was closed, so it knocked out a whole bunch of my favorite loops. The good part was that we ended up doing an amazing loop I never would have otherwise chosen that gave us the perfect goodbye taste of Mt Tam.
We began by heading down the Ocean View trail, one I apparently had never taken Ed on that is actually one of my favorites.

 I couldn't believe how much fun it was running down this trail. It brought back so many fun memories of running this trail in college, back when trail running was brand new and surprisingly amazing at every step.
If I could only run one trail for the rest of my life, single track redwoods might just have to be it.

In what seemed like next to no time, we hit the bottom of the valley and entered Muir Woods, complete with lots and lots of tourists.However, our time on the valley floor was all to short. 

In next to no time, we were climbing rapidly, at which point I started to question my loop choice quite seriously. 
Now, don't get me wrong, it was beautiful. Jaw droopingly, I miss those redwoods so much I could cry right now, beautiful. It was also crazy steep. I may have made Ed stop and pose for pictures so I could catch my breath. 

I made Ed pause with the switchbacks because it was so exciting to hit a less steep part of the trail.

Finally, we hit the pan toll sign, and I knew we were getting close to the end of this slogging uphill, which made me very excited.

Once we got there, we stopped, we rested, drank water, and, if I''m not mistaken, ate some cookies we'd packed.

Then, we were back on the trails, Matt Davis, to be precise. I was worried, because in my memory Matt Davis was full of exposed uphill, and I was so not ready for that, after 30+ miles of backpacking only two days before. 

But, since there really wasn't any other choice, we kept going.
And, I am so, so thankful we did. Because, what I did forget was that this part of Matt Davis was actually quite flat and/or downhill, and full of spectacular views.

Seeing San Francisco from this vantage is one of my favorites.

And, the Pacific Ocean from here is even better. I have to admit, looking at these pictures right now, when I feel so far away from California, almost makes me a little teary. I cannot wait to make another visit sometime soon. 

I know I said redwood single track was my favorite, but this comes a close second.



We grabbed a quick "us" picture, to commemorate our anniversary, as we came to the close of our trail.

Finally, with one last glance at the view, we headed downward and we were back at the inn, done.