Mt. Tam and darkness falling

Well, I headed out saturday for a slightly later but incidently much harder run than my normal mt tam jaunts. My friend Sarah had invited me to join her on the "Saturday Morning Run" loosely associated with the Tamalpa Runners. Now, I probably should have remembered that Sarah is much faster than me when I agreed to go along. But, she'd been doing low heart rate training so I thought that I'd be fine :)

Ha

We showed up and all the runners looked super fit and fast. Few had water, and only one other had a camelbak. Apparently, as the Dipsea was in 3 weeks, many of the runners were training intensely for it, and today's run was going to be timed intervals on the trails of Mt. Tam. Not exactly what I'm used to!

The first mile was a fun fast downhill that I could keep up on, but as soon as we started heading up, it became clear that I was in a whole different league! I did my best to hold onto my sights of Sarah, who was keeping the runner in front of her in sight. I kept having flashbacks to Sequoia, one of the most mentally difficult trail runs (my 2nd ever) in which the hills felt huge and I felt out of shape. But each time I started to feel discouraged, I reminded myself how far I had come and that I really did feel stronger than even a few months ago.

Luckily, after that 2nd section, it got a lot better. The next part was much flatter and Sarah and I didn't get that far behind. We caught up with the other runners at a nice meadow, and actually had a chance to breathe and snap a picture.

(click on the picture to get a closer look) Resting on a huge rock. Check out the remnants of the poison oak from Mt Diablo 3 weeks ago! (the red splotches on my leg) Hopefully that'll eventually go away.

From there we headed back to the car, ended up with a short 6.5 miles that felt much longer ;)

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Since this was such a short run, Sarah and I decided it would be really fun and exciting to go up to this paved trail in Tilden park and run at night! Now, while this idea seemed fabulous at around noon, by 11pm when we were driving on a dark winding road up to the trailhead, I was feeling a little less confident. We saw a beautiful buck on the way up, which was great, but reminded me of the less friendly animals that could be out there (read: mountian lions). We parked and were surpised to see that we weren't the only cars there. Apparenty this spot doubled as a "makeout" spot as well.

With the headlamps lit, we went off. The weeds along the trail seemed to have grown since we were last there wednesday, and there seemed to be lots more trees. All a bit spooky. I tried to keep the conversation going, and would periodically swing my light up to the hills to see if anything was looking back at us. At a little after a mile I suggested that we only do 3 miles tonight instead of the planned 8. Running in the dark was spooking me! (Mike, if you're reading this, apparently I would have made a bad pacer after all ;) ). However, doing 3 left us with an uneven 9.5 miles for the day, so we did another 1/4 mile out and back and ended with the lovely total of 10 miles for the day.

After we stopped running and turned off the light, I turned my sights up to the sky. The stars shined down on us, and the hills and mountains surrounding us could be seen silouetted by the night sky. It was beautiful.

A belated Mt. Tam Run Report!

Back to Running!!!

Well, it's been a week and a half since my awesome run with Mike Palmer, and now that I'm done with all things school (for two months!!!) I have time do give it the write up it deserves. We'll see how good my memory actually is! (note- it ended up really long. Just imagine its length if I did it when I still remembered all the details!)

Now, going into this run, I was nervous. I had just done Diablo the week before and then went ahead and did a hard fast 6.5 miles on wednesday and a decent sized run Thursday. Then I volunteered at Miwok for 7 hours saturday, which left me completely drained. And now I was going on a 25ish mile circumnaviation of Mt. Tam. Sounded amazing, but, really, was I up for that?

I planned to meet up with Mike at 8am, which is late by my Mt Tam standards (I usually run with a group that starts around sunrise! Generally 6:45 or so, so 8 was sleeping in!)

Still, I wanted to make sure I had more than enough time, so set the alarm for 6am. I was planning to leave by 7 or so, since I wasn't exactly sure how long it would take and I wanted to be on time!

By the time I packed up everything I needed (was going to try a camelbak for the first time!) I was running a little late, and ended up out the door by 7:20 or so. I also managed to lose my car keys at some point between coming home Saturday night and Sunday morning so, after a fruitless search, had to go with my spare pair (note: the keys are still missing. I'm hoping that when I pack to move they'll magically appear!)

The drive over was easy, like always, and had the extra benefit of ended a good 15-20 minutes sooner than normal, as we were meeting in the town of Ross, rather than actually on Mt Tam. Good for us east bay folk.

As I drove over the San Rafael bridge, the mountain came into view and I started grinning. I develop a strong attachment to places that I run, and Mt. Tam has become very special to me over the last few months. I was still nervous, but now excited as well!

I wanted to find a bathroom before we left, so drove around a little after locating the meeting spot, but didn't see anything promising so headed back to park and get ready. Mike had mentioned a water stop 1/2 a mile in, which I assumed would have facilities as well. I'm somewhat ocd about using the bathroom right before a run "just in case" but would have to get over it for today :)

I sat in my car for a bit, making sure I had everything and getting ready and then finally headed over to Mike, who was sitting on the back of his car getting ready. He looked up and smiled, commenting, "I didn't think you were going to show up!" Ha...I didn't realize that that was an option.

As he finished getting ready, some other runners he knew showed up. They were going out as well, but faster and not as long, so we weren't planning to all run together. He introduced me, and then we went our ways.

Just a few minutes into the run, a beautiful doe was standing across the path (still asphalt here). We stopped and admired it, but then moved towards it a little, ready to move on. It ran away gracefully and we continued, still running by houses, on the way to the trail.

Our first point of interest would be phoenix lake, where we stopped to use the bathroom and admire the waters. I hadn't been here before and was duly impressed by the sights!


Mike told me that running on the North Side of Mt. Tam is his favorite because of all these beautiful spots, and he definitely didn't dissapoint. Of course, I got lots of indulgent looks for all the pictures I took, but he was a great sport about it :D And really, with all these great views, it was hard not to have that camera constantly out! I really need a hydration pack with the front pockets, so that I don't spend a good minute getting that camera out every time!

As we ran along the lakes and the more general north side, we had some fun ultra talking. Because he's such an awesome and well run individual, he let me pick his brain on all the races I'd heard about but only online. He told me about Western States experiences, Angeles Crest (which he's planning to do this year), Hurt 100 (he told me exactly how hard it is! Not sure that's a race I'll want to try!), and some others. I asked him about the Dick Collins Firetrails 50, which he had nothing but good things to say about. Even cooler, he told me that Ann Trason is the RD! I had just sent her an email, not realizing "Ann and Carl" were the Ann and Carl :) How awesome. Mike also had nothing but nice things to say about Ann, and highly encouraged me to take on this race. Being in Berkeley, it'll have lots of sentimental value as well, to do my first 5o there, on some of my first running trails, so I'm really looking forward to it.

We ran into one of Mike's running friends on the trails, and chatted with him briefly before he continued on.

Our conversations were fun and varied. For a while we talked about the infamous DK (or Dean Karnazes) and the pros and cons of his fame/image. I'm really torn about him because I really respected and admired him for a while. He was the first to introduce me to this sport, to which I'm incredibly grateful, and I do find much of what he's done inspirational. And, from what I've heard, he's a really nice and down to earth guy in person. However, that said, he's not the best runner out there, and it's somewhat odd and contrary to the sport, it would seem, that he's posessing of this level of fame when better runners (Ann Trason for example) are much more approachable. Still, Dean does good work with his charity organization and seems to really be a nice guy. This whole fame thing is just weird.

As we started to near our next sightseeing point, the Cataract Waterfalls, we ran into some wildlife!

It's a newt :) Such a cute little guy and fun to see!

We continued on and soon reached our destination. The falls!

Mike humoured me with a photo by this beautiful sight. A few moments later a running group came by that knew Mike. He introduced me (thus reinforcing my belief that he knows pretty much every trail running in the bay area :D) and we chatted for a bit. One of them made the comment that "You'd better watch out! Mike will have you running hundreds in no time!" to which I replied "I sure hope so" :). Everyone was so nice (as is almost always the case with trail runners). We all continued on our journey and so it was just the two of us again.

We soon reached another great spot to view a different section of the falls! How pretty with the sun coming through the water and trees

I got Mike in there for a picture, convincing him that no one wants to see just scenery and that people make it more fun :)

I had previously been to the falls once before, but really, it's one of the most special places in the Bay Area. Just gorgeous. Mike showed me the spot that he believed Carl proposed to Ann Trason, which was pretty cool. What a romantic place to become engaged!

Soon we were out of the forest briefly and into the meadow.
There was a decent bathroom stop here, and then we headed off for our next goal, Pan Toll. I had worked the aid station at that location yesterday, and it was fun to get there on foot instead of by car.

We entered back into a more covered area, when Mike announced that we'd reached one of our side goals for the trip: the WWII airplane engine!
To answer the question I posed earlier, this engine came to be on Mt. Tam through a crash between two WWII planes on October 4, 1945

From what I understand, two planes were practicing flying and the one ran into his teacher! Thankfully, both parachutted to safety, but their planes crashed down onto Mt. Tam. Most of the debris has been taken, but this bohemeth of an engine is still in the creek. I believe it's something like 2600 horsepower, and is really giant.

As we were admiring the engine yet another group of runners came by that Mike knew. One, Bob Agazzi, who runs Mt Tam runs on the weekend, is apparently a huge fan of the history surrounding this engine, and shared with us many details (that I've unfortunately forgotten).

After fully taking in this cool sight, we moved on, heading towards one of my favorite views ever.
The wildflowers were just beautiful and painted the grasses such pretty colors.

Finally we reached the lookout point, and I was far from dissapointed with what greeted my eyes.
I was just blown away by the view. The Pacific was such a deep color and blended in with the sky above.
We could see twin peaks over in San Francisco from where we were

As we headed down towards Pan Toll, it was hard to keep my eyes on the trail, when I kept wanting to look up at the sights. I wisely stopped to take pictures, and then would sprint to catch up with Mike. This kind of running really made me feel as though I were 6 years old again, and running for the pure joy of movement.
The ocean had this two toned quality, I'm guessing from the underwater drop off, but it really was just gorgeous.

Finally we arrived at pan toll, and stopped to refill our water and have a snack. A group of bikers over from San Francisco were stopped there as well, so we chatted with them for a bit. Everyone was enjoying this perfect summery day.
Mike showed me on the map where we were, where we had come from and the trails we were taking to get back. It was cool to see it all laid out!

The sign at Pan Toll, warning about the two most dangerous animals on the mountain. Luckily we saw neither today. Mike entertained me with stories of his close encounters, reinforcing the thought that I'll have my own someday. Eeks!

We continued on and reached some awesome exposed trails that featured great views. I had been on this trail before, and it was fun to be in a familiar area. Mike explained that this part reminded him of Angeles Crest, which, I think is possibly his favorite 100 from the way he spoke of it. Based on how much I enjoyed this trail, I'm eager to try it out for myself some day!

There were so many beautiful sights everywhere that I kept oscillating between wanting to keep my camera out to take as many pictures as I could, and being afraid that I'd get so distracted by the view that I'd end up falling and breaking the camera, thus destroy the pictures I had already taken. I compromised and would take pictures for a few minutes, put it away (and catch up to Mike!) and then when I became too overcome by the beauty again, I'd take the camera back out. It's no wonder I ended up with over 130 photos :)

We continued on Matt Davis

I remembered these stairs from my first trip ever on Mt. Tam. Part of me wanted to take so many photos since I hadn't had my camera on my two previous visits, so I was sort of taking pictures for 3 runs in one :)

We made our trail change, onto Mike's favorite trail in the park
The Hoo Koo E Koo Trail :) What an awesome name!

From here we headed up a firetrailesque road, and as we gained elevation, we were going to gain some great views.

While beautiful, the day was getting hot and all this exposed area definitely emphasized the point.

Luckily, on Mt. Tam, a redwood forest never seems to be too far away :) We soon entered back into a much cooler covered area, and I glanced around in awe of these trees. California is really such a cool place to live!

These forest sections were great because it kept the heat from ever feeling too oppressive (We later learned it was in the 90s all day!)

As we got out to the exposed area again, we were greated with some new views
Mt Diablo! It was so exciting to see it, since I had just been there last weekend. Very cool that I went up 2 mountains in two weeks :)

Not wanting to bother Mike, I took a picture of myself enjoying the view. I really have too much fun with this camera
But then I decided to bother Mike anyways ;)

It was fun to have such an amazing view of everything around us, from northbay, to eastbay to san francisco

After much climbing we finally reached some fun downhill firetrail. A bit technical at spots, but compared to Diablo, it was easy :) This was the place where we did the most continuous running, and it was fun to be moving, even though I was a bit sore by this point. Amazing how much faster time flies when you're doing 10 minute miles instead of 20 minute miles

Soon we thankfully headed back into the cover and onto singletrack, as I was getting hot (and I love singletrack). We entered onto a beautiful trail, apparently Ann's favorite, and it's no wonder why.
I enjoyed doing my sprints to catch up with Mike after each picture, which I figured was a good little speed workout within the long run ;)

Soon we reached the treasure tree!
"Neighbors bring food with death and flowers with sickness and little things in between. Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a pair of good-luck pennies, and our lives. But neighbors give in return. We never put back into the tree what we took out of it: we had given him nothing, and it made me sad."-Scout (Lee, 293) As Josh and Michelle guessed, the book that this tree is a reminder of is To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. One of the best books and movies ever made. If you have missed out on either, get yourself to a library and a video place, and find a copy. It's one of the few occassions in which a movie accurately and wonderfully captures the book on which it was based.

Mike Brought a Dragon Fly to add to the tree. I had nothing with me besides food, which seemed like a bad idea. Next time I'll bring something to contribute!

Before too long we were back at the tail end of Lake Phoenix! Only a little bit more to go now until we'd be back at the car.
The hill behind me, aptly named, bald hill, looked as though it had some fun trails on it. I can't wait to check them out!

Three short miles later we were back at the car! It took us 8 1/2 hours to complete the 23 mile loop. Not sure how accurate this is, but when I uploaded that data onto the MotionBased software, it claimed that of that 5 1/2 hours, 3 of them were spent not moving! If that's even partially true, than I've really got to work on my picture taking skills while running. Well, it was worth it. I have no qualms about having spent all day out on Mt. Tam. There's really no better place to be!

Thanks again to Mike Palmer for being an excellent tour guide and humouring me with my picture taking obsession :) You're amazing!

If anyone wants to see more pictures (yes there are more!) you can go here and here

Quick Recap!

My Partner in Crime- Mike Palmer :)

I've promised Mike a good entry about our circumnativation of Mt. Tam on Sunday and plan to type up a nice one, but as it's finals week and I'm graduating in 6 days, now isn't exactly the time to be spending my writing talents (or lack therof) on my blog.

With that said, I wanted to just state generally what a great time we had out there! We ended up completing 22.5 miles and some decent elevation (not sure on actual numbers) and went all the way around Mt. Tam! Started at Ross Commons and went by the cataract waterfalls, up to a great view point (that has some name...) to Pan Toll, and then on some other cool trails back to Ross. Took about 8 1/2 hours to complete the whole thing :)


A big time zapper on this adventure was my pechant for taking photos! I ended up with the obscenely large number of 132 pictures after our journey!!! Lots of them were unexciting shots of forest singletrack that just didn't translate well onto the camera, but I did get some really nice pictures too (if I do say so myself :) ). Mike also indulged me by both allowing me to take pictures of him (to make the pictures more exciting) and taking pictures of me as well (I'm such a running tourist!)

One of Mike's many great shots. This one at Cataract Falls

He also showed me some great hidden treasures on Mount Tam. For those in the area, guess where on Mt. Tam these 'amusements' were taken!

Bonus Points if you know the story behind this!

Bonus points if you can site a potential literary reference here! (click on it to enlarge if you need to see it better!)

If you don't know the real story behind either of these, or aren't from the area, take a guess!

Running Naked

well, technologically speaking at least :)

I drove up to the firetrail today all set to do a 3 mile out and back, accompanied by my garmin and my ipod.

Well, the ipod wasn't there (not sure where I've misplaced it...) and the garmin's battery was dead (forgot to charge it), so I was out of luck.

Now, I sometimes enjoy running sans ipod (and, indeed, haven't run with it in a few weeks) but I've really become dependent on the garmin, just because I like knowing how far I'm going. However, since there was no way around it, I headed up the trail all alone, planning to use my wrist watch to try to guesstimate a good turn around time.

As everyone always says, your fastest run is the one where you aren't timing yourself, and that really ended up being the case today. Somehow, all the consistent trail running I've been doing the last few weeks (I haven't used my road shoes at all in about 2 weeks, I think) has really paid off! For the first time ever, I was able to run the entire trail, except for the very steep connector (which I have now qualms walking). Even the connector, though, was easier to go up than usual. It was so exciting to run practically the whole thing. [According to local folklore, the legendary mile runner John Walker, on an extended visit to Berkeley in 1975, did repeat sprints up the connector shortly before he broke the world record in the mile. (His record of 3:49.4 stood until 1979, when it was broken by Sebastian Coe] And, I was much less worried about all the sounds than usuall. I'm starting to get used to the sounds that birds make in brush, so when I hear that now I no longer think it's a mountain lion ;).

Well, I felt so good, that I decided to just do the whole trail, going 7.5 miles instead of the planned 6. Coming down after the turn around, I just kept having thoughts about how exciting it is that this is me. The unathletic, slow, and fairly weak person that I used to be is now this strong, fun, running person, and its just so cool. I remember distinctly the first time I ran on the firetrail. I did maybe 5 miles of it, and it was just about the toughest thing I had ever run. It was so painful and so hilly and I actually pinched a nerve in my shoulder because I was trying so hard to keep up with my friend on those hills. I really just hated it.

And now it just doesn't feel all that hard. I'd like to be able to run the whole thing someday, connector and all, but for now I'm very satisfied by what I can do. As Diablo gets closer, I'm happy to feel like I might not suck so much at hills after all :)

Trying to become one with Nature

Well, as any of you who have talked with me know. I have a fear of mountain lions. Not just a little fear either. A paranoid, debilitating, frustrating fear that makes running by myself on trails an anxious experience.

On Monday I decided to check out some trails in Tilden park that I had explored with a friend the day before. I wanted to do 6 or so miles, and was really looking forward to enjoying the great trails and views that I knew I was sure to find. However, after about a mile and a half, I starting psyching myself out. I was on singletrack, but felt a little too scared so backtracked and got onto the firetrail just below (as if being on a firetrail would keep me safer? I don't know). After I had gone out two miles, I reached this great look out spot with a few benches and a table that provided an amazing view of the bay, san francisco, and north bay. I decided to try to enjoy being alone in nature, so sat down and took everything in. It was so beautiful, watching birds hovering in the sky, the clouds moving across the vista. I was hoping that just sitting and enjoying being there would help me feel better about being out there alone. After about 15 or so minutes, some dark clouds were starting to move in, and the temperature was dropping, so I decided to head back. Of course, the paranoid thoughts started up again. "What was that sound?" "It would be really bad if something happened while I was all alone" "Is there something moving over there?" All in all, I was glad to reach the car, but was a few miles short of my plan.

So I headed back out on another trail that looked promising, all the while trying to convince myself that if I got attacked, at least I'd die doing something that I loved. Of course, the little voice inside kept responding with, "but I don't want to die!" After going out for 1/2 a mile and hitting a steep downhill that I didn't want to climb back up, I turned around.

Now my run was up to 5 miles. I got in my car and started down the hill, but after much internal debate pulled over at a firetrail entrance and decided to try to get in one more mile.

I did .25 miles and then turned around, utterly convinced that there were mountain lions out there. (note: I'm fairly certain that there weren't, as it was the middle of the day)

Having done 5.5 now, And thoroughly frustrated with myself, I decided to just head down to my normal firetrail that always has a good 10-20 people on it, and finish up. I did a little more than a mile there, and was finally able to bring my total up to a respectable 6.6 miles

Tonight I ran w/ transports, and, since I'm slow, ended up doing a lot of the run myself. I couldn't help but have my paranoid thoughts again, though, since there were other runner not too far ahead, I felt a little better. I reasoned that, if attacked, at least someone would probably hear me and might be able to help save me. Ended up just doing 5 because I was afraid of being too slow if I tried to do the whole 7. Oh well...I'll just go longer tomorrow!


Arg....I've really got to get over this! It's keeping my runs from being the relaxing experiences that they deserve to be.

At least I'm still able to enjoy the views, in spite of my paranoid internal dialogue :)

And there have been some great ones over the last few days!

Ack...I've signed up!

The price was going to go up for the Diablo Marathon tomorrow so...

I decided now was the time to commit!

I'm doing the Diablo Marathon in less than 2 weeks. Ack...I'm sort of afraid I'm getting in over my head...but, it'll be a good experience, right?

Its just more like a very very long hike where I get to run the fun bits.

This, however, is what makes me nervous (click on it to see better):



That top elevation is almost 4,000 ft. There is 7,950 ft of elevation gain.

My saving grace is the 16 hour cut off for the 50 milers, which means I have 16 hours to go 26.2 miles. That's 36 minutes a mile. I can do 36 minutes a mile, right?

Just think positive thoughts!

Child's Play

Well, after a long hiatus, I finally got to rejoin the TTT (tam trail trekkers) for an amazing run through the forests and hills of Mt. Tam. I woke up to 50 degrees and a slight drizzle, with a chance of real rain. Having been unable to fall asleep until after 2am and waking up at 5, I was tired, but excited about a good run.

No real traffic getting over, meaning that it took just about 45 minutes to get to Mountain Home. The fog over there was intense! The worst that I have ever driven in!!! I was a little afraid of driving off the road. I made it okay though, and had about 25 minutes to wait until the rest of the crew arrived, which is when I took some pictures of the fog.

(Mountain Home Inn)



(looking out over the 'forest' (or fog here!) It was really disconcerting, because I could hear all the birds and so I knew the forest was down there, but couldn't see anything!)



(A pretty tree in the fog. Look for this same shot in the later pictures)

Everyone else showed up around 6:45, and we waited around for a few no-shows until a bit after 7. The plan was to go out the matt davis trail to stinsen beach (a first visit for me!) and then back up the dipsea to steep ravine to (I think) troop 80 back to our cars.

I stuck with the 'walkers' again, only to discover that actually, we'd be doing more running as Lucy, the designated walker, was getting in shape for a half marathon (she was out there today after having cracked a rib last week on the run! This group is tough!) So much for my easy 'hike' day :)

The weather when we left was cool and foggy. However, after less than a mile, the rain started. Soon, moving became a matter of staying warm, so we tried to keep moving at a good pace (mostly walking). A new matter to deal with as well was the amazing amount of poison oak! It was everywhere!!!

Despite the coldness and the rain (I've really got to get a waterproof jacket, my little wicking jacket was sorely undersuited for today), it was simply beautiful. We came out in an open section, where Ken (the leader) informed us that this was the place he had seen a mountain lion a few years ago. With my fear of these creatures, I definitely didn't want to be out alone ;) so when he started running, I picked up the pace. This was one of my favorite sections because the rain was intense enough to turn our singletrack into a small muddy stream, and keeping my feet dry became pointless. I starting running with abandon down the trail, splashing everywhere and feeling like a little kid. I couldn't help by giggle softly to myself with glee...this was just so much fun!

We reached the end of the Matt Davis trail and headed over to the beach to use the restrooms (and see the beach!). On the way, per apparent tradition, we each grabbed a rock and played a game of hopscotch at a little playground. I've sort of forgotten how to play, but we improvised :)

At the beach, we discovered, lo and behold, there was a race going on! We arrived as the envirosport's 1/2 marathon was just about to take off. My running friend Sarah was running this race and I tried to see if I could spot her, but was unsucessful. We talked to a race director, and discovered they were running the same trails we planned to use to get back! Not what we had in mind. However, going another way would have meant an extra 2 or 3 miles, which we didn't have time to do, so we went with it. We stopped and ate some food here as well, trying to keep our energy up in the cold!

Ken is the director for the double dipsea (a race that, I think is now going onto my calendar!), and so knows that trail quite well. In order to bypass distance (and the crowds) we took one of the imfamous 'shortcuts' which, well, wasn't the best idea. The shortcut was horribly horribly overgrown with poison oak!!! It was completely unavoidable, and I"m really hoping that the tecnu I used will save me, but that remains to be seen.

We met back up with the racers, and headed up 'Steep Ravine' where we got to experience the famed ladder and lots of muddy trails and stairs.


Finally, after we got to the parking lot (perhaps at pan toll I think?) we got to leave the main race course, and had some more space. Only to discover we were now going backwards on the marathon course! Luckily the racers were pretty spread out at this point, and we just made sure to jump to the side when people came by. We cheered for everyone we saw, which people seemed to appreciate (though some runners were quite worried that they had gotten off course when they saw us coming). This part had some just fabulous running through redwood forest, with amazing soft runnable trails. So so so much fun!!! I honestly couldn't help from laughing out loud at how fun this part was. I'd give Ken a bit of space in front of me, then just 'fly' down the hill. It really felt like I was a kid again. It was amazing!

Eventually out trail ended, and we hiked up the 1/2 mile of road back to the cars. All in all, about 13-14 miles in a bit over 4 hours (including lots of stops!)

By the time we got back to the car, that area's weather was so much nicer. It was actually not that cold and the fog was starting to lift.

Some Scenery Shots!

(Me with the beautiful backdrop of Mt. Tam after a long and fun morning!)

(Shot of my lovely muddy legs (can almost see all the scatches!) That are likely completely covered in poison oak! My trail shoes are definitely broken in now)

(Sporting my new injinji socks! My shoes literally were filled with water, and yet no blisters!! I am officially sold. Plus, I get to put on flip flops w/out losing the socks :) )

(Check out that dirt tan line!)

(On the way home I stopped at In n out to use the facilities, and on my way back to my car, one of the boys working there looked at me, looked at my legs, and just stared. I answered his look by telling him that 'I just went on the most amazing trail run' with a smile in my voice :) I think this is the muddiest I've ever been!)

After the run we headed to the Dipsea Cafe for some much needed hot food and hot drink. Amazing restaurant with a ton of Dipsea paraphernalia on the walls! I had a great time hanging out with the rest of the group! I then headed back to Berkeley, stopping at REI for tecnu, and then finally getting home.

All in all, one of the best bay area days (or, really, anywhere days) a person could have :)