We're Back!

Got home yesterday evening!
Had a great, relaxing trip. Much cooler than when we go later in the summer, but mostly nice weather.  Water was off at the campground, so scored a half price camping trip.
Less swimming this trip, more fishing. All who fished caught fish, which rarely happens with us, so that was great!
I'll try to get some pictures uploaded today...but we'll see. Lot's to do the first day back from camping...I have an endless rotation of clothes hanging dry outside. Did I mention our dryer broke....nearly a month ago?? It came back to life for a few days, then was done for good.  Not complaining, we always make due with what we have, but you know how camping is, everything that got packed smells like smoke, whether it was worn or not, including all the bedding. On the bright side, it's in the 90's today and a slight wind...so it should dry quickly : )

I managed to drag myself through a run this morning, thinking I would beat the heat. I did not beat the heat, it was already 81 when I finished at 9:40. And, it would be more properly described as either running through mud for 6 miles, or dragging sandbags for 6 miles....either way that's what it felt like.  Nothing like a gut full of bacon, hotdogs, and pancakes + heat.

Hope y'all had a great weekend!

If You Scream.....

in the woods, but nobody is there to hear you, did you actually make a sound?

Um, yeah. I'm sure I made a sound. When I screamed. While I was trying to photograph a snake. The snake didn't want his picture taken.

I was out on Buckeye loop again yesterday, alone this time.  I know there are rattlers out there as I've seen lot's of pictures taken out there of them on the single track sections, and I've mentioned here on the blog that one of the things that makes me nervous on that trail is the snakes. It's very narrow (like one foot width wide) and lined with tall grass, very hard to see anything off the side of the trail.  I always figure I'll hear one before I ever get to it, sort of natures way of warning us, I figure.

So I'm running and see "the stick" across the trail. I had a whole conversation with myself about "if you think it could be something, assume it is." "Better safe than sorry," I told myself...as I continued running towards the stick, ignoring myself. I convinced myself it was not even a stick, just a shadow of the grass/mustard, since it was just a dark line, clearly not a rattler. Keep in mind this is happening in about the space of 5 - 10 seconds.  Well, at the last second I told myself to "Jump!!" the shadow/stick that was, indeed, a snake.

It was most likely some sort of Garter snake, was a weird pea-green color, matte not shiny, about as thick as a finger, maybe 2 ft long. His tail was in the grass on one side of the trail, and his head in the grass on the other side of the trail.  I got down low near the butt end to get a picture...and the bugger came back at me.  I dont' know if it actually struck at the camera, or what...but I did scream and I'm pretty sure my heart stopped for a beat of two! Usually a snake will just  continue slithering off in the direction he was already headed....I've never had one twist his head back around and change direction to come at me.

Where the snake was, that I did not get a picture of.

Right where Buckeye meets Stage, I passed a mt biker doing the loop in the opposite direction as me. We ended up getting back to the parking lot at the same time....he said he saw rattler just after he passed me.  That's what makes me nervous if I let myself think about it...I know they are there, and probably right near the trail watching me go by. (a secondary story here is that I was just about to drop trousers and do my business when this guy came chugging up the hill. Had he caught me, I would have been mortified to have seen him again in the parking lot. He'll never know how close he was to getting an eye full..oh, and he had a Go Pro on his chest, so it would have been recorded).

So to summarize the encounter....I pretty much did everything you should NOT do if you are miles out from civilization and think you see a snake.

Before the snake, with self timer.

Besides the snake, about every 3 minutes a quail would take flight from the grass along side the trail. They are not a graceful bird when it comes to flying, nor are they quiet. And, they are just big enough to scare me every single time.  I'd just get my nerves under control, and then another stinking quail would shoot up right beside me.

Besides the Quail, Horse Flies. GRRR. Unless I was full out running as fast as I can (think running downhill pace) I had flies on me. Biting flies. It's been...maybe years... since I had been bit by a horse fly....they aren't just annoying, they hurt! Unless I ran while flailing my arms...they were on me.

Besides the Horse Flies - spiders.  I was first in the park, and first out the trails. The prize for being first - you get to be the one that clears all the cobwebs.  At one point I had one of those thick, sticky, white net like webs wrapped around my thigh. I was frantically wiping it off and ended up with a handful of mushed spider goop.

So I guess we are now officially in  another new season on the Mt - snakes, quail, horse flies, and if you are first on the Mt-spiders.  All part of being out on the Mt, but man, my nerves were shot by the end of yesterdays run!

Some other wild life from yesterday's run - lizards....

Turkeys......

more lizards.....

Owl or hawk?? The lack of a pointy beak, and the flat round face makes me think owl...either way, big bird.

Still lots of butterflies out there.

My nerves and I took today off.  Camping prep begins today!! We are heading up to Shasta on Thursday where we will be relaxing until Sunday!

Here's a few more pictures from yesterday -

I love these poof balls. They are on a long, tall stick and are big, like tennis ball size.

Wild White Bush, smells like lilac.

Got Dirt?

These are my mt climbing legs.  I'm fine with having thicker, muscly legs, but I will say over the past year I have weirder muscles in spots that I did not have before. I've always had some muscle in my calves and quads, but now smaller muscles are popping up. See that strip of stuff on my right leg (left in the picture)? Inside of my leg, between the shin bone and calf muscle? What is that called??  I'm fine with it being there, but it does make my leg look thicker. And if you look at my left leg (right in the picture), the strip that runs up the front of the shin...getting meaty.  Pretty neat how the body changes as your activity/type of running changes.

Alright, won't hear from me again till we get back. Have a great week and weekend!

Running 'Thunder Mt Railroad' Style

The Beast and I set out on a 7 miler this morning. It consisted of a loop that included the last 4-5 miles of Diablo 50. We did it in reverse order, doing Buckeye Trail and running down Stage, rather then out Stage to Buckeye. Either direction, it's a nice loop. I mentioned last week I had planned to run it one day, but my phone was dead, so I came back the next day with a charged phone and did it and had a great run. It is just enough further out/isolated that I'm a little nervous running it alone, but after a few uneventful times out on it, I'm sure I'd relax a bit.  Well, today I was more relaxed because I had the Beast with me, but it was not uneventful...had I been alone I'm sure I would have freaked....that or I would have hiked back up the hill to see what all the howling was about : ) I was super focused on footing coming down the stretch we had just come down and was not looking around at my surroundings like normally I do.  These guys had to be right off the trail as we came down the hill.  I had stopped to point out the "Rattlesnake Gulch" sign on a tree and when I turned to talk to The Beast, we heard this-




Good times!! Between our surroundings, coyote sounds, and flying the rest of the way down the hill....the whole thing did remind me of Thunder Mt Railroad!

Black Point Trail, Mt. Diablo

Sunday Morning. On the trail by 6 a.m., with Brian. Good times.

Heading into the hills.

You can almost make out the trail in the grass coming up out of the bottom left corner. We head up that valley about half way, then do some steep climbing to the left up over the ridge.

The trail we were on.

The green hills are brown now. You can see a patch of trail about mid picture...that's my hill repeat hill in Castle Rock park. It looks tiny from up here!

On the backside of the ridge, much of the trail was ungroomed and looked like this....not good in tick season!  Brian found 3 on his legs and gaiters, but none were attached yet.

Looking down on Coastal's 13.1 course. That's Mitchell Canyon, and in the distance, the ridge we climb up and over for Coastal's Diablo 13.1.

I'll post more pics on the photo site.

A Redneck Date

Sort of a combo of hunting and fishing - you have to chase down your man and catch him. Note how his arms will start to flail when he knows you're about to pounce.

I'm posting 2 videos because in one, I like the song, however I think using the stabilizer to make the video less bouncy made it more blurry.  So in the other, it's unstabilized, and original audio. Unfortunately, that means you'll hear me get a little miffed my date didn't call out to let me know I was going to come around a corner and have the trail drop out from under me.
At least I didn't shoot him. : )

This was Sunday morning, around 7 a.m., on Black Point Trail out of Mitchell Canyon, Mt. Diablo.  This was a doozy of a 7 mile run that started at 6 a.m. Sunday, with 2000 ft of climbing in about a 2 mile stretch with some gnarly, ungroomed single track that had Brian flicking ticks off his legs. I'll have pictures up tomorrow.

Unstabilized-

Stabilized w/music-

And a bonus feature for you - Brian posted this on his blog, but it didn't get many views and it's pretty crazy, so I'm posting it here. This is his legs twitching right after he finished the 50k.

"Enjoying the Journey"

Well, I'll admit this is not a new concept for me. You all know how much I love my runs, and where I get to run. BUT, this week, more so than ever, I have found myself  repeating the words written to me recently - "Learn to enjoy the journey", in my head though it's shortened to just "enjoy the journey".  It makes me smile, and it makes me happy....even more so than I normally am out on the trail. It somehow made the heat, sweat, and challenging hills fun.

This weeks runs were great! Challenging, and beautiful, and hot, and they brought yet another "Mountain Season" about.  The season where the hills have officially turned from green to brown in about a weeks time, creeks are flowing one day, and dry as a bone 3 days later, leaving pools of swampy water in the creek, which means eating bugs for breakfast while running (and digging them out of crevices, but I digress). It also means tons of dragon flies, and butterflies.  The heat has meant a few changes of animals also - tons more lizards lazily spread out on the trail, deer are showing their faces again, and I've seen quail on every run this week.

For me personally, it has meant making the change to always carrying two hand held water bottles, rinsing off in swampy creek water to stay cool, wicked tan lines (although gaiter tan lines are not my favorite)....and best of all.....looking forward every run to finishing it with a  head to toe hose off with the hose by the park picnic area.  I take off my pack/ipod, hose down, but it back on and finish off the .2 miles to the car, in which time I get totally dry.

Here's a few from the week -

Monday - (you already saw these earlier in the week)

We call this "Scary Happy"

Profile of Monday's run-

 Thursday-

Huge Alligator Lizard

This had water on Monday, but was super dry on Thursday. The Ranger told me the creeks are about a month ahead of where they should be for drying out.

Bottom of Sunset still has water, but it's not moving much.

Celebrating the top of Sunset!

One of the few patches of green left on the Mt, it's really browned up this past week.

There are 5 Dragonflies in this picture, can you spot them?

Thursday's Run Profile - 
  


Friday-

Heading up Burma by Froggy Pond. Steep little cut up to where I want to be.

 Thursday I intended to head out to Buckeye loop, part of the 50k course, but it's a tad isolated and my phone was dead...so I did a shorter run Thursday, and did Buckeye on Friday, with a charged phone.

You can see Burma over my shoulder. Yes, it was stinkin hot.

I so enjoyed this trail! I was a bit nervous about snakes, but didn't see any.

Northgate Rd and a biker heading to the summit.

I may or may not have previously peed where that green stuff is...this made Brian laugh when he saw it during the 50k.

Looking back over the trail I'm on.

 This just made me all sorts of happy!  

Friday's run Profile-

Obviously, it's been a great week full of beautiful runs, and I've thoroughly enjoyed the journey this week!

Growing Pains

Happy Wednesday!

This one is attending Open House tonight at the Middle School she'll be attending next year.

Ugh.