The plan:
Meet in Nisene and run part of the Dirt Inspires Half Marathon course, about 8 or 9 miles. This was me, Jan, Doug, Cyleste, Lori and Claire.
It’s also the Blues Festival this weekend, so we had to park way down the street. I thought it’d be more fun to drive up into the woods and start our run from George’s picnic area, so we could spend more time on the trails that are farther into the park. Everybody piled into my truck and our plan was in action!
The adventure:
Our first turnoff from the main fire road is Porter Trail. We wound our way down to the creek (careful of the poison oak!) and faced our first creek crossing of the day. At this part, the creek is somewhat wide, and it might have been more full than usual from the recent rains. Picking our way across the rocks felt perilous- we had just started our run and didn’t want to get our feet wet. Now, falling into the ankle deep water would not have been the worst thing ever, but I was pretty happy to get to the other side without having done so. The others found long sticks to help steady them and we were on our way up the hill. Not so much running here, it’s kind of straight up, but then it goes down to the creek again for our second crossing of the day. This one was deeper and there were more strings of rocks across the water, so we had a choice of what path to take. I chose a path that was longer, but seemed to have more rocks to step on. Pretty much everyone found their own way with varying levels of confidence. It was not without drama but there we were again on the other side. Right up the hill from that spot you’re back on the fire road at the second gate, more familiar territory for us. It really feels like you’re back from Narnia at that point. Onward and upward, literally!
The Hoffmann’s adventure
Claire bds farewell to do her own run at this point. Next turnoff for the rest of us was the Loma Prieta grade, which might be my favorite trail in the park! Nice soft needles to run on (watch out for roots!), green forest leaves around us, sunlight and the quiet of the redwoods. I was for some reason in front on this run (not usual for when we run) and led everyone up over the switchbacks so we could do Hoffmann’s loop. It’s a skinny trail with a number of fallen trees, slippery rocks and steep dropoffs to contend with, and then we are at the fork in the road. I’m confident we take the right side fork, and everyone follows down the path.
After a few turns and crawling across a cravass of sorts, I hear noises behind me like they think we aren’t going the right way. Some of these obstacles are unfamiliar. Weren’t we supposed to take the Left fork? Well, I didn’t think so, and besides who wants to turn back now? We get to the creek crossing sooner than expected. Oh. yeah, it was the left fork, now I recognize the trail-head signs and where we are. We’re on the right path and everything, just going the opposite direction from what we intended. Well that’s fine, we’ll just go this way! Of course, this means that we have a pretty steep climb ahead of us. Heh heh. Sorry guys!
The noises behind me are sort of disgruntled, but I’m sure they were having fun anyway. Right? Had to, we’re in the beautiful forest! We run/walk up, around, over and through, while Doug regales us with stories of how tough the climb will be ahead of us. We wait and regroup at the next creek crossing (and fork in the road) and proceed up this hill. Oh sure, I couldn’t have run up the thing without busting my lungs out, and the experience was roughly similar to doing a whole bunch of squats without a break. But I’m having a great time, running where it’s slightly flatter, hiking the rest. As much as I can, anyway, with my friends liberally cursing my name behind me!
Our reward though was soon to come- the top of that hill gives way to a gradual downhill slant. We channeled our inner deer and bounded down the path. Boing boing boing.
They cursed my name again when I made them crawl across another gully, but I insisted, they followed and the trail after that rewarded us with more beauty.
Lori and Cyleste and I arrived at the Buddha Bridge first- we showed Lori the Buddha underneath with all the offerings, and crossed it to connect back to the main road. Here we noticed that Doug and Jan were not actually right behind us, and we regretted not waiting for them at the last crossroads. (mosquitoes though! And it was muggy and we were sweating like crazy when we stopped!)
We thought we might see them when we got to the end of the Loma Prieta trail again- maybe they had gone that way instead of crossing the bridge, and we waited there for a minute. They didn’t appear so I ran back down the Loma Prieta trail to meet them. I almost made it back to the bridge again, when their absence told me they hadn’t gone that way, so I turned around again. Lori and Cyleste had gone ahead, so I ran on myself to meet them at the truck, where I did indeed find Lori and Cyleste. But no Jan or Doug. We decided to drive up the road to look for them, and noticed a ticket on my windshield. darn it! Actually this turned out to be a note from Jan. “Got a ride in. 10:55 am”. I looked at my watch. 11:00. That was five minutes ago. How did we all miss each other? Oh well, we know where they are now!
We reconvene back at the main parking lot, decorated today with a long long line of Blues Festival goers, waiting with their lawn chairs, sun hats and coolers. I’m sure they’ll enjoy their day, but I am so glad we went running around in the woods instead! Lori says the magic words: ” Taqueria Los Gordos”. And we’re off!
