Prieto and Brown

I’m pretty stoked about today’s run. Headed up El Prieto trail as I’ve been doing recently. Then continued along up to the end of the Brown mountain dirt fire road that I usually ride on. I’d never run to the end of this trail until today – about thirteen roundtrip – plus about the same distance of biking to and from the trailhead - another great car-free mountain experience.

I ran out of water/energy drink at the top with 5ish downhill miles before I could refill. Luckily it was a nice cool and foggy day. Not to bad on a day like today but could have been rough on a hot day. Next time: two water bottles. (Several years ago I ran out of water in this same spot returning from a walk to the peak of Brown. It was very hot that day and it crushed me – one of the top three dehydration crushings of my life.)

I saw a plant I’d never seen up there, too. I didn’t even know they grew up there. It’s called “Woolly Blue Curls” – the botanical name is Trichostema lanatum. At first I thought it was another Lupine which is blooming all over the place right now. I guess it’s easier to identify plants at a jogging pace then a bicycle pace.

Back down at the bottom of the hill, I think I saw some kind of herons, too - three of them. They were bluish-grey in color and big and loped along through the air – other worldly birds.

It’s funny, I read so much about runners completing 100+ mile trail runs that my short runs feel pretty insignificant. I’d really like to run and run through the mountains all the way to Wrightwood (actually, from Wrightwood to here.) That would take a lot of training and I’m not sure if I can do it. One step at a time though and we’ll see where I end up. I’m certainly enjoying these runs enough that it will be okay if they never go any farther than they do now.