Old Oak

Operation Camel

For the last decade and a half or so I’ve become addicted to water. So much so, that I can hardly leave my house without a liter bottle in tow. So I’m conducting a bit of an experiment. I’m going to stop my current habit of drinking water all day long and when I do drink I will sip, not gulp. Animals don’t drink water all day long. Our ancestors didn’t drink water all day long. I didn’t even used to drink water all day long until I was about 20 years old. So, I’m hoping to break the habit and maybe it will allow me to need less water on long runs and rides and walks and such (for which I will continue to hydrate as needed.)

smokin'

Due to many brush fires in the basin yesterday the air was too smoky to ride or run or even just sit outside. Sometimes rest days are imposed naturally(/arsonally.)

This helicopter flies over my house every day - twice. It goes to the mountains in the morning and it goes home in the evening. It is the Search and Rescue helicopter. It is big and it is loud and it is badass. Sometimes I see it when I’m up in the mountains, too. When it comes unexpectedly thundering low over a ridge it can give you quite a start. They’re mostly out doing training exercises, but I suppose they deal with all manner of emergencies, too. Props to this chopper and its crew (no pun intended.)

big toes

I had a dream last night that I had two big toes on each foot – still five toes per foot with both big toes next to each other on the inside of the foot. This seems like it would deliver better power and speed for running with just a hint at an ungulate-human hybrid… Strangely, I was riding a chairlift barefoot when I noticed this new revolutionary trait – no doubt taking advantage of the easy access to endless moments of barefoot hybrid mountain running… Now, if I could just find my flute…

running along

Ran long yesterday - same route – up the arroyo seco. Brought jelly snacks and salt tab and water bottle with sugar/salt/energy dissolved in it and refilled it twice – totaling 48 ounces. Weather was great – 67 degrees – big dark clouds – patches of sun.

Before I got to the trail, a little girl rode around a corner on a red tricycle and called out, “running guy!” That was a nice simplicity reminder - I was just a guy out running despite the fact that I had a salt tab duct-taped to my Livestrong bracelet and pockets stocked with stale chewable fuel and chapstick (a new breakthrough!) and was more in the mindset of some sort of north-polar explorer because these longer runs take a bit of tunnel thinking – yes, still, I was just a guy running.

I’ve been doing a lot of running with dogs lately. I don’t have a dog but there are a lot of people that walk on the trails with their dogs off-leash. Dogs like to run so as I run by their “owners” the dogs often run alongside me for a while. I like it – running with the pack…

open season

Living in the Los Angeles vicinity I’ve never heard anyone mention hunting season (or hunting for that matter) and I’ve never seen hunters “in the woods”… until today. It being Sunday morning, I was on the bike about to head up to Brown (of course). Just beyond the trailhead I noticed a guy heading towards me on the trail dressed in full camouflage gear. He was pushing a bike along next to him and he had a bunch of stuff with him. I figured he’d been out bike camping. Just as we crossed paths, though, I took one last look and suddenly saw a deer head and antlers resting on the handlebars. The deer was straddling the top tube.

I have never seen anything like this in this area before but I guess for every several thousand walkers and runners and hikers, it seems reasonable to see about one hunter.

The next several people I saw on the trail seemed to be a little shaken up – I guess for many people a dead deer is the ultimate buzz kill. I stopped to fill my water bottle and a walker was asking me if I’d seen “the deer” and if it was legal to hunt here. She wanted to call the authorities. She was rather upset. I looked it up when I got home and apparently hunting is legal in the Angeles National Forest during hunting season – whenever that is - right now, I guess…