YayWooHoo!

Yay new trails!

Yesterday was my day off. The eagerly awaited exploration day to see where the right fork takes us! Started out with a trigger point workshop (eh, good information review but more of a 101 class, and some Very Strange people). Then off to go see my lazy pony who is going through yet another growth spurt for some lunging, manners class, and a pedicure. I was chatting to my trimmer about the trail, he has run out there some (and at night - inspired, but need dogs for safety! Damn mountain lions haha). I came to the conclusion that it was about eight miles. I wanted more mileage than that, though it would be ideal for T, so maybe she wouldn't mind waiting for me while I squeezed in some extra. Let's go.

Side note info - I ran in capris today and They Sucked!!! I am completely sold on the skirt/shorts combo (like this - pink skirt/purple shorts). It is lighter, cooler, more comfortable, and my now favourite running outfit. I also misplaced the notion of eating this morning/lunchtime, even though the run was pre-planned. I had a coffee at home, and one at the beginning of the class, and 4 salted crackers prior to beginning our run at 2ish. I had Tailwind in my pack, about 64oz water and five scoops. No bonking! I could have used more of both if we were going further or if it had been a warmer day (warm for us coastal folk but not hot at all and not in direct sun). Go Tailwind :)

The first stretch was our familiar trail, and we easily spotted the turn this time. We set off down the right fork (after spotting what looks like maybe another trail for another day!), and briefly enjoyed the newness. Very quickly it met up with the left fork we had previously taken. Rubbish! But whereas before we took the fire road home, we ventured on into the woods. There were a few more turns that we could have used to get back to the fire road if we want to lengthen that route on other runs, but we stuck to the trail. I was keeping an eye(ish) on my gps, and it looked like the road was pretty close that I planned as our turn around point. 

Spot the runner..

Since we seemed to be mostly going slightly (and not always so slightly) up, I chose not to tell T that we were ahead on mileage than I thought. Downhill on the way back, and she thinks we're a mile or more behind where we really are anyway. Little did she know...

This was fun!

There were a lot of little rustic bridges made of natural materials, little 'ski-jump' sections, running under branches and sometimes right through a tiny gap in what is technically one tree that has separated in two. Also a slightly precarious stretch where the trail has fallen away. We found it easily passable, but perhaps not everyone does (especially if it's wet) since someone had rigged up a rope hand hold around the tree; it was funzies to swing off just because. A little further on we came across two log rounds with a bit of log balanced on them like a bench, so took the opportunity for a break and a foot picture:

Love my Dirty Girl Gaiters - those redwood things are a bitch in your shoe!

We kept marching on, and through the trees to our left it looked like a break, possibly a road. Every now and again we turned away, but always turned back again. One of the stretches that T was walking up a hill while I ran ahead (we actually both ran most of the hills today), she found these guys:

Very distinguished

So of course I brought them home with me. They seemed to have been there long enough that nobody would be back out to look for them. We also found an old car, with no idea of how it got there:

Grrr

We finally hit the turnaround and took a glance at my gps. Somehow we had missed the road I was aiming for, and were quite a bit higher on our mileage than I had anticipated. T seemed to be doing pretty good considering, and there was more down than up on the way home. Our return was fairly unadventurous. I spotted many additional ways to get to the road that it looked on the map that we were heading for. Whoopsie. (Of course, with all these admissions she may decide to bail on running with me again - I really didn't mean it - until the end-ish at least.) We did momentarily misplace the correct trail, but not entirely my fault since T agreed to go down it :) We chose the downhill option which is always against my rule - when in doubt head up. It's better to be wrong and go back down than back up! In this case we not only had to go back up, but the trail we should have taken went up. Double up to make sure I don't forget the rule again :)

A tree growing from a tree stump that grew from a different tree stump

We were getting pretty close to our original trail when I took another look at the gps. We were at 9.95 miles. It was about 2.5 miles back to the carpark. I suggested maybe for bragging rights and good 'mental training' that we do the little pygmy forest loop, only adding 0.3 miles to our run but worth it for our 'toughness'. With a little persuasion, she agreed! Yay. We were a little extra sluggish here and the last couple miles home. The last thing you wanna see finishing up an unplanned half marathon?

Devil Stairs

These were not a surprise, we go down and back up them every time we run here. Only two sections show here, there is actually four. They are wonky, wobbly, and that annoying size of too small for comfortable strides but just too big to take two at a time (at least at my size). Once we hit the top, we took a quick breather and hamstring stretch, then scooted the last quarter mile back to the truck. Yippee! T just completed not only her longest run ever, but her first half marathon, unplanned and unsupported. And didn't want to kill me! Go T!

Apologies for the shakiness and looking more at the trail than up to get some of the surroundings (trying to video and not kiss the dirt at the same time), but I took this video on the way back down from the turnaround to give you an idea of the fabulous trails I'm lucky enough to run and ride on: