No special focus for this post, but I thought that I might take this moment out of my "mini-taper" for the upcoming Bootlegger 50k to post some pictures of where I train at least 5 days a week. The great thing, it's just out my front door, and has just about everything.
There's sandy washes, rolling hills, steep ascents and descents, long climbs, short climbs, scrambling, climbing, and about all the sketched-out technical gnar you could ask for, and they go on forever. All this, while still being within sight of my house the whole time. The better thing about it? In the past year I've been training out here, I could count on two hands the number of times I've seen anyone besides a coyote on these trails. These have become my trails.
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| Miles of trails out here. |
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| The view from above |
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| Look closely, you can see trails everywhere. |
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| Few people see the sunset over San Gorgonio from up here. |
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| Sunset looking to the east. |
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| A great view as the sun slips away. |
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| Looking toward Joshua Tree National Park. |
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| Wind-swept sandy washes...almost a shame to disturb them with footprints. No worries, my traces won't last long. |
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| Lights on as sun's gone. |
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| The final colors of the evening sky, as dark sets in. |
I feel like I need to take pictures during my sunrise runs to give people the whole picture.
ReplyDeleteYou should! I know we have enough cameras!
DeleteI used to run Joshua Tree 4 days a week. Took a sweet night run starting at split rock and turned around at the tree that's twisted by lightning. Wish I could've seen it by day. It was very Edgar Allen Poe seeing the tree by headlamp.
ReplyDeleteLast time I ran out in JTree at night, I was running Lost Horse Mine connector with a friend, we got a little off trail, and found a mountain lion staring back at us. Not something I would care to experience again. Nowadays, it's just a pack of coyotes, who keep their distance.
Delete