Golden Spike Redwood

Dunn/Golden Spike Loop

West Ridge- Graham- Dunn- Golden Spike- Monteiro- Dunn- Baccharis-West Ridge

(8.36 miles)

This was a great new trail for a midweek run. The trail started at the Skyline Gate parking lot, leading to the right on West Ridge. The West Ridge trail runs in and out of shaded areas and sunny, dry areas that put me in mind of Santa Barbara chaparral. West Ridge leads mainly downhill, but this section gently rolls as opposed to some of the steep drops coming later.

It was a little unclear at times if I had reached a trail junction as opposed to a short trail

 leading to the neighborhood nearby, and I needed to stop several times to check my map. However, upon reflection, every time I came to a junction, there was a clear sign. Lesson for Redwood: if there is no sign, it's not a junction. Keep running.

At the intersection of West Ridge and Graham, the trail leads to the right and drops sharply. There is plenty of chance to practice technical downhill running on this trail--there were one or two sections where I did not practice my newfound technique but almost walked, it was so steep. 

Graham trail runs through huge redwoods until the junction with Dunn. At this point, the trail leaves the shade and continues to drop down, offering chances to practice quick footwork over big sandstone rocks. I almost took Dunn back but then decided to add a couple of more miles and turned right instead of left, heading towards the EBRPD building. This section gets a little tricky, because it seemed like there were several places to turn off, but eventually I ended up at the Golden Spike turnoff.

I have no idea why the trail is named Golden Spike, but this is a trail worth running. Single track, no bikers (I only saw one other person the whole time I was on the trail-- for a run in Redwood after work, that's pretty impressive.) and probably very muddy in the spring. The trail starts low and almost immediately I found myself running up some very steep switchbacks. The steep uphill sections are not excessively long, but they definitely work the legs. I kept telling myself that practicing uphill in the second half of the run would be good for Ohlone, too. This is a beautiful trail--it winds through trees, offering glimpses of views through the trees and steadily ascending until the Monteiro

 trail junction. The Monteiro trail continues up the hill... as does the Baccharis trail-- all the way until ending up back on West Ridge, which I took back to the parking lot.

Again, Redwood is a great place for the pups-- lots of happy dogs bounding down the trails today. It's also worth running Redwood right now to see the plethora of wildflowers lining the trails. Sticky Monkey Flower can last in the heat of summer, but many of the tiny wildflowers out now will not last past a few hot weekends. 

Being in the Present: Part II

Today, I was doing an observation in a high school class and one of the students said, as he walked in, "Nice tattoo." (I was wearing a dress that showed my (gasp) ankles and calves.) I got my tattoo when I turned 30, and it makes me happy every time I look at it.

I'm not going to tell the story of how the tattoo came into existence, except that I am glad that Ivan managed to take my ramblings (and ridiculous sketch) and turn them into something exquisite.

My tattoo is a red lotus intertwined with a tiger face. The lotus is the symbol of wholeness--it has beautiful petals that cannot exist without roots that dive down deep into the gunk of the swamp. The tiger, to me, symbolizes power that is content with itself. It does not try to be anything other than what it is-- a big cat. 

I have been thinking lately about how I have steadily increased my mileage, and the problems that have plagued me before (notably knee issues) are not there. I think that some of it probably has to do with better technique, but I have been wondering about how much of it is due to my own level of contentment, which is quite possibly at an all-time high. This has meant that I feel much more relaxed on runs, even when they are long and arduous. Check out this blog for some more ideas on the connection between running and intuition, but for now, I will leave you with yet another quote by one of my favorite authors:

"Expansion never happens through greediness or pushing or striving. It happens through some combination of learning to relax where you already are and, at the same time, keeping the possibility open that your capacity, my capacity, the capacity of all beings, is limitless. As we continue to relax where we are, our opening expands." (Pema Chodron)

Loving the Plateau

My supervisor/ boss/ colleague/ quasi older brother suggested our team of three read, in order to frame our work for the next year, a book called Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment by George Leonard. Leonard talks about "loving the plateau," that is, the time between spurts of growth or change that we normally call "achievement" or "progress." 

Despite its metaphor for life (which I will permit you, gentle readers, to extrapolate for yourselves), I have been thinking about its relevance to my own running. I am looking forward to Ohlone, as I haven't run a race since December (flakage on Sunday's tri duly noted), but I was thinking the other day about how much this blog has brought me back to the daily practice. I'm definitely running strong (well, for me anyway), yet I am reminded by Leonard's words how the present moment of practice, the never-ending grind of getting out, putting on my shoes and showing up for a run is what really counts:

"Practice, the path of mastery, exists only in the present...To love the plateau is to love the eternal now, to enjoy the inevitable spurts of progress and the fruits of accomplishment, then serenely to accept the new plateau that waits just beyond them. To love the plateau is to love what is most essential and enduring in your life." (George Leonard)

Enjoy your plateau.

Bon Tempe Gorgeousness

Bon Tempe Lake
Ross Commons- Natalie Coffin Greene- Phoenix Lake- Shaver Grade- Hidden Grove- Sunnyside- Shadyside- Pumpkin- Madrone- Fish Gulch- Phoenix Lake
(9.98 miles)

Alpine Lake might be my new favorite lake in Marin, but this run has the sentimental factor going for it. I have run this loop many times, and it's one of the tried and true runs in my book.

Getting started with this run is a big tricky, especially on the weekends. Natalie Coffin Greene should be the trailhead, but the parking lot is miniscule and trying to find parking on the weekend is a good joke. (Today there were at least three cars waiting for people to leave the lot when I went through.) Thanks to Ross' highly territorial parking restrictions (do not tempt them either-- I misread a sign and ended up with a $30 ticket once--more expensive than I generally want my runs to be), you are not permitted to park anywhere along Lagunitas Road until you get to Ross Commons, almost a mile from the trailhead. During the week, parking can be found by the tennis courts, but parking is prohibited here on the weekends. I don't get it, but in a county that didn't want Bart in the 1970's, I suppose it all makes sense.

From Natalie Coffin Greene, the fire road leads up to Phoenix Lake, following the lake until Phoenix Junction. At Phoenix Junction, I took Shaver up and up, past the Five Corners (six, actually) trail junction and continued up Shaver until crossing Sky Oaks road. The trail follows the road for a hundred yards or so until the tiny Hidden Grove trail forks to the left. It is possible to continue straight on the road and end up at Bon Tempe Dam, but I prefer Hidden Grove, both for the view of Bon Tempe coming over the hill, and also because it provides more time to run on the Sunnyside trail.

Sunnyside is, as its name promises, the hotter, sunnier side of this trail. It is also the side of the trail one is more likely to see fishermen casting from lakeside, dry grasses and big oak trees- a completely different ecosystem than Shadyside. I also ran past a man who looked old enough to be my grandfather (definitely older than my father) who was wearing what looked to be a Quad Dipsea shirt. Thank you sir, for reminding me that running a 50K in my 30s is not the pinnacle of greatness I can aspire to. Talk about upping the ante! Despite my irritation with Marin's parking pitfalls and its lack of trails where dogs can be off-leash, Marin has a long and glorious history of trail running, and it is sometimes possible to see people on the trail who might have been around for all of it and who are still out there running. This alone is enough to make me feel inspired while running in Marin--I run by someone who has obviously seen a few years (and a lot of miles) on the trail and I am reminded that even if I can't trip the light fantastic the way I could when I was 20, there are a lot more miles of trail spreading out ahead of me.

Back to the run-- the trail goes over the dam and then to Bon Tempe's Shadyside. Instantly, the temperature drops, making this a great trail to run on a hot day. It's hard to believe, looking at the picture to the left and the first one, that these microclimates are literally steps away from each other. (As an aside, Oakland's Museum of California has a marvelous permanent exhibit on the different ecosystems of California- no other state has as many!) Shadyside eventually winds around to the Lagunitas Picnic Area. If you want to add crazy mileage and elevation gain to your run, this is a great place to run up Mt. Tamalpais, but today I was not ready to add so much more.

From here, it's possible to head straight down to Phoenix Lake by way of Fish Grade, but I decided to add a little loop, taking Pumpkin Ridge to Madrone, then back to Fish Gulch which parallels Fish Grade and eventually ends up at Phoenix Junction, where I retraced my steps back to the car. This loop adds a little uphill on Pumpkin Ridge, but the downhill on Madrone is tons of fun, and the trees for which the trail is named (Pacific Madrones) are beautiful, with even smoother bark than Manzanita.

It is possible to take dogs on this trail, provided they are on leash. This is also a great picnic area--benches and gorgeous views abound, should one decide to stop the running for a snacky-poo. All in all, one of my favorite running routes in Marin. Highly recomended.

Mezue Trail

Mezue Trail
Wildcat Creek- Belgum- San Pablo Ridge- Mezue- Wildcat Creek
(5.98 miles)

If anyone was wondering, I love my Garmin. Love it, love it, love it. It's pretty much the greatest thing ever. Well, apart from a perfectly cooked Tarte Tatin, or maybe an unexpected massage, or the last two movements in Bach's Sonata Number 2 in A minor for solo violin. Or a couple of unmentionable kinds of moments. Excepting all THAT, my Garmin is fantastic. My brother is becoming a fan, too. So I am converting more people to running geekdom. Garmin should appreciate my efforts on its behalf.

Anyway, for lack of vehicular motivation, we opted to run in Wildcat again today. We ran the Mezue trail, normally voted "Most Likely to Have Bovine Encounters." One memory I have of this trail involves Jen yelling at a cow, "Get away, you big stupid piece of beef!" Cows in Wildcat are not as docile as they are in Briones. The cows at Briones tried to get away from the dogs and me last time I was there--cows at Wildcat have run AT us (with absolutely no provocation, might I add-- I make the dogs heel around the herd). If you can get over the cows though, this is another dreamy trail.

Mezue starts off like Havey Canyon-- from the parking lot at Alvarado Staging Area, up Wildcat Creek trail until Belgum, at which point you climb straight up to San Pablo Ridge and run with the entire Bay Area spread out around you-- Mt. Diablo in the distance to the left, three bridges and the city on the other side of a glittering blue bay to your right. This trail confirmed what I wrote yesterday-- it's better than the Sea View trail in Tilden.

Once over the rather strenuous uphills, the trail forks just before a corral. I have never seen livestock actually in the corral, but it's a good marking for the Mezue turnoff. The Mezue trail forks right and after a short climb, follows a beautiful downhill stretch (fast, fast!) until the water fountain at the trail intersection with Wildcat Creek, at which point the trail follows the well-used Wildcat Creek trail back to the parking lot.

The one caveat I would present is the muddy slop trail runners will find during the wet season. Most of the run dries out fast, as it's exposed for most of the run, but the cow-dominated section is also the muddiest--during rainy season, expect to spent at least a quarter mile unable to run through the sticky East Bay mud. (I swear, the mud in Wildcat and Tilden has a higher clay content than the mud in Marin, but no one has confirmed or denied said hypothesis yet.)

Beyond that, this trail is another which gets far less use than one would expect for such an accessible trail. We saw just two groups of people, two single hikers and two bikers once we turned off Wildcat Creek trail. As can be seen in the picture, my two running buddies love this trail-- again, dogs under voice control can be off-leash in Wildcat, and when you have two border collies at the house, this is a very, very good thing.

Tilden? Well... I guess.

Tilden Regional Park

Quarry-Big Springs-Sea View (5.1 miles)

Ah, Tilden. We used to be close, Sea View and I. Whenever I had someone come into town, we hiked Sea View. Whenever I wondered "hmm...where should we go hiking?" it was this trail. Tilden, the jewel of the East Bay Regional Park System. Tilden, the backdrop for countless pictures atop the Sea View Trail. After visiting the REI annual sale today and making my entry into running geekdom official by purchasing a Garmin 305, I thought what better way to initiate my new gadget than by returning to this site of so many memories. We would be reunited, Tilden and I, and it would all be captured on my new toy.

Now I do not want to disparage Tilden, because it is a wonderful park. There are many more things to do (particularly for families with kids) than there are in say, Wildcat or Redwood. There are pony rides, a carousel, the Botanic Gardens, animal petting at the Little Farm, swimming at Lake Anza and many, many picnic options. But returning to Sea View trail was like seeing a picture of some guy you had a crush on in high school and thinking, "Really? I was all excited about him? I mean, he's all riiight, but really-- what was that all about? There's much better options out there." I can hear the wave of protest swelling-- Tilden is Bay Area history (which it is) and it's tradition (which it is)-- this is blasphemy, what you are saying!

Here's the thing: I've been running a lot of different trails since then, and guess what? I'd recommend them over Tilden. Part of it was probably the weather (rather unimpressive, as you can see from the picture), but it doesn't have the views of Wildcat's San Pablo Ridge trail, even on a clear day, and it doesn't have the dreamy forest quality of Redwood. There are lots of Eucalyptus groves, and several stands of pine trees along Big Springs trail, yet overall I was not as excited as I hoped to be. I'll come back and do some more trails, as this is one of the most popular parks of the East Bay, but if I had one day to do a trail run in the East Bay, I'd go north to Wildcat or south to Redwood.

Two of the three members of our running crew today did not care about my disappointment with Tilden and found it to be an enthralling location, as Tilden is yet another place to take dogs off-leash in undeveloped areas. So if you need places to run your pup, keep it on the rotation-- just make sure Tilden isn't your ONLY rotation for trail running in the Bay Area...

Hee hee...

No running today.... BUT good things are happening tomorrow!

Here's a hint:

1) It will involve a nice and nerdy gadget. (What, you didn't think I was a BIG nerd??)

2) It will involve running.

3) It will involve REI's sale.

So yeah... stay tuned for a new trail... and more excitement tomorrow!

p.s. I was informed by a friend that there were not enough TRUE CONFESSIONS on this blog. At least, nothing as revealing as this...or quite as honest as this... all I can say is that I promised no compromising pictures... just to reveal a lot of trails.