The picture on the left is from Tom's Blog. Head on over there to read his take on Saturday's run and see some more pictures. I'll post some more pictures tonight.
We started out at 6AM on the Holy Jim Trail. The forecast a couple days earlier called for clouds in the morning with highs in the upper 80's to 90. That is still pretty warm so I carried as much water as I could and we started fairly early (we met to carpool into the trailhead at 5:30AM).
Trekking up Holy Jim was not so bad. We had lots of shade and it was a pretty pleasant experience with the usual gorgeous views. We passed some hikers around mile 4 and starting hitting swarms of bugs around mile 4.5 before reaching the main divide road.
Main Divide is not so bad between Holy Jim and Indian Truck Trail and we were able to enjoy some slight downhill sections. Then we hit the road up to Trabuco Peak and we climbed, leveled off, then climbed some more. In fact, it seemed like the first 13 miles of our 18.5 mile run were all uphill. Is that possible? Tom's Garmin data after the run showed 52% uphill 38% down and the rest "flat" so we definitely spent much more time/distance climbing and running "flat" than descending.
Tom Running up Holy Jim
We enjoyed the views along main divide of the ocean and surrounding mountain ranges. The temperature was climbing but the angle of the sun still meant we had a fair amount of shade which lasted until we reached about mile 10. Then we started cooking in the rising sun. We took Main Divide all the way to the trail up to Los Pinos Peak. By then our water supplies were getting low and we were getting hot and looknig forward to the run down Trabuco Trail. We cut our Los Pinos section a little short because of the heat and water issue and made our way down.
Going down Los Pinos looking toward Lake Elsinore
The bugs hit us again in force on the way down this beautiful trail. We descended fast and it was worth the previous 13 miles of climbing we had done. We enjoyed the shade on the upper section of Trabuco Trail but the sun beat down hard on the lower section. At one poitnt about 2 miles from our finish we had wind blowing blasts of heat that felt like a furnace. How hot was it out here anyway?
When we got back to my car the temp read 102 degrees. Yikes! No wonder it felt so miserable in the heat those last few miles. It was a great run and always wondeful to get out on that mountain. Our final stats: 18.5 miles 5.5 hours 4600' ascent 52% ascent distance 38% descent distance 10% "flat" terrain
We started out at 6AM on the Holy Jim Trail. The forecast a couple days earlier called for clouds in the morning with highs in the upper 80's to 90. That is still pretty warm so I carried as much water as I could and we started fairly early (we met to carpool into the trailhead at 5:30AM).
Trekking up Holy Jim was not so bad. We had lots of shade and it was a pretty pleasant experience with the usual gorgeous views. We passed some hikers around mile 4 and starting hitting swarms of bugs around mile 4.5 before reaching the main divide road.
Main Divide is not so bad between Holy Jim and Indian Truck Trail and we were able to enjoy some slight downhill sections. Then we hit the road up to Trabuco Peak and we climbed, leveled off, then climbed some more. In fact, it seemed like the first 13 miles of our 18.5 mile run were all uphill. Is that possible? Tom's Garmin data after the run showed 52% uphill 38% down and the rest "flat" so we definitely spent much more time/distance climbing and running "flat" than descending.
Tom Running up Holy Jim
We enjoyed the views along main divide of the ocean and surrounding mountain ranges. The temperature was climbing but the angle of the sun still meant we had a fair amount of shade which lasted until we reached about mile 10. Then we started cooking in the rising sun. We took Main Divide all the way to the trail up to Los Pinos Peak. By then our water supplies were getting low and we were getting hot and looknig forward to the run down Trabuco Trail. We cut our Los Pinos section a little short because of the heat and water issue and made our way down.
Going down Los Pinos looking toward Lake Elsinore
The bugs hit us again in force on the way down this beautiful trail. We descended fast and it was worth the previous 13 miles of climbing we had done. We enjoyed the shade on the upper section of Trabuco Trail but the sun beat down hard on the lower section. At one poitnt about 2 miles from our finish we had wind blowing blasts of heat that felt like a furnace. How hot was it out here anyway?
When we got back to my car the temp read 102 degrees. Yikes! No wonder it felt so miserable in the heat those last few miles. It was a great run and always wondeful to get out on that mountain.
Our final stats:
18.5 miles
5.5 hours
4600' ascent
52% ascent distance
38% descent distance
10% "flat" terrain
Happy Running & Dirty Feet,
Jessica