I started at Kanan Road at the backbone trailhead today at 7:40. Andy’s friend Maria wanted to run long today so she joined me on this run. The plan was to run to Misha Mokwa where she would meet her husband Shawn and I would continue to Newbury Park to my house. I did this very same run in January in cooler temperatures. I enjoy showing people new to the area these trails. There is all kinds of history about the area and the evolution of the trail over the last 10 years. There are the stories of bushwacking before the trail was built, the location of the rusty car, new trails created by the inmates at Camp 13, the Boney Bunker and more.
We made good time and Maria is quite a fit runner. We both had high mileage weeks (she has more miles than I) and we still pushed to the pace.
As always I ran into people in need of directions: two guys hiking the Backbone West to East were ready to walk on Yerba Buena instead of going up on Etz Malloy motorway; I set them straight. Others throughout the day asked “where’s Boney Mountain” or “How much farther?”
I ran into Scott and Mike up in Tri Peaks doing some photography. I directed them to the arch for some interesting shots. It was ironic running into them there since two days earlier I showed Scott some new areas to explore in Google Earth . Ran into John and talked about business opportunities. Lots of chatting delayed my finish but i am OK with that.
Got back to the house 6 hours from the start and 24 miles. I cooled down by soaking in cold water below my waterfall. Ahhh, that felt good. Powered down a recovery drink, Avocado, tomato, orange juice. Now to pick up the car. Hopped on my road bike and made my way back to Kanan Road via Decker Canyon and Mulholland Highway. Decker was tough in the really steep section and I could feel the strain in my knees. Got to car and found a front mountain bike wheel just laying against the fence with no owner. I talked to one guy there but he did not claim it. I took it and will look for the owner by posting it in a few lost and found biking web sites.
Saw a hawk being badgered by a crow. A closer look revealed a snake in the hawks talons that the crow as set on stealing. After watching them for 5 minutes the hawk was still airborne with his snake and the crow just gave up.
Weekly Mileage Running: 82 miles
Weekly Mileage Biking: 65
