View Workout (Anthony Belber)

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South Fork Antelope Creek abandoned campground

August 13, 2016 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Weather: fog, clouds, upper 50s?

Comments:
Got out of camp pretty early and realized I had two options... Run up an enormous hill in the southbound direction of Paynes Creek Road or run up the other enormous hill in the northbound direction. Either way, we were in a deep and beautiful canyon with only one dirt road passing through and no other trails or options. I decided to go south as I'd not driven that portion of the road. The hill took 13 minutes to summit and then after another three flat minutes or so, it began to climb again for another few hundred meters. The elavetion I gained was somewhere in the 1,000ft range, maybe slightly less. The hill was close to 1.5 miles, probably and I never walked, although my run was far from brisk. Somehow, I got through it and I'm pretty pleased with my effort, looking back at it and after running back down it on the way in. It was one massive switchback and an impressive feat of engineering for the 1930s. the climb was steep and exhausting, but beautiful and I paused to stretch at the top with an outstanding view west towards the central valley from this Western edge of the Sierra Foothills. The run was a simple out and back, turning at 32 minutes and returning in 27:54. Pace felt decent on the light ups and downs in the middle (although there was one significant 2 minute hill thrown in up there too). Very nice to run these isolated roads which only see 5-10 cars per week.

The camping trip was also quite nice and relaxing. We drove all day Friday and Monday in and out with rest stops at Fentons for ridiculous ice cream sundaes. The water in Antelope Creek is snow melt from Mt. Lassen and is bracingly/numbingly cold. It was very helpful in the icing of my right foot. Lew's family is great and we were joined by Peter's and Helen's families and Vina, Si, and Sarah (and Jon).