View Workout (Anthony Belber)

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The trails which were once fire roads or cattleman roads

August 14, 2017 (Afternoon)

Exercise Type: Run

Weather: 80 ish and strong sun, but dry and not very bad heat

Comments:
Carol drove us up to Lake Sonoma today and Si met us at the Yorti Creek Boat Landing at noon. We loaded the two girls, and me into the rowboat with him and I got to row while he fished and navigated us .75 miles or so across the lake to our campground. Lew paddled alongside in the kayak and we towed an inflatable dingy loaded with our luggage and supplies. Huynga, Grace, Julie, Peter, both girls, and Vina were already in camp. Helen, David and the kids joined us later as I was off on my run. Si recommended I head up the hill behind camp to find the old road on the ridge. Scores of burrs later and some walking steps through the hip high dried brown foxtail grasses, I reached a deer trail on what had once been tire tracks along the ridge. The climb was several hundred feet and not pleasant. Once on the trail, I loped along searching for footing and deer trails. Following the ridge top, I eventually found my way along the peninsula to broader roads and better trails. Eventually I committed to some obscenely steep climbs and was rewarded by good views of the valley and multiple fingers of the lake. As I crossed ridges and saddles, the trail dipped and climbed frustratingly. At the 28 minute mark I faced another steep decent and couldn't bring myself to go on when the only option was turning around and the highest peek I sought was still at least a mile away. I turned back at this point (after a few stretches and admiring the view.) I took one wrong turn on the way back and was 60 seconds straight down a brutal hillside before I realized and backtracked. The last mile was once again a brutal velcro inspiring burr experience, including a stumble and trip onto my face in hip high grasses and a recalculation of the campsite which sent me back up over a creek bed without even a deer trail to cut the chest high grasses down. When I finally followed the sound of children's voices on the rope swing down into camp, I could hardly see my legs, shorts or socks due to the burrs and foxtails. It was an exhausting and challenging run, but I generally enjoyed it and was realizing that without the summer training I never would have made it to the first ridge top. Pace is very hard to calculate. Some of the climbs were so steep that I was barely moving, yet I kept it a run the whole time, after the first four minutes. On the return trip I could barely hold myself upright on those (now) descents and was even more proud of my hill running. I should be able to survive the MD Heights better now. A quick dip in the lake afterwards, but not enough time for a good stretch.