Category Archives: running

Raining Rime

Fallen rime around a white fir

As I ran across the ice my footfalls made a loud crunch, crunch, crunch. Nearby a barrage of rime cascaded from a white fir. Friday’s cold system had rimed the trees along the crest, and now the ice was thawing, shedding from the branches and creating a patchwork of white beneath the trees. The ice wasn’t dense but I still didn’t want a large chunk falling on my head!

The cutoff upper level low that moved into Southern California Friday really cooled things down. The Big Pines RAWS (6917′) recorded an overnight low of 26°F Friday night. It was even colder in the Sierra. A snow sensor at 11,400′ in the Kern River headwaters recorded an overnight low of 12°F. Most of yesterday the temperature at Big Pines was in the 40s.



I was running on one of the most scenic segments of trail in the mountains of Southern California — the Pacific Crest Trail between Mt. Hawkins and Mt. Baden-Powell. There are three trail runs I like to do that include this stretch: Inspiration Point to Islip Saddle on the PCT, the Islip Saddle – South Fork – Baden-Powell Loop, and the route I was doing today, the Out and Back to Mt. Baden-Powell from Islip Saddle.

Warmer weather was forecast today, but this morning it had been cool and blustery at Islip Saddle. The temperature in the sun-warmed — but windy — parking lot had been around 43°F. In the shade of Mt. Islip at the start of the run the temperature felt like it was in the 30s. It had taken a while to warm up chugging up the first long hill.

It was the first time this season I’d been on this stretch of trail and I wondered if any well-shaded patches of snow had managed to survive on the north side of the crest near Mt. Baden-Powell. I doubted it. The Mt. Waterman ski area never opened this year, and there had already been several periods of warm weather. There would probably be some remnants of snow on the north side of Mt. Baldy.



It was PCT season. Islip Saddle is at about the 386 mile mark on the Pacific Crest Trail and PCTers hiking the trail from the Mexican border to the Canadian border usually do this section of trail sometime in May. There were a number of PCTers on the trail, including a couple of guys that appeared to be fast-packing the PCT. Their packs looked light, and they were really booking on the downhill west of Mt. Hawkins. (For well done, downloadable PDF maps of the PCT — with notes — check out Halfmile’s Pacific Crest Trail Maps and GPS Information.)

Although chilly at the start, the weather was near perfect for running and I had expected to see at least a couple of groups of runners training for the AC100. There were only about six or seven long run weekends remaining before this hundred miler. I did see one AC100 runner — twice. He was on day two of a three day Memorial Day training stint that would total some 90 miles. Now that is serious training!

Boney Mountain Eclipse Run

Narrative about 2012 solar eclipse

Some things in nature are supposed to be constant. The ground shouldn’t move; a mountain that is here today should be here tomorrow; and if skies are clear and blue, the sun shouldn’t grow mysteriously dim.



Imagine the consternation of our early ancestors, keenly attune to nature, feeling the sun dim and then looking for a cloud they could not find. There is still much of them in us. When the earth shakes or the sun fades, even moderately, we can’t help but react at the most visceral level.

While ee still can’t predict an earthquake with any certainty, we can predict eclipses. Fred Espenak’s NASA Eclipse Web Site includes maps and tables for several millennia of solar and lunar eclipses. Using the web site’s JavaScript Solar Eclipse Explorer you can find the solar eclipses that will be (or have been) visible at a particular location, as well as the type of eclipse, it’s magnitude, and when it will start, end, and reach its maximum. In 2002 I used the Eclipse Web site to plan a trail run to coincide with the June 10 solar eclipse. This afternoon I was doing another eclipse run — the north side loop on Boney Mountain.



Perched on rocky ledge on the western ridge of Boney Mountain, I watched as the light on the landscape became increasingly muted. At the eclipse’s maximum almost 80% of the sun’s area would be obscured and about 85% of its width. The descending veil was tangible. I could not only see it, I could feel it. Even though I understood what was occurring, and that it would not last, ancestral fears were welling up and whispering, “Something is wrong…”



As the time of maximum eclipse approached, bird songs increased as if it was dusk. The wind, which had been blowing in fits and starts began to blow steadily from the west. The temperature dropped another degree or two.

Once the eclipse’s maximum had passed, I continued to work up the ridge, enjoying the extraordinary light. I hoped my wife was getting some good shots of the eclipse in our backyard. Many eclipse viewers are so focused on the sky, they don’t notice the spectacular lensed images projected on the ground and elsewhere by sunlight filtering through trees. The gaps between the leaves of a tree work like a giant pinhole lens, with a focal length of many feet. In the case of the trees in our backyard this produced images of the eclipsed sun 10 inches or more in diameter. Lensed eclipse images were also projected by  sunlight filtering through the chaparral on Boney Mountain.

I topped out on the western ridge around 7:10 and jogged up to the high point between the western and eastern ridges. Across the way three fellow eclipse watchers were on Tri-Peaks, and it sounded like there was a party over on Sandstone Peak. Even with the sun low on the western horizon, you could feel its intensity returning. Only about one-third of the sun was now obscured, and minutes before sunset — about 7:43 — the eclipse would end.



Marine layer haze and long shadows were filling the valleys as I began the second half of my eclipse adventure — running down the eastern ridge and trying to reach the trailhead before it was pitch black. Much of the route was illuminated by the setting sun, and I was able to get past most of the technical running and down to the Danielson cabin site before it became difficult to see. Once on Danielson road the bright western sky provided enough light to run. I made good time down to the creek in Upper Sycamore Canyon and then pushed up the road to Satwiwa. Just enough light remained to run the connecting single track back to the Wendy Drive trailhead.

The Color of April Rain

Clearing rainstorm at Ahmanson Ranch

Usually April isn’t a particularly wet month in Southern California. Normal April rainfall at Downtown Los Angeles (USC) runs less than one inch —  0.91 inch by 1981-2010 standards.

Wednesday night into Thursday the third rainstorm of the month produced 0.49 inch of rain at Downtown Los Angeles. This increased April’s rainfall total to 1.71 inches and the Los Angeles water year total to 8.68 inches. That puts us at about 60% of normal rainfall for the water year.

The photograph is from a spectacular trail run yesterday afternoon at Ahmanson Ranch, about 25 miles WNW of Downtown.

After the Station Fire: Wildflowers Along the Gabrielino Trail

Bush poppy (Dendromecon rigida)

The bright yellow flower above is bush poppy (Dendromecon rigida). A fire follower, it’s blooming extensively in the recovering chaparral along the Gabrielino Trail between Red Box and Switzer Picnic area.

March snow and rain seem to have helped this Spring’s wildflower bloom. Since March 1 the Remote Automated Weather Station (RAWS) at nearby Clear Creek has recorded 6.5 inches of rain and NWS data shows Opids Camp has recorded 6.64 inches of rain. More rain and snow is forecast in the mountains this week.

Here are a few additional wildflower photos from this morning’s run in the Station Fire burn area:





Baby Blue Eyes




Chaparral Clematis




Wavy-leaved Paintbrush

Artichokes and Chop-Suey Greens?

Artichoke thistle (Cynara cardunculus)

I would not have guessed these alien-looking thistle plants along the XTERRA race course in Black Mountain Regional Park are a wild form of the cultivated globe artichoke.

In its description of the artichoke thistle, the California Invasive Plant Council (Cal-IPC) notes the Mediterranean plant was found by Charles Darwin in South America in 1833. It had already escaped cultivation and spread over “several hundred square miles” of the Argentine pampas. Surveys in California from 1860 to 1864 also reported the artichoke as having escaped cultivation. The plant was reported in a pasture in San Diego County as early as 1897.



Another surprise was that the pretty yellow and white flowers along some sections of the course appear to be another Mediterranean plant known as crown daisy or chop-suey greens (Glebionis coronaria). If so, the plant is reportedly used as an ingredient in a number of Asian recipes.

Note: Great care is required when identifying and using wild food plants. Even if the plant is positively identified there can be contamination from herbicides and pesticides, and other potential problems. There may also be conservation concerns, especially if the plant is uncommon, rare or endangered. For example see Safety Guidelines For Edible Wild Food Plants and Foraging Guidelines.

Perfect Weather for the 2012 XTERRA Black Mountain 15K

When the starter yelled “GO!” at the beginning of the XTERRA Black Mountain 15K I wondered if it was raining yet in the San Fernando Valley. I was not looking forward to driving home on the 405 in pouring rain. But I’d worry about that later. Here at Black Mountain Regional Park, a little north of San Diego, the weather was about as good as it gets for running.

Heavy rain was forecast later in the day and you could tell it was on the way. High clouds muted the morning sun, and a layer of threatening-looking clouds lurked on the northwestern horizon. It was cool — but not cold. After the first quarter mile I was glad I was running in short sleeves.

XTERRA SoCal Trail Run Series Distances and Elevation GainsAn email from the race organizers described the 15K course as “fairly flat” with “twists, turns and some minor hills.” I’d checked out the course profile on the trailrace.com and except for a not so minor hill at the end, the course did look pretty flat. Lots of downhill at the start, a couple of “minor” climbs in the middle of the course, and about an 8% climb over the last mile or so. A friend warned me about the hills around mile 5, so I wasn’t caught totally off guard by the steep climbs on the power line service road.

At just under a 1000′ of elevation gain, Black Mountain is the least hilly of the XTERRA SoCal Trail Run Series. But in a series noted for its climbs, flat is a relative term. To the left are the distances and elevation gains for the Series courses calculated using SportTracks* based on Garmin GPS tracks from the 2012 races, except for Malibu which is from 2011.



Here’s a more detailed Black Mountain 15K elevation profile with some notes added. Imagine running this course at an average pace of just over 6:30 min/mile! That’s what overall winner Paul Fraire did, cranking through the 9.8 mile course in 1:03:48.6. Heather Fuhr, Women’s winner and 4th overall, finished in 1:05:36.5, averaging 6:42 min/mile!

Like all the XTERRA SoCal Trail Run Series courses, the Black Mountain course was fun! There were a variety of trails and terrain, and some other interesting elements. And it’s the only race in the series that ends with a challenging climb! I really enjoyed the course.

*SportTracks elevation data smoothing set to 55. Elevations corrected using pkan’s Elevation Correction Plugin and NED 1/3 arc second DEMs.