When I turned the corner at the Trippet Ranch parking lot and started up the hill toward the Musch Trail, I did a double take. The road was wet and it looked like it had been raining!
While it wasn’t impossible that a rogue shower had been spawned from the deep layer of moisture flowing over the area, it was far more likely the road was just wet from on-again, off-again drizzle.
On the way over from the end of Reseda one thing is for sure — there had been no rain. The dirt roads and trails had been in great shape. It would have been an exaggeration to describe them as damp. Although cool and cloudy, the weather was excellent for running and I’d removed my sleeves miles ago.
The Trippet Ranch Loop is a favorite. I’d taken the fire roads out from the end of Reseda, now on the way back it would be almost entirely single track trail.
Well, actually you could see some snow on Mt. Baldy and the higher peaks of the San Gabriel Mountains, but that snow was 50 miles away. So far there had been a little frost in the shadows and mud in the low spots of the fire roads of Topanga State Park, but not a patch of snow in sight.
Lynn & Frank were heading back to the land of rain and snow for Christmas and there WAS snow on their local trails. More snow and bone-chilling temps were in the forecast, and a long snow-free run in the Santa Monica Mountains was a great way to celebrate the holidays!
We had taken a detour from the Backbone Trail to the top of Eagle Rock. After enjoying the view we would extend the detour down the Musch Trail and pick up the Backbone Trail at Trippet Ranch. From Trippet we would follow the Backbone Trail down into Topanga Canyon, up Hondo Canyon, over to Saddle Peak and then down to Malibu Canyon.
With a couple of short side trips the distance from the End of Reseda (Marvin Braude Mulholland Gateway Park) worked out to about 21 miles. The distance and elevation gain were about the same as last Saturday’s run — also on the Backbone Trail.
Although we didn’t have the deluge they experienced in Central and Northern California, Southern California did get some rain. From Tuesday night (11/27) to Monday morning (12/3) Downtown Los Angeles (USC) recorded 1.03 inches, bringing the water year total to 1.36 inches. As of today that’s 1.08 inch below normal.
Some foothill and mountain stations were able to wring out much more rain from the moist tropical flow. Opids Camp recorded 3.02 inches, White Ledge Peak 4.09 inches, Refugio Pass 4.61 inches, and Rocky Butte 8.51 inches. For some storm totals from up north and more info about the “atmospheric rivers” that relayed the moisture up from the tropics, see my December 8 post on Southern California Weather Notes.
The photo above was taken between “storms” early Sunday morning, December 2, on a run in Topanga State Park. It started to rain shortly after I finished the run.
It looks like we might get a little more rain this next week, with a chance of rain on Wednesday and then maybe again on the weekend. We’ll see!
