By the time I reached Rancho Sierra Vista/Satwiwa at the end of last Sunday’s wet run to Serrano Valley and back, the frontal band was mostly done with its showers and was speeding to the east. In its wake were blustery winds, broken clouds, and a dynamic patchwork of sun and shadow on Satwiwa’s spectacularly green landscape.
A hazy, late afternoon view across Cheeseboro Canyon and the hills of Agoura to Ladyface peak, near Kanan Rd and the Ventura Frwy. Castro Peak is in the distance on the left.
From today’s run to Cheeseboro Ridge from the Victory trailhead at Ahmanson Ranch.
Boney Mountain from the Old Boney Trail
It started to sprinkle as I walked from my car to the Wendy Drive trailhead. In a matter of minutes the sprinkles turned to a light, but steady rain, and the Satwiwa trail started to become slick with mud. The rainy weather would continue through most of my run in Pt. Mugu State Park.
It was wet today, but today’s rain was the first in Southern California in nearly a month. Southern California was very wet from October through December, but the storm door from the Pacific into California slammed shut in early January. The weeks of wet weather followed by weeks of warm, dry weather has the plant communities of the Santa Monica Mountains thinking it’s Spring.
Among the flowers blooming along the Old Boney and Serrano Valley trails were paintbrush, encelia, milkmaids, phlox, shooting star, nightshade, wild cucumber, canyon sunflower, deerweed, and bigpod ceanothus. But more than the plants have responded. On January 17, trail runner Howard Cohen took this video of a sizable rattlesnake on the Old Boney Trail!
Some related posts: Serrano Valley from Wendy Drive, Serrano Valley from the Chamberlain Trail
These mountain wave clouds were produced by north-northeast winds blowing across the generally east-west oriented mountain ranges north and northwest of Los Angeles. The clouds form near the crests of the undulating airflow downwind of the mountains.
The cirrus veils trailing downwind from the clouds are comprised of ice crystals. There was little shear, so the wisps and sheets of cirrus are aligned with the wind and perpendicular to the long axis of the cloud. Compare to the cirrus veil of these lenticular clouds, also formed by north-northeast winds, but which were being sheared by northwesterly winds.
From a trail run at Ahmanson Ranch on Thursday.
Which to do? Both courses start at the intersection of Malibu Canyon Rd. and Piuma Rd., are 13-14 miles in length, and have about 2600-2700′ of elevation gain/loss — but they are very different trail runs.
Much of the Bulldog Loop is on fire roads, while the Saddle Peak Out & Back is 99.9% single track — much of it rough and technical. A comparison of the elevation profiles shows that the main climb on the Saddle Peak run is steeper than the Bulldog climb, and gains an additional 300 ft. in elevation. The Bulldog Loop has longer stretches of more or less level running.
Either course is a good choice for a strenuous run with great views and scenery. On a long run day, the runs can also be combined to create a difficult 27.5 mile course with your car as the main aid station. The Bulldog 50K used to follow much of this combined course, as well as loop through upper Solstice Canyon on the Backbone Trail. Problems with a property owner on Castro Peak necessitated a change to the current 50K course.
Today I opted for the Saddle Peak Out & Back run. The title photograph is Saddle Peak from the Backbone Trail. The trail switchbacks up the steep sunlit face on the center-left of the photo.
Here are interactive Cesium browser Views of the Saddle Peak Out & Back, and the Bulldog Loop.
It’s now been 17 days since there’s been measurable rain at Downtown Los Angeles (USC). A trace of rain was recorded on a couple of days, but for the time being a big blocking ridge has shut the door on Pacific precipitation.
So far this January, only 0.58 of rain has been recorded, which is a little less than one-third of normal for the month. However, because of our frequent December storms the water year total at Los Angeles is currently about double the normal amount — and why open space areas of Southern California have turned so lush and green.