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Vice President Peggy Alfred writes:

"An Adventure Run With Running Deer and Great Horned Goat"       November 16th, 2008

 

 

When Peter gleefully stated, "You all up for a little explore this morning?" as Charles S, Lina McC, Mike D. and myself gathered for our Sunday morning run this past weekend, I immediately thought "Uh oh, did I remember to get some more Technu after wash at REI?" (the miracle cure for removing Poison Oak oil from skin).

Peter and Charles are both known for their spirit of adventure when planing a run-- translate: whacking through bushes and shrubs, scaling up narrow and crazy steep game trail, and running where 'no runner has gone before." The less traveled trail the better!

And there I stood, agreeing with the plan! Well, I do like a bit of adventure and am game for a good time so I figured we'd emerge from our journey fairly unscathed and pleased with ourselves for fun had and exploring new running territory. I was not disappointed!

We started out by entering a dry stream bed off the Foothill Canyon Rd. across from the Striders parking lot (opposite side of the canyon we usually run trails on) and immediately begin by whacking through bushes, crawling under low-growing branches, and searching for a run-able trail. A collar with tags that a dog had escaped from and a deer antler were found.....made me wonder what other intriguing artifacts might be discovered along the way as these trails have little traffic on them. Someone cracked a joke about finding "lost runner bones" and I thought about wanting to avoid the, um, "harvesters of the hills" and their shotguns with which they protect their green and budding crops!

We explored several different paths, Charles looking off in the distance at a hill and stating "That's were we want to head." Peter and Charles had run in this area for the first time a week ago and were excited to share the area with us. If you run with Charles, you know to always expect hills, and quite a few at that. Peter has the same reputation, but his also includes rolling on ones back under fences and climbing up belly-scraping steep hills adrenalin-rush downhills. I think these two would have a blast doing an Eco Challenge race! I nick-named Charles "Running Deer" and Peter "Great Horned Goat" in honor of their talents.....Charles can run forever and has a gentle demeanor and Peter loves those mountain goat-like trails and he is a bit of a playful devil! Thank you guys for your spirit and sense of fun ;-)

We reached the top of a ridge from which we had a beautiful vista of the Santa Clara Valley down below us ringed by the Santa Cruz mountains, Mt. Hamilton, Mission Peak, Rose Peak and Mt. Diablo off in the distance. After breathing in the sites for a bit, we headed back down on road and trails running above Regnart and Permanente Quarries. You can really see the extent of the excavation which has been done by the quarries over the years, and for me a little hard to see the earth scarred up so.

We came back down some mighty steep hills, scrabbling across a tricky talus slope at the end to reach a more manageable trail on which to get down off the hill and back to the parking lot. Cool! This brought to mind the thought of skiing, and we rated the slope a definite "Black Diamond" classification! The true adventurer Peter aka Great Horned Goat floated right down the face with nary a misstep. He does like the steep stuff! Gutsy!

Ah, a total of 7.2 miles accomplished in 2 hours 15 mins.....gives you an idea of the technicality and of course the time required to admire the view at the top after our hard-won effort to reach it. All in all an exciting, a bit crazy and very fun adventure run!

Want to come next time? ;-)

See you on the trails,

Peggy