When I first moved to SJC I thought it would be sweet to mountain bike to work. There are no direct bike paths to Irvine for a roadbike (thanks to the 73 toll road not having a bicycle lane). I knew it would be difficult even on a mountain bike because one of the wilderness parks I would have to cross (Aliso Wood Canyons) is one that my hardcore mountain bike co-workers ride often and where I trained for a mountain bike race.
I should say that I prefer bicycles over running, but because I signed up for the LA Marathon in March I decided to make the trek on foot.
The final push came when a friend with whom I'd gone out partying and dancing in Santa Monica Friday night got up Saturday morning after no sleep and ran 10miles. It was time for me to turn up the intensity in my running (I'd only been running 5miles a week). In addition watching Avatar preped me for a run through the woods.
So Monday morning I put on my FiveFingers running shoes, mexican knit pants, bandana and headed out at 6:30am. My first challenge was crossing a creek in Rio Oso Park (Bear River), which wasn't more than knee high but I paced up and down to make sure I could climb over the bank on the other side to continue. Once on the other side though, I quickly came upon a 400ft. cliff which I ran along trying to find the trail I had seen on googlemaps. I became disheartened that so early on in my run I was taking so long to get over the first valley. That's when I passed two coyotes who ran back towards the creek after seeing me run by! It great to know that even though there was a freeway nearby with people in their cars heading to work, I was there, running along the creek, just another one of nature's creatures.
Soon thereafter I found a path up and over. I came upon what looked like a hobo campground with a firepit and a sofachair under a tree next to some mounds of dirt. Those mounds were actually a BMX park, cool!
The next trails I hit were in Aliso Wood Canyon Wilderness park. The further I climbed into that valley the foggier it became to the point where I had to take off my glasses. I'm no ornithologist, but I think I saw a crane! It was pretty freaky because it was huge and when it saw me coming it flew away and disappeared into the fog!
I realized that this trip was going to take me longer than expected when I was going up and down trails that looked like this:
Then I had to cross the 133 (hwy that goes to Laguna Beach). I went out of my way to find the only streetlight so I could safely cross the street. I should also mention that there is a migrant worker center nearby there so I would not have been surprised if I was mistaken for an illegal immigrant.I entered Laguna Coast Wilderness Park at which point I was loosing steam. To maintain the pace I got out my Droid and played some tunes. By this point I was walking up most steep hills. I thought I was about to faint but then realized that the fog had turned into passing clouds which made the effect of the hills moving away from me.
After the Laguna Park I crossed underneath the 73 toll road and thought I was in the home stretch. A few miles on Bommer Canyon road and I approached a fence. Backtracking would take me an extra hour. I had also run out of food, down to my last gulp of water. On the current course my work was only a few miles away. I decided to hop the fence and found posted on the other side that the brief stretch between the 73 and that fence is land accessible by permit only?! After the fence the trail ended and a paved road began. That's when I got the second cramp of the day on my left calf and stopped to stretch it out. That's also when a park ranger came up in his SUV and informed me of my mistake. Lucky for me he also gave me a bottle of water and a tablet of electrolytes!
I thought about calling a co-worker to come pick me up, but wanted the satisfaction of making it all the way. Therefore I just walked the rest of the way. I had never been so happy to see my office buildings!
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