Old Cabin/Boney Mountain

Always eager to explore new trails in So Cal, I decided to make the hour drive to meet up with Evan in his neck of the woods of Thousand Oaks. He told me the loop we were gonna do came the closest to resembling trails he was accustomed to running in his home state of Alaska. That brought on both a mix of excitement and apprehension.

Tempted to floor it. 

The morning got off to an exciting start when I was pulled over by the California Highway Patrol just a few exits from my destination. Apparently I was doing 80+ MPH. This was the sympathetic text I got from Hone:

Heh, dick. 

Anyway, thanks to some eye batting I was able to talk my way out of the speeding ticket and just got a fix it ticket for registration/insurance stuff. Whew. 

Easy on the eyes.

I arrived few minutes after 7am and we got started shortly thereafter. The trail started on a flat-ish single-track in a beautiful green valley but wasn't too long before we started climbing. And holy hell, what a climb. The initial climb wasn't too bad and I started thinking "this is manageable, I can handle this". But around mile 3 the trail started becoming more and more technical, rocky and steep. And not steep with windy switchbacks - steep with a virtually straight line up to the top. Ah, this is what he meant with the Alaska comparisons. 

Ah...crap.

I kept my head down huffing and puffing trying to keep up with Hone. Running, hands on knees hiking, cursing...whatever it took. He was nice enough to slow down for me often but I swear, no idea how he can run up the entirety of this route day in and day out. After climbing for awhile Evan pointed out the view to which I replied "hell no, not looking - haven't earned it yet". He got a good chuckle out of that. 

Almost there.

Finally, we hit the summit (~3,000 ft) and we took a minute to snap some pics and admire the view. And what a view it was. Damn, wish this place was closer to LA. 

Summit.

Priceless views.

For all the initial climbing, we were treated to a long, gradual descent. Around the 10 mile mark, we started yet another steady climb around the Boney Mountain course area. Not nearly as gnarly but by then my weak Bambi legs were whimpering. We eventually reconnected with the original "out" trail and after about 16 miles and 4,400+ feet of climbing, we were done. The day had warmed up plenty so I was thankful we got started early. This would have been a bitch of a run with the sun high in the sky.

Solid week of training for me, although nursing a slightly sore right foot for most of the week. Surf City Half next week. Yay.