another Day with the Davids

I am happy to call this weekend "normal". .. even if it included a long drive we still had plenty of time with friends, family and food. And of course it wouldn’t be complete without time on the trail. We have less than two weeks until our marathon at Stinson and I am now glad that we switched to the half.... After my one run that I got in last week and not running at all this week it will be a challenge to just do 13 miles over the trails in the Muir Woods. Consistency is a hard balancing act.

After my VO2 Max testing on Friday I was beat so Monique took out Nacho for a run Saturday morning while I had a nice 11 hour sleep. Ahhh... I needed that. When she was done running we were off to her hair appointment in Ontario and ended up spending the day...and into the night on Mt. Baldy again.

This time we headed up a new trail with David Fowler to San Antonio peak at some ten thousand plus feet. Steep and rugged as Baldy usually is we felt at home on the trail an in conversation with Dave. What a cool guy. At just 26 years young he has live a full life already and his character is proof that he has had an amazing attitude through it all. He has lived in Colorado, Santa Cruz, Berkeley just to name a few. He has trekked through Alaska for over 80 days straight and knocked out some Ironman races too. He is now finishing grad school and making plans for a wedding. I am sure his life is just going to get even faster. . . just like him.

Steep and steady we climbed with little wind to reach the top of San Antonio. There was reported winds over 70MPH at the top but we were on the good side of the mountain on the climb up and it was still nice and warm. In just a little over an hour we were at the top and felt like we were miles from our world below. Beautiful views and food were on the order. Thanks to Dave for all those good chocolate bars! Monique was still in her "cool down" from her morning run and was not looking for a break yet. Good. Its all downhill from here.

Down to the decent and we chose a new path instead of making it an out and back day. We headed east and onto the Devils Backbone trail. Let the fun begin. Our scramble began down some loose switchbacks and across the ridges and wind like the open sea. We were on our way to the ski shuttle with a plan to take the dirt road down because the sun would be setting on us for sure.

I think we had about 3 miles left when the sun set on us. Amazing night… warm wind, shadows from the moon and running in the dark. This was a new experience. I would not suggest running at a good pace down a dirt road in the dark when you cannot see your feet or where they are landing…but if you ever find yourself in the moment. ..Don’t hold back.

After our little four hours on the trail we were more than ready to dig into some of Monique's moms food and dive into the couch. David Sinatra met up with us and Dez was there hanging out too. I think that the last time the two Daves were together was the Temecula races… Sinatra is a big boy now. Hopefully, he does not have any wedding plans either but I will be happy when that day comes. Dave is just about the only person I have seen grow up in front of my eyes. Im so glad he doesn’t have that bowl hair cut anymore ;-O Next week is his 21st birthday!!!!


-----Update----

Monique found the EXACT trails and route we took and someone posted some nice little map and pics of it.
http://www.halfaya.org/leo/hiking/MtBaldy/index.htm
.
Here are some of our pictures too
http://slater.smugmug.com/gallery/2362571#123728296
.