Silverado Canyon Cirumnavigation

You know, Silverado Canyon in the Trabuco Unit of Cleveland NF? I've been wanting to do this one for a while. Start at the Silverado gate, up Silverado trail to Main Divide, then along the ridge all the way around to the junction that heads up to Modjeska, and back down the switchbacky Maple Springs Truck Trail.

I knew I'd be in for a nice hill workout because once you gain the ridge, there's still a lot of up and down, and it's mostly my back and gluts that are paying for it today. But even beyond that, this one wins the award for Most Annoying Trail Run. An. Noy. Ing. Seriously, you keep thinking you're about to connect to Maple Springs and then the ridge swerves away AGAIN - and no wildlife at all up there yesterday, and lots of death cookies to blow an ankle on. The view of the San Gabriels and San Bernardinos and San Jacinto were nice (no snow right now, sadly enough), and it's kind of cool to look down into Corona, and sunset over Catalina wasn't bad either with the marine layer creeping in. It was also nice to seemingly scare the bejeesus out of a couple guys in the 4WDs not expecting to see someone on foot up there especially after dark. But I don't know if I'm going to run this one again any time soon. I've already been up Santiago from the southern entrance and that trail is a little prettier. I might be taking a little break from the Trabuco...(Images below the map from mountainbikebill.com and myjeeprocks.com respectively.)