Where I've Driven

These are my "where I've driven" logs for various parts of the world. Don't ask me why, but I like to keep track of it. Click on the images to see any real detail. I started doing this before you could save tracks on Google Maps, which is why they're static JPGs. In the unlikely event that you care, I'll be updating this specific blog post by adding little specks of green to the map as I drive new routes. Note that just being on a ground transport doesn't count - I have to do the driving. So there's no track from El Salvador to Guatemala, because I took a bus.

What Does It Mean to "Close" a Park?

The great State of California, due to its budget problems, may have to cut funding to its park system and close 80% of them. For the Bay Area, this includes Mt. Diablo, Mt. Tamalpais, Henry Coe, Portola Redwoods, and a bunch of beaches.

I'm told by the politically savvy that sometimes in times of budget crisis, public officials make moves as if to cut beloved programs, but in reality they're deliberately trying to provoke an outcry - either to mobilize the electorate to protect said programs (so public officials are then able to say "it's not my pet project, the public made me do it") or to free up funding, as in one recent case.

Given the deep hole California is now in, I have trouble believing that's what's going on, and that we're not seeing an earnest attempt to cut park funding.

My question is. What does it mean to close a park? In the case of state beaches, is the broke state going to put a fence up to keep people out? Or will the local cities now patrol them and cite people for trespassing? Wouldn't a "use at your own risk" policy make more sense?

About two years ago I spoke to someone at Henry Coe State Park and asked what would happen if Coe were closed (as was then being threatened). Coe is huge. What the staff member told me: "We currently have two paid staff members. If the park is closed, the state still has to patrol the land. Patrolling the land would require two paid staff members. Plus a closed park doesn't generate any revenue to offset costs. So closing it would actually be more expensive than leaving it open."

Not every park is as big as Henry Coe, but certainly the same arguments apply to many parks - plus, how do you keep somebody out of large, remote, un-fence-offable chunks of land?

32 Down, 24 to Go

National Parks, that is. Because the best way to measure life experience is by collecting points. If I have more than you, I'm a better person. Hey, I kid, I kid!

This weekend I hit the Redwood National and State Parks in the NW corner of the state (pictures to come). Now that I have points for Redwood, I started looking at the list. Rather than post a list bragging about the ones I've been to, here's a list of the ones I haven't been to. I started ranking them but thought I'd leave it up to any readers to weigh in if they've been there. Note that the list neglects all the monuments and scenic rivers and historic sites I haven't yet been to, which would be enormous. In no particular order:


Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota

Virgin Islands National Park, U.S. Virgin Islands

Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota

Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska

Acadia National Park, Maine

National Park of American Samoa, American Samoa

Big Bend National Park, Texas

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Colorado

Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico

Channel Islands National Park, California

Congaree National Park, South Carolina

Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Ohio

Dry Tortugas National Park, Florida

Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Alaska

Great Basin National Park, Nevada

Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve, Colorado

Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Texas

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, New Hampshire

Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas

Isle Royale National Park, Michigan

Katmai National Park and Preserve, Alaska

Kobuk Valley National Park, Alaska

Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, Alaska

Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky


Any comments on these?

The Reverse Taper: Training Regimen of Champions

I will be doing a little runny-run from Las Trampas to my house in Rockridge via EBMUD land, Redwood Preserve, and the Oakland Hills with a few people, one of whom occasionally reads this blog. It clocks in around 18 very hilly miles. I cannot understate how out of condition I am right now. I'm getting maybe 10 low impact miles a week, and this has been going on for maybe a month.

You might say that biting off such a big, long run in such poor shape is foolish. You are correct sir! Therefore, for no good reason other than to punish myself (because this can't possibly have a good outcome) I plan to put in 75 miles the week leading into the long run, starting this coming Tuesday, with no recovery break before the run. Sound good? I'll post from the hospital to let you know how it turns out. Or my running pal Johnson will summarize in my eulogy.

The Canadian Rockies and Points Further North

I'm thinking of taking a summer trip to the Canadian Rockies and beyond. Canadians will laugh at me for saying this, but it's humbling how much North America there is above the 49th parallel (put simply, most of it). You can't see the Arctic Ocean from North Dakota.

From the MT-AB border to Yellowknife (territorial capital of NT), it's the same distance as Oakland to Vancouver, BC. Of course, getting to Vancouver is already about 1,240 miles. Overall, driving to Yellowknife from here is the same as driving to Indianapolis from here. And how many people are up there? In NT, about 45,000 total. More natives than Euro-Canadians. And of course, since it's Canada, even these tiny frontier-towns will be safe and well-run. (I admire our northern neighbors greatly. Somehow, even the crazies in the hills in Canada are reasonable.)

Anyway, I've often looked north and east into the mountains from Vancouver, but not had the time to get into the interior, the part of North America where the Rockies, the Cascades and the Coast Range meet. Now we will. I can't wait. It's going to rock.

Geological Anomalies of Northern California: Central Valley Volcanism

(Note: the experts have spoken - the Sutter Buttes are not a Cascade. See here for more. The rest of the article remains as originally posted.)

Geologists/geology buffs: your input on this discussion is most welcome.

Several years ago I was on a Cascade-climbing kick, and part of my motivation was to collect a piece of basalt at the top of each one to try to show a relationship in lava composition between volcanoes. I was fascinated with the Sutter Buttes, a tiny circular volcanic mountain range jutting up in the middle of the Central Valley, and I wanted to support my pet theory that they were in fact the southernmost Cascade: here we had a mini-stratovolcano due east of the Mendocino triple junction, and therefore a result of Juan de Fuca plate subduction. How could it not be a Cascade?

To satisfy my curiosity I visited the privately-owned area with the Middle Mountain Foundation I took a tour with geologist and Buttes expert Brian Hausback, who explained two things: a) basalt composition is a function of the overlying crust; you don't necessarily see chemical similarity in basalts from stratovolcanoes in the same chain just because they're drawing from the same magma reservoir - so my sample collection wouldn't show anything; and b) the Buttes were way-off trend relative to the other Cascades (in terms of geography and age) and it turned out that my error was one of definition: not all volcanism associated with the JDF plate is a Cascade. I objected to the age argument because I put together a graph showing that the supposed relationship between northerliness and most recent eruption in the Cascades just didn't exist - what about Lassen and Thielsen? But I couldn't dispute the geography. What about Konocti at Clear Lake? What about all the flows that produce Oregon's black sand beaches? Eventually I relented, although now the USGS link about the Sutter Buttes that I provided above does say that the Sutter Buttes are in fact the southernmost Cascade.

So far so good? Not so fast. While the Cascades beginning with Shasta seem basically a textbook case of plate tectonics, as does California starting at the Bay and moving south, I saw a few things yesterday that confused the hell out of me. I saw a few igneous rocks here and there in Mendocino National Forest, but no other evidence of volcanism. Add to that what seemed to me obvious hummock formations on Route 32 between Newville and Black Butte Lake. Hummocks are small but steep hills occurring in sets around areas of volcanism, resulting from lava flows or debris accumulations - in violent eruptions they're actually pieces of the volcano that were thrown out by the explosion. The first time I saw them and knew what I was looking at was at Mt. St. Helens. Needless to say my phone battery was dead so I couldn't get any pictures of the ones near Black Butte Lake, but here's a great shot of some northwest of Mt. Shasta:

Of course, the Orland Buttes are just east of there, and no one is arguing that they're not volcanic. Here's a nice picture of one of the major ones next to Black Butte Lake in the winter, credit to shastacascade.com:

The Orland Buttes have clear bands of basalt which reveal their volcanic origin. There are also one or two formations like these just east of highway 29 in southern Napa county, likely a result of Mt. St. Helena when it was still active and preserving redwoods in ash for us to look at 3 million years later, not to mention giving us a valley full of good soil for grapes.

Though I found no mention of the Newville hummocks, there are multiple papers explaining at least the Orland Buttes' origin as part of the Lovejoy basalts, which originated 15-16 MYA near Susanville, which today sits in a gap between the northern end of the Sierras and Mt. Lassen, the first unambiguous Cascade stratovolcano. (Interestingly enough, Maidu people from around the Susanville area considered one of the mountains near Susanville to be the place from which the creator god made the world and under which he is now sleeping, but don't get too nervous, it's a Penutian-language-family creation myth motif - the Modoc thought the same thing about the petroglyph-ringed sandstone mountain in the southeast of Lava Beds National Park and the Nez Perce believed it about a boulder in central Idaho. The Nez Perce one especially isn't anything to write home about.)

The problem remains that Susanville is about 120 air miles from these hummocks near Newville. Even if the basalt all the way over by Orland can be explained by an eruption in Susanville - and some geologists, suspicious at the size of the flow and its age, similar to the Columbia basalts - haved posited a Yellowstone-style eruption as the mechanism.

This would still have to be one hell of an eruption to put hummocks (if that's what they are) all the way over at Newville. My amateur vote is for volcanism somewhere nearby in the part of the Coast Range in Mendocino National Forest. Unlike in much of the rest of geology-textbook California, the picture is anything but clear (which makes it more interesting). The Trinity Alps to the north have been investigated in a series of papers attempting to describe the complex plate motion that continues to build these mountains. While I can't see a reason to rule out an association with the Yellowstone mantle plume, for my money, I also see no reason to think the same plate motion operating in the Trinity Alps wouldn't apply 70 air miles south in the northern Coast Range.

Mendocino National Forest

I finally decided to cross Mendocino National Forest off my list. It's amazing that it's so close (3.5 hrs) and yet so few people have been there, or even heard of it. I went to Snow Mountain Wilderness and headed up to the summit. With the Central Valley roasting at about 103 F, it felt about 85 F at the top. There were still some very small patches of snow.

The environment seemed kind of like the Sierra foothills, but even drier, with a lot of the coastal scrub you'll see on the east side of slopes in coastal Marin. Highlight: Summit Spring, which had the highest flow of any spring I've ever seen. Not much wildlife, except the bumblebees were curiously interested in me, more like horseflies, and there were lizards everywhere - which makes me wonder how they survive 5-6 months covered in snow up there. There was an odd crow conference going on over the summit - I saw very few but there were making a big, gregarious circuit over the top. In the heat it was too hazy to see the ocean.

On the way back I went out of my way to check out Black Butte Lake. I've always wanted to see this lake. Ever notice that weird sloping mesa to the west as you drive up I-5, around the exit for Orland? That's Black Butte. The lake was surprisingly warm (lots of people swimming) but not that clear.

Overall, Mendocino it seemed more popular with the offroad vehicle crowd than hikers, but still only saw 4 of either. If you want isolation you can get it there, and I'm glad I checked out this N.F. but wouldn't go out of my way to visit it again.

My Half-Baked Ideas for Distance Races - Back Home in PA

We all show our homesickness in different ways. For that pretentious hack John Updike it was walking the sidewalks of our native Shillington, trying to piece together some pattern in our lives. For me, it's looking at maps of Berks County, Pennsylvania and coming up with cockamamey ideas for races. I've had such ideas for races in the Bay Area - like the Pony Express run, where we more-or-less retraced the last leg of the old route - and come to think of it, people actually showed up for that one. Twice.

In particular, I think the East Coast is ripe for a Hood-to-Coast or Calistoga-style relay. While the change in landforms from interior to coast is not quite as dramatic on the right edge of the country, there is nonetheless a really interesting transition in Pennsylvania from Appalachian ridges to coastal plains, along with all the cultural vectors that go along with that. Of course, since I've been gone from the area for over a decade, some of these races may actually exist. So without further ado, here are my half-baked ideas for races in Berks County, Pennsylvania:


1) Penn State to Reading - 162 miles

A team of 10 at 3 legs each could easily do this. The race could begin at either the exact geographic center of Pennsylvania (on the HUB Lawn) or alternatively at Beaver Stadium or Mt. Nittany. I selfishly end it in my home development. Highlights of the race would be Rothrock State Forest, the climb up Route 74 south of Port Royal, and running parallel to and over the Blue Mountains east of Harrisburg.


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2) The Berks County Town-and-Trail Ultra - ~100k

I'm always impressed with Berks County's trail scene when I'm visiting and wish I would've paid more attention while I lived there. This trail would start in the gorgeous French Creek, exit west on the Horseshoe Trail, head northwest past the late Mr. Updike's home, make its way through Cumru Township into and through the hemlocks of Nolde Forest, up the newly budgeted trail along 625 into Reading, join the Tulpehocken trail, follow that up to Blue Marsh and take the west side of the lake. From there it would circle the Marsh (more closely than this map allows), come back down through Reading, pick up the Thun Trail, jump off at Birdsboro and head back down into French Creek. The actual route would be less than the slightly > 100k seen here, and could by done as an ultra or a relay like the Tussey Mountainback.


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3.) The Reading to Ocean City Relay - 172 miles

Just as it sounds - the race ends exactly at the DE-MD border, and follows the coast as much as is possible along DE's marshy shoreline. Perfect for a 10 or 12 person relay. A similar race could happen with OCNJ, and a George-Washington kayak leg for the Delaware crossing.


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4. Race Down the Schuylkill - 140 miles

Follow what Unami-speakers called the Ganshowehanne from its source in the Appalachian Coal Regions, through the Blue Ridge Gap at Hamburg, all the way through Montgomery County to the shipyards at its confluence with the Delaware. This would be a great way to publicize the Schuylkill River Trail, large contiguous parts of which are already complete.


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5. Mt. Nittany to the Chesapeake
- 181 miles

Another relay. This would go down the Juniata and Susquehanna to the northern tip of Chesapeake Bay.


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Purty Pitchers from Lost Coast

I took a little trip up to the North Coast this weekend and got some nice pics of coastline, sorrel, and everything in between:



Oddly, I'd never realized that sorrel wasn't just regular old clover. Underneath the leaves, it's purple. A plant example of convergent evolution! I'm also mystified by why it doesn't appear in the closer-in Bay Area redwood preserves (like Redwood Park or Muir Woods; it does appear in Samuel Taylor).

Another Open Spot on a Relay Team - For FREE!

If you're interested in The Relay, email scott, then dot, then susie, and of course that's at gene with another dot then com.

Want to Run the Relay? Join Tramps Like Us

Elyse Stratton and Keith Watson need a runner for their Relay Team. If you're thinking of running The Relay, you probably have a lot of options right about now. You should run with Keith and Elyse's team because a) it's a Genentech team, meaning it's awesome, and b) you get a cool T-shirt for free:



If you're interested, email them at watson_keith@yahoo.com and Elyse_Stratton@yahoo.com.

You Should Get Your Running Gear at TranSports

TranSports continues to prove itself the most awesome running store, ever. The service and expertise are beyond fantastic. I just bought a pair of shoes there and after they filmed my stride in several pairs, I settled on some Asics. Because of their consistent excellence I plug them whenever I can.

Pictures from the Trail in Briones

My pal Tom, guitarist of the one and only god-king of metal Crysknife, kindly helped me with the beer stop on my easy, flat, seasonably mild trail yesterday in Briones and took lots of damn good photos too. You really should see them. Some of my favorites:

New Information: What To Do If You See A Mountain Lion

A study reported in the Sacramento Bee suggests that running is appropriate in some circumstances. 'Oze guys, 'ey bitem.

CrossFit: Get Ready to Get Served

If Tom C wasn't my friend I would be concerned for my health and well-being. Witness as those who dare enter the CrossFit competition are about to be crushed and extruded like so much goose waste by the Tom C. Hyperbole, you say? Just watch. Warning: video contains metal.

Drink Hoptimus Prime Beer

This is why I'm posting this here:

a) I probably drink the majority of my beer outside, during outdoor activities.
b) This blog is dedicated to things I enjoy for their own sake, in and of themselves.
c) Even though this is a West Coast outdoors blog I am from Pennsylvania.
d) Transformers are cool.

Therefore, drink Hoptimus Prime Beer.

Someone is Shooting Condors in Ventana

Why would someone do this? Really makes me angry. If you're hiking in the open sections of Ventana, keep your eyes open.

Marin Watershed Lands

I went out in Mt. Tam watershed lands yesterday and don't know why I never did before. Fantastic. Was time-constrained but didn't have a watch so I took my phone, and decided that if I was going to carry the damn thing the whole time, I might as well get some nice pitchers. I think I did. Enjoy.
Original album here.

From Wildflowers, Mt. Tam Watershed

From Wildflowers, Mt. Tam Watershed

From Wildflowers, Mt. Tam Watershed

From Wildflowers, Mt. Tam Watershed

From Wildflowers, Mt. Tam Watershed

From Wildflowers, Mt. Tam Watershed

From Wildflowers, Mt. Tam Watershed

From Wildflowers, Mt. Tam Watershed

From Wildflowers, Mt. Tam Watershed

From Wildflowers, Mt. Tam Watershed

From Wildflowers, Mt. Tam Watershed

From Wildflowers, Mt. Tam Watershed

From Wildflowers, Mt. Tam Watershed

From Wildflowers, Mt. Tam Watershed

From Wildflowers, Mt. Tam Watershed

From Wildflowers, Mt. Tam Watershed

From Wildflowers, Mt. Tam Watershed

From Wildflowers, Mt. Tam Watershed

From Wildflowers, Mt. Tam Watershed

From Wildflowers, Mt. Tam Watershed

From Wildflowers, Mt. Tam Watershed

Great Pics from Save Mt. Diablo, Thanks Chihping!

Chihping Fu took some great pictures that Mike Palmer sent around - highly recommended. Visit Chihping's blog at Ultrafamilyman. The pictures were every bit as gorgeous as I remember the trail from the day before, except drier (lucky racers!)

Set Trail for the Save Mt. Diablo 50k Yesterday

Mike "Little Johnson" (don't ask) Lijewski and I marked out the portion of the Save Mt. Diablo 50k course from the start to the aid station at Mile 9.8. The rain yesterday probably washed out any flour we layed down, and I hope the wind didn't blow away any ribbons. Unfortunately, even though Mike Palmer gave us signs to put at trailheads telling people there was an official event and not to remove the ribbons, some self-appointed trail authorities took some down anyway - fortunately this would have been on Hardy Canyon trail just for the first 3 miles or so of the course, where it's hard to get lost. This was my first time in Los Vaqueros and also the biggest chunk of the Mt. Diablo Trail that I've done to date. My favorite part was Hardy Canyon Trail - fantastic.

Mike L. and I met up with the very nice Joe and Beth at Morgan Territory Road - thanks for the water and the offer of the jacket - I should've taken you guys up on it, given how it rained on the way back! Between the cold and the rain on one hand and that horrible East Bay clay turning the trail into a miles-long downhill oil slick, I don't know which was worse. One bonus: very well fed coyote trotted out in front of us at the intersection with Hardy and Miwok. S/he was a little more nervous about us than the bobcat I saw down at Pescadero Creek last weekend.

So that's my first volunteer commitment for the running community this year. Here's hoping everyone's race went well. If I'm still in the area I hope to be participating in the race next year.

March Madness Picks: UNC Takes it if Gonzaga Doesn't Upset Them

Update 6 April: I correctly called the final winner (UNC), along with most of the rest of the country. But my overall success rate of predicting winners was 60.3%. Maybe this is my last year doing this.

I know nothing about basketball. But like an unemotional, disciplined investor, I developed a quantitative approach and I stick with it. Last year I got into my office pool at the Sweet Sixteen stage and picked 14 out of 15, including the winner, despite the disbelieving howls at some of my picks when I made them. The method is simple - best scoring margin wins, period.

This year I was inspired by masseyratings.com to try to figure out the relative skill of teams; that is, if you have a good scoring margin but you're in a crappy conference, when you line up against somebody from the Big 12 or Big East, you might be in trouble. Masseyratings does some giant networking thing (A beat B, who beat C but was beaten by D, who beat A...etc.) Whereas I have an Excel sheet and a day job. But to take skill level into account, I looked at the tournament last year and tried to assess skill level by looking at how many teams each conference sent to the tournament. If you're in the Pac-10 or the Big East (which had 6 and 8 teams in the 2008 tournament respectively) chances are you're a seasoned team, because you have to play all the other good teams from your conference. On the other hand, if you're the only representative of East Bumblef**k Valley Conference at the tournament, maybe not.

Well it didn't work. To scoring margin, I added the difference between each pair of team's representation at the tournament, multiplied by an adjustable fudge factor. But I could never make it come out more accurately in terms of number of correct win/loss predictions than plain old scoring margin, which in any event is the best correlation I could find between tournament progress and any commonly tracked team statistic (R=0.694). Number of entrants in tournament doesn't give as much information as stats for each of the conferences, but if you're interested in that, you can play with spreadsheets because I'm officially done.

Here are the picks. I only pick win-lose, not spreads. For each game I only care about the winner - so say I predicted that in Round 1, A beats B and C beats D; in Round 2 I predict A beats C. Say that what really happens is that in Round 1 A beats B as I predicted but D beats C. As long as A beats D and wins the Round 2 game, that counts as a correct prediction. Consequently if I predicted a team would win a game in Round 2, but they got knocked out already in Round 1, then I know I'm wrong before Round 2 even begins. They can't win a game they're not in.

Bottom line, I agree with Obama that UNC will take it, although Gonzaga has a real chance to squeak by them in the third round.

FIRST ROUND PICKS - 22 W/L out of 32. 68.75% correct. Terrible. Lower than 75% I got last year at this stage.

I was right:
Connecticut over Chattanooga
Purdue over Northern Iowa
Washington over Mississippi St
Memphis over Cal State Northridge
Villanova over American
Texas over Minnesota
North Carolina over Radford
LSU over Butler
Gonzaga over Akron
Oklahoma over Morgan State
Duke over Binghamton
UCLA over VCU
Oklahoma St over Tennessee
Louisville over Morehead State
Pittsburgh over East Tennessee St
Michigan State over Robert Morris
Missouri over Cornell
Arizona State over Temple
Xavier over Portland State
USC over Boston College
Wisconsin over Florida State
Siena over Ohio State


I was wrong:
BYU over Texas A&M
Cal over Maryland
Clemson over Michigan
Illinois over Western Kentucky
Stephen F. Austin over Syracuse
North Dakota State over Kansas
Utah St over Marquette
Wake Forest over Cleveland State
West Virginia over Dayton
Utah over Arizona


SECOND ROUND PICKS - 75% correct.

I was right:
Louisville over Siena
Mich State over USC
Connecticut over BYU (really Texas A&M)
Purdue over Washington
Missouri over Utah St (Really Marquette)
Memphis over Cal (really Maryland)
Pittsburgh over Oklahoma St
Xavier over Wisconsin
Duke over Texas
North Carolina over Butler (really LSU)
Gonzaga over Illinois (really Western Kentucky)
Oklahoma over Clemson (really Michigan)


I was wrong:
Stephen F. Austin over Arizona State
North Dakota State over West Virginia
Wake Forest over Utah
UCLA over Villanova (a little paranoid about this one) (turns out I should have been more than a little paranoid)


THIRD ROUND PICKS - 62.5% correct.

I was right:
Pittsburgh over Xavier
Connecticut over Purdue
Louisville over Wake Forest (really Arizona)
North Carolina over Gonzaga (thought it would be very close)
Oklahoma over Stephen F. Austin (really Syracuse)

I was wrong:
Memphis over Missouri
UCLA over Duke (very close) (was really Villanova over Duke)
North Dakota State over Michigan State (iffy about this one but I'll stay with it; turned out to be Kansas vs. Michigan State, Michigan State won)


FOURTH ROUND PICKS - 25% correct.

I was right:
North Carolina over Oklahoma

I was wrong:
Louisville over North Dakota State (turned out to be Michigan State over Louisville)
Pittsburgh over UCLA (will be Villanova, and they won)
Memphis over Connecticut (actual game was Connecticut vs. Missouri, Connecticut won)



FIFTH ROUND - 50% correct.

I was right:
North Carolina over Pittsburgh (will be Villanova)

I was wrong:
Memphis over Louisville

CHAMPIONSHIP: - 100% correct.
North Carolina over Memphis (will be Michigan State)

Sugarloaf Ridge State Park = Way Cool

I went up there on Saturday. Great time of year to be there too - the waterfall is in full glory, and the wildflowers are just starting to come out. I didn't even know there was an observatory there too. On the drive up you pass by some more rural smaller wineries with a lot more character than the ones along the main drag in Napa, or even along Silverado.

Yesterday I finally got in about 18 miles in the Marin Headlands. Felt good to get in some real mileage and terrain. Lot of people on trails. Many trails were effectively rivers giving back a lot of the runoff from our recent rain. Lots of crows involved in their upside-down-flying courtship ritual but no mammals except for some bun-buns on the way back.

I Will Be Marking Diablo 50k, But Not Running

I decided that I would frickin die if I ran this thing in the shape I'm in, but I'm still marking the course. The Save Mount Diablo 50k will be an awesome race and if you're at all inclined, get your ass over there and register. And if you get lost on course, it'll be a section that other guys marked, not me.

The California Newts Are Out in Force, Watch Your Step!

Preserving Open Space Around Cities

Good discussion and link to a report here.

Maggie's Half Acre and Rose Peak

Had a nice up-and-down run to Maggie's Half Acre and Rose Peak (the little-known highest point in the Bay Area) starting in Sunol Regional Wilderness. Not as muddy as I thought it would be and felt better than I expected, but I have to ask very seriously if I'll be ready in six weeks for the Diablo Trail 50k. I think not. It looks fun and I've always wanted to go all the way from Round Valley to the Walnut Creek side of Diablo but it'll have to be another time.

Comic relief of the day: about 10-15 minutes from the end of my run I passed a dad with two sons, ages about 7 and 5, fully decked out in their own hiking gear. The dad saw that I had a map and asked me for directions. After we finished talking one of the boys quietly pointed with his hiking pole, "Dad, look - poo-poo." They had just emerged from riparian woodland into open pasture and the young lad was not yet cognizant of the ubiquity of these bovine barnyard biscuits; I'm sure they didn't remain interesting to him for long.

Anybody Know What's Going On with Vargas Plateau?

I can't wait to get down there when it opens. I even have a Google News alert set, but there just doesn't seem to be much activity. Any news from EBRPD or the City of Fremont?

Run the National Marathon to Fight Breast Cancer - at Home

Set for 15 February. It's an interesting idea to clock your mileage in your own neighborhood. The company where I consult is one of the founding sponsors and it's a good cuase. If you're not planning going to Jacksonville, you can still see how to join the race here.

Ideas for Trailhead Car Break-in Map?

For all my belly-aching about mountain lions, the thing that I legitimately worry most about while I'm out running trails is some *sshole breaking into my car at the trailhead while it's sitting there for a few hours in a remote rural area. You frequently see signs at trailheads warning you not to leave valuable in your cars, but it still ends up being an anxiety I'd rather not carry with me on trail, and I'm sure others out there feel the same.

So - is there such a thing as an online trailhead break-in map? Most of us have looked at city crime maps to see the distribution of violent and property crime and which street corners to stay away from, but what I'd really like to see is a trailhead break-in map with content input by users. Because the Oakland Police Department never put up such a system like Berkeley and other cities have, private citizens have created exactly this for Oakland. This would be great for trailheads - you would know which ones are really the most likely to be hit, you could tell when there's an uptick in a certain area, and it would be easy to see if there are certain areas generating a lot of car burglars, if the parks proximate to them are often hit. It would also be a good resource for EBRPD and EBMUD as well as the local police. Does anything like this exist already? Not just a Yahoo group, but an actual map. How hard would it be to set up?

One other possible use - I can't tell you how many times I've seen someone hanging around a parking area in the middle of the day behaving suspiciously, and a few times I've gone so far as to write the license plate down (I just did this tonight at Valle Vista staging area) - but of course I'm hesitant about making such information public because it could turn into a guilty-until-proven-innocent witch hunt. Any thoughts?

2008 Calistoga Relay Team Seeks Runners

Looking for a spot on a Calistoga Relay team? I know some good peeps who are running it this year (spring 2008) and are looking for more team members. I ran with this group a few years back and it was a lot of fun. If you're interested, email me if you have my address. Otherwise leave a comment including your email address (which I won't publish) and I'll forward your request to her.

What a Horrible Place the Bay Area Is

Save yourself. Don't move here. It's a nightmare. Three pictures I took at the end of a run yesterday should serve to illustrate that.

From Around SF 2004-Present

From Around SF 2004-Present

From Around SF 2004-Present

My "Showing" at the Epiphany Run

I started a little bit later than most (On Sautrday, January 3rd, at 171:18 a.m.). I'm kind of glad I showed up so late; it was a gorgeous day and I just did the marathon distance but I felt like crrrrrap and I'm not even going to tell you my time. I will selectively say that I was faster than my Golden Hills time at the halfway split. I blame the turkey sandwich at the Lake Chabot Marina.

I Ran Around San Francisco Bay

I later connected this route to the Western States Trail in the Sierras, and eventually I got all the way to the Nevada line. Check it out here - I really am as awesome as I seem!

Yes, I ran around the whole San Francisco Bay. I really am that awesome. The following account thereof is profoundly fascinating, and if you don't read it all the way through, that only shows that you're a bad person who's tired of life. The way I did the loop it came out to about 250 miles traveled on foot, about 3 miles of rowing, and 100 yards of swimming. Actually 115, thanks to the U.S. Coast Guard. This means I probably ran something like 400-450 miles, because even though it's a loop, you have to run to the start of the next leg, and then turn around and go back, unless you plan on sleeping at the park entrance until next weekend - or pay for a cab, or have a kind spouse with free time. No, I didn't exactly follow the Bay Area Ridge Trail (although I did for maybe half of my route), nor did I do it in order (although I mostly did), and I sure as hell didn't do it all at once or on contiguous days like Don Lundell and Gillian Robinson or Dean Karnazes. But along the route I did end up doing a lot of things I didn't anticipate, like retracing a route used by anti-Franco smugglers. So that should count for something.

To runners thinking of doing the same thing: Don Lundell's description is a better resource because he bothered to do things like remember which trails he took and write down the mileage. If I tried to reconstruct my route by referring to trail names I can't guarantee it would be right, and it wouldn't be helpful if you kept reading entries like "turn left I think on that single track that goes up that ridiculous hill right past the eucalyptus grove; there you will find a bearded man who will give you the Dragoncharm." In fact, if your choices of information sources for planning such an endeavor are either this post, or a stone monument covered with eroded, half-deciphered glyphs of the Maya, go with the Maya.

Am I doing a good job of setting expectations for this blog entry?



The Statistics

I think the route was about 250 miles:

From Around the Bay

Note that "250" is an ex post facto Google Maps ballpark figure; those GPS watches are the devil's work. ("Kids today don't know how to read satellite maps..." etc.) It took me ih, two and a half years of heading out on weekends when I felt like it to finish it up.


Why Did I Do It?

My first inspiration for this endeavor was to run the exact Bay Area Ridge Trail all the way around, but as hard as the Ridge Trail Council has worked (and continues to work) on it, it's not complete yet. Consequently following it exactly would be difficult - and would also involve getting multiple permissions to run across private land, as Don and Gillian did. Second, I wanted to use this run around the Bay to keep me motivated. I'd been in the Bay Area long enough that I wasn't as excited to get out and hit the trails as I used to be. Third, it's cool. And I'd be lying if I didn't say that noted Marin ultrarunner (and devoted viewer of realendurance.com) Jim Schollard motivated me by saying he had done part of it too. Having that guy pass me would have sucked.


What Were The Rules?

1. Safety first - I wasn't about to risk my skin for this silly little adventure. As much time as I spend belly-aching about mountain lions, I fully realize that the biggest risk when you run is getting hit by a car. This is why, if you look at the map, there's a section I didn't run (the black part). It extends from the northern gate of Purisima Creek Redwoods on Rt. 35/Skyline Drive, 4 miles north to 92, down 92 west to US 1, and up 1 past Pacific to McNee Ranch. Most of this route is high-speed highway with little or no shoulder, and if I have to pick between not getting hit by a car, or impressing you people reading my blog, guess what? I did make up for the mileage though - I made sure to run an at least equivalent mileage and at least equivalent elevation change to replace the section I didn't do around the Bay.

2. The order and route of the legs - I didn't always go exactly in order, geographically, although I mostly did. I always made sure that at a connection between legs, I either touched the same tree/rock/fence post etc. or at least crossed my path. I also didn't strictly follow the Bay Ridge Trail - sometimes to shortcut, other times because there was a prettier section. I run trails for the psychological benefit. The physical fitness aspect is secondary. Everyone has different reasons for trailrunning, but if you're not appreciating the world around you I wonder what the point is.

3. Only prior-dedicated legs counted - To keep myself from being too tempted to cheat, my rule was that I had to commit my run to the Round-the-Bay effort before I started. I couldn't say, "Ah, I remember running that trail three years ago with a group of people, so I'll count that one as done"; neither could I get halfway through a non-committed run and say "Hey, here's a marker saying I'm crossing the Bay Ridge Trail, what do you know! I might as well turn onto it and count it" (which did happen several times on "extracurricular" runs).

4. Enjoy myself.


THE ACTUAL RUN

The Start

I decided to run clockwise around the Bay in case doing it the other way made time go backwards like in Superman, and at the end of the trail conquistadors arrested me. But I probably didn't have to worry about it since Superman's mile time is better than mine. What this means is that I started in Berkeley, and I headed south. Keep in mind that in the interest of narrative coherence I'm presenting the legs in geographic order, which is a little different from how I actually did them.

Thanks are in order to the men and women a) who maintain the parks, trails, and open space of the Bay Area for everyone to enjoy, b) who have set and continue to set aside these parks in the first place over the last century as open space for everyone to enjoy, and c) the people of California and the Bay Area who know what's good for us and keep voting to support them. WE RULE! Seriously though, get out there and give the Trail Dogs your support. These guys are a volunteer trail maintenance organization and they're pretty cool.


Tilden Park

I took my first steps in this enterprise at Lone Oak Campground in Northern Tilden around February of 2006. If you make it all the way through this writeup, you'll see that I'm quite obsessive about tracking dates and mileage. By "obsessive" I mean "quite sloppy, because who cares, it was fun". My first legs through Tilden were all through familiar territory. I lived in Berkeley until recently so Tilden, Sibey, Redwood and the EBMUD lands between are all like home to me. Still, setting out directly from my house led me on some long runs. And when you're on gorgeous trails like these, who cares?


EBMUD Land, Sibley and Huckleberry Parks

I hit the Steam Trains at Tilden and continued south through EBMUD land, crossed Fish Ranch, and entered Sibley. The volcanoes seem to be staying dead, which is always nice. Entered Huckleberry, crossed whatever that road is that goes down into Moraga, and entered Redwood near Skyline Gate.


Redwood Park

All I remember is that I took French Trail, because I always take French Trail. Going to Redwood and not taking French Trail is like getting a salad at McDonald's. And then I crossed Redwood Road and entered Lake Chabot. I think I ran into Berkeley ultrarunning legend Mike Palmer somewhere in the East Bay on one of these runs, but in any event he gave me a lot of good information and resources for how to accomplish this project.


Lake Chabot

I should add that I now felt like I was out of my home territory, and I started wondering whether this was still a good idea. From Big Bear Gate (I think it's called that and I'm too lazy to look it up) I started into Lake Chabot as far as Grass Valley staging area. From there, another day I ran to the Lake Chabot Marina and back. By the way, until now this has essentially been the route of the Golden Hills Marathon.


Cull Canyon, Five Canyons Regional Open Space

South of Lake Chabot there are some sections weaving through the backside of San Leandro and Castro Valley where the trail marking was impossible to follow, and I found my way only by following a creek and then asking kids playing at a ranch house where in hell I was. That same day I had woken up two coyotes and was getting spooked about snakes in the high grass, and found out later from a friend that he'd almost stepped on a rattler in that very spot. I ran through a section of Hayward mostly because it contained parks I'd never been in; I started off dehydrated and got worse. When I stopped to ask directions a nice old lady insisted on giving me 2 bottled waters. I came back the next day with a whole case to repay her.


Garin Dry Creek

Next was Garin Dry Creek on a warm fall day (see, I started in February and it's already fall. As you can tell I was really busting my ass.) I had an odd scare when I came around a turn in a shaded creek valley and in the brush saw a bunch of brown forms running through the grass. Again, not mountain lions. Wild turkeys. A lot of them.


The Netherworld: South Hayward

South of Garin the hills are all private property, so at the southernmost trailhead of Garin I came out to Mission Boulevard in unincorporated south Hayward - "civilization" - and no offense to unincorporated Hayward, but the quote marks are definitely needed. Okay, offense to unincorporated Hayward. Anyway, that was about a 15 mile run and I did it at night; a little too ghetto fabulous for me. [Edit: a helpful Redditor pointed out that in fact this whole areas actually is within incorporated Hayward. So, all offense is due to Hayward proper.]


Mission Peak and Ed Levin Park

Mission Peak is one of the highest points in the Bay Area, but not one of the prettiest - if you're familiar with the East Bay, think of that triangular brown heap you can see miles and miles down 880, looming above Fremont, and that's it. It was bright and in the 90s that day and windless, and there is zero shade on that mountain; it's classic California sun-bleached grass and steep hills, and that's all there is to it.

The next leg began at the top of Mission Peak (see what I mean about always having to do everything twice?) so I ran back up to the peak and down the back side, a section so steep it looked like I was coming out of the Rockies. It was a nice feeling when I emerged from the trail into the parking area to see the little post that said "End Bay Area Ridge Trail" but I knew this was an artifact of where I'd started; I wasn't even half-way.


Silicon Valley

The next two runs were horrible - that is to say, through San Jose and its suburbs, if indeed San Jose isn't itself a suburb, as it seems to be, in some horrible residential analogy to distributed processing. After the Mediterranean scrub oaks and redwood forests I'd been through, 13 miles of Sunnyvale office parks made me think I was in a new ring of Hell that Dante had left out for being just too awful, even compared to burning ash and stinging flies. But it was a shortcut, and hey: if there's anything this great country stands for, it's cutting corners.


Rancho San Antonio and Monte Bello

After a seeming eternity condemned to Sunnyvale, I had made it to the entrance to Rancho San Antonio, and the next visit after that I climbed up the high ridge east of the park in Monte Bello Open Space. I remember that run being a tough one - hot, steep, and I was badly hydrated to start with. I should add that here began a series of parks that in 10 years of trailrunning in the Bay Area, I'd never once visited. And they're fantastic.



Skyline Park

On the back side of Rancho San Antonio and Monte Bello is Skyline Park, where again the forest animals lay in wait just to scare me when I wasn't paying attention. A pair of coyotes jumped out onto the trail in front of me before nonchalantly heading up a hill into the woods, looking back over their shoulders at me. Oddly, in Skyline Park I picked up the Bay Area Ridge Trail again. I didn't want my run through the center of hell to be in vain so I wasn't about to retrace the points on the Ridge Trail south of where I found it.


Fantastic Peninsula Parks

From there I came up through a number of San Mateo County Open Space parks: Russian Ridge, Windy Hill, El Corte De Madera, Purisima Creek - alternating from rugged exposed grass-covered hills, to Mediterranean scrub oaks, to riparian woodlands and redwood cloud forests. You might even make some new friendy-friends in these parks! Soda Springs Trail in Purisima has to have the highest beauty:notoriety ratio of any trail in the Bay Area. I'm almost hesitating to put it on my blog here for fear of despoiling it when my millions of readers flock there. Just the drive to get to the trailheads is itself relaxing.


Scandal!

It was here that some will say I cheated. There is a busy 4 mile stretch of Skyline between the northernmost trailhead in Purisima, and then you have three options:

A) Run through San Mateo reservoir land by making an appointment with the water district people well ahead of time, and basically walking with them.

B) Run down 92 west into Half Moon Bay and get run over by a car, then turn right and get run over by cars running 10 miles north into Pacifica on Route 1 along Devil's Slide.

C) Run down 92 east toward the reservoirs and get run over by cars, then run along Rt. 35 into Millbrae (some variant of which is what Don and Gillian did).

D) None of the above.


All the roads are accident-prone as it is, and dangerous for pedestrians. In the end I opted for D and ran equal mileage and elevation elsewhere, and not risk my life for the sake of my little projecty. As an aside: don't you think it's sobering that there are places you can't get to on foot, not because of natural impediment, but human design?

The equal mileage I ran was in two places: 1) Tilden in my back yard, and 2) Andorra. Yes, the one in the Pyrenees. Because of Andorra's "charming" square mileage (as real estate agents would call it) I was able to literally run "cross-country". To Spain. The mountain pass I used turned out to be a Spanish Civil War and WWII smuggling route. I think that counts for something. Cooler than just running down dumb 92 anyway. I also could've counted the Camino Santiago for mileage - this is the famous medieval pilgrimage route to Compostela in Spain.

From Europe Oct 07 - Paris, Basque Country, Andorra

The Camino Santiago was also traversed by Charlemagne's forces (indeed this is where Roland was killed in 778, memorialized in Le Chanson de Roland about the defeat at Roncevaux, or Roncesvalles, depending which language you prefer) but I forgot to dedicate the run ahead of time. See how scrupulous I am?

From Europe Oct 07 - Paris, Basque Country, Andorra

Pacifica

I picked up again in North America in Pacifica at McNee Ranch, where 4 years ago I was stalked by a mountain lion at dusk in the fog (in case you were wondering: it's not a good feeling.) Up and over the wicked coast range, down into San Pedro Preserve, and from there through a Pacifica neighborhood and up to Sweeney Ridge, where Portola and his men stood one day in 1769, as the fog rolled back to reveal San Francisco Bay, making them the first Europeans ever to see it.


(Courtesy weekendhike.com.)


More Civilization

From Pacifica it was various twists and turns through San Bruno and Daly City and Colma neighborhoods, and up the side of San Bruno Mountain. Starting at Guadalupe Canyon Park on San Bruno Mountain, I came to the northern edge of the park and there, spreading out before me, was the city of San Francisco. Just as I'd discovered new parks during my loop around the Bay so far, I discovered new neighborhoods of San Francisco that day; not all of them nice ones. I've lived in the Bay Area 10 years and was in San Francisco all the time, and still had never seen these parts of the city. And San Francisco isn't a big city. It made me realize what sheltered circles we must travel in.


The Golden Gate Bridge and the Marin Headlands

I finished the city leg at my place in Pacific Heights. I ran the next one to the the Golden Gate Bridge, the next one after that was from the Bridge across into Marin and to Rodeo Beach, and the next one after that was to Miwok Trail, winding up through coastal scrub. The hilltop vegetation in Marin is noticeably different from that even in the southern hills I was in like Skyline; greener, more windblown, because the Pacific currents that control the weather change even in that short stretch of latitude. Once on Miwok Trail I ran to and through Muir Woods, reinforcing my impression that the rangers at Muir Woods really are dicks. (If there was another accurate word, I would use it.) From there it was on to Mt. Tamalpais, which I ran up via Natalie Coffin-Green park on New Years Eve.


Northern Marin and Novato

From there, it was past the lake, up and over to Deer Park (not a very enlightening place at all - tee hee, get it, that's my little Buddhist joke - no, it hasn't made anyone laugh so far). Then through Fairfax and San Anselmo and Sleepy Hollow Preserve. I understand that one of these areas (I can't remember which one) is actually private property and although the owner has historically let people use it, he's now (controversially) closed it due to vandalism, perhaps by the metal militia. If it really gets closed, that would be the thing that should not be; I might even hold my breath as I wish for death. In any case I exited light, and entered night. (Yes, those are inside jokes.)

Then it was across Lucas Valley Road and up over the ridge east of Skywalker Ranch (which really sucked - the ridge, not the ranch), and then down the north side of the ridge to Indian Valley College and the edge of Novato. Of course, this all sounds very simple, but for me it was really an education in local geography. Bay Area geography, while it tends to be dramatic, also tends to be simple - it's hard to get lost because no matter where you are there's the Bay, there are the hills (and faults) parallel to the Bay, and if you still don't know where you are you're a dummy. But once you're running north and east of Mt. Tam, you notice that Marin County is broken into a series of ridges and valleys perpendicular to the San Andreas Fault. When I say "you notice" I mean "you're suffering horribly on the hills to the extent that you're constantly cursing your parents for creating you, every animal unfortunate enough to be in earshot, and plate tectonics in general". But let's not forget that it was fun! Right?

After that, I ran through Indian Valley College and Novato to the top of Mt. Burdell, on which trail I encountered the remains of a turkey that was eaten rather vigorously judging by the feathers everywhere, who knows by what. From the top of Burdell, it was down the other side to Olompali State Park, a Northern California Indian village site that was continuously inhabited for thousands of years right up until the present - they traded with the Russians based up at Fort Ross, as well as Mariano Vallejo when he was governor of Alta California. Pretty nifty.


Petaluma, Sonoma, Napa: Back Roads and Ranchlands

Roads were definitely my greatest hazard in this stretch. Don Lundell was kind enough to direct me to his own route and give advice but I worked it out with a different private property owner so I could run across their land (the only time I did it for this project). Private land is often the least developed and the most remote. At one point when I sat on a fallen tree to tie my shoe, something scrambled from underneath and shot off like a rocket back into the woods I'd just come from - something big enough I was glad it decided to run away. I convinced myself (mostly to keep calm) that it was probably just a sleeping coyote I'd woken up; in fact this wouldn't even have been the first time this happened during this project. It ran so fast and kicked up so much dust in the bone-dry Bay Area summer that I couldn't be sure. In any event, I don't want to say exactly how I got from Olompali to Petaluma because these landowners were nice enough to me but they probably don't want every other weirdo coming to them asking "I want to run exactly along the 38th parallel during a solar eclipse but I have to go through your land". One weirdo running through it is enough. Having said that, Ireland has an arrangement where all farmlands are open to the public for hiking and running, as long as you close gates behind you to avoid the livestock escaping. Isn't that cool? It's not even that different from the arrangement we have right now in a lot of the East Bay Parks.

Once I got to Petaluma I was running entirely on roads, which was by far the greatest hazard of my route, particularly on Stage Gulch Road/Route 116. (Here's the route:)


View Larger Map

I should mention that you could smell the grapes on the vine once I got east of Petaluma and south of Sonoma. This part of the route was a novel experience for a Bay Area runner - miles and miles of flat terrain! It was nice to be able to concentrate on my form for a change. What's more is that I actually became envious of the great country life these folks have in the delta area north of San Pablo Bay - one memory that I hope continues to stick in my mind is of passing two young brothers and their dog playing with a hose in their front yard, having just about as much fun as it's possible to have. Then a few miles later there were the yipping terriers who charged me from an open garage, until their owner, an older gentleman, appeared and shouted at them until they came back into the house. "They're just a coupla assholes," he explained.



Solano County

Notice how the route on the map ends at the old train bridge? It would be suicide to try to run the 29/12 bridge across the Napa River; why not swim? So I did. I can't say the water is particularly clear, but I did meet a huge barn owl in the decommissioned train trestle that day. For the next run, I met my buddy Anup one weekday morning at the opposite bank (thanks for the lift); he drove me to downtown Vallejo and I ran back to the river.

Vallejo is an interesting case. Immediately to the south of Napa, you emerge out of wine-and-ranch country into this place, which looks like an inner-city cut out of the country's rust belt and dropped at the edge of the Bay. After I got to the intersection at Sonoma and Tennessee, from there I ran to the shopping center on Columbus Parkway right between Vallejo and Benicia. I felt a little uncomfortable running through Vallejo and probably wouldn't do it at night. Then one weekday evening I ran from that shopping center to downtown Benicia and back. Benicia has a pretty cool little downtown and if you're up that way you should stop and check it out.


The Carquinez Strait

If you're looking at the map you might ask why I ran to Benicia. The Carquinez Bridge is a freeway; you can't just go running across it. So I could either swim the strait, or kayak it (under my own power; no motors). I was pretty enthusiastic about swimming it - thanks to Erin and my mom for offering to help such an attempt in various ways - but thanks to Erin who is primarily responsible for talking me out of it. As a funny aside - I went to Benicia Point to survey the strait. Of course I understand rationally that hypothermia, currents, and freighters are the biggest risks. But human psychology is a strange thing, and because hypothermia, currents, and freighters do not rush at you from the depths with row upon row of jagged teeth, all I could think about was whether great whites came that far into the Bay. So I asked a fisherman who happened to be sitting at the point that day for his thoughts. He said no, there were no great whites there, because there are no seals for them to eat. Literally less than one minute later, as we were still talking, a seal appeared in the water 30 feet offshore and watched us with passing interest, then swam away. "Damn if that's the first time I ever seen one here," the fisherman said.

Fortunately Erin hooked me up with Mark from Westwind Adventures for the kayak trip. Mark took good care of me and we paddled over from the Martinez Marina and got into the Benicia Jazz Fest for free, because we came by boat. This was my 3 mile paddle and my 15 extra yards of swimming when, ironically, I was capsized by a Coast Guard vessel in the middle of the strait, hence why I'm wet here:

From Around the Bay

Note: I did not buy a martini in Martinez (where they were invented) that time. But you should if you're over that way (yes I got Belgian waffles in Belgium and French fries in France, but I couldn't get Thai iced tea in Thailand). There's also the John Muir House, which is extremely cool. Also they have wild beavers living downtown, which is kind of neat. No, I'm not being dirty. There are really flat-tailed aquatic rodents that build dams.


Back in tha 510

From Martinez I ran through the unintentional park between Martinez and Crockett - unintentional because the road has been closed for years due to a mudslide. From there to Eckley Pier, from there to John Swett High School in Crockett (these are short legs but I didn't quite know what I was doing route-wise at this point owing to the strait-crossing).

From Crockett I ran to the northern gate of Wildcat Canyon in El Sobrante (thanks to Thurston for the 5am pick-up). This was a long one and again, I've lived in the East Bay 10 years and have never seen some of these communities (many of which are regular middle class places). From Wildcat Canyon I ran to - Lone Oak Campground. I was home.


WRAP-UP

Chronologically speaking, the very last segment I completed to close the loop was to run from Olompali State Park to the top of Mt. Burdell. It was August of 2008. As I got to the top of Mt. Burdell and stepped onto the trail that I'd run from the other direction, I imagined I could feel some kind of current coursing through the now-closed circuit around the Bay. It was done.

When I started this project I thought I pretty much knew every park in the Bay Area. Not hardly. Being forced by this project and geography to pass through certain areas, I not only discovered some fantastic new open spaces but also communities that I never knew were there (the pub in the tiny town of Port Costa has a stuffed polar bear, and the table on which the Treaty of Versailles was signed). I reflected on what it means that we can't travel on foot from Point A to Point B, even though we want to. And now that I'm finished I also have to find another reason to stay interested in running (usually it's challenging friends to races).

When you execute a loop you end up in the same place, and the only real benefit you can expect is experience. Of course, that's just fine with me. Along the way, people frequently asked me if I was doing this for charity and, to be honest, that never occurred to me until they started asking. Without any such motivations, a project like this is the very definition of "for the hell of it", a tradition which was reborn in Europe with Petrarch's ascent of Mt. Ventoux in 1336. And really, what more reason could you need?

Now get out there and do your own project, and tell us all about it! In the meantime, cheers!