The Old Glory is gone :(

Greg Hardesty just published a report from his first run to the Old Camp after the fire:

http://achtungrunner.blogspot.com/2007/10/santiago-truck-trail-fire-damage-report.html

The pictures are not fun to watch recalling what it used to look like just few weeks ago:
http://dchechuy.blogspot.com/2007/09/old-glory-again-groundhog-day.html
http://dchechuy.blogspot.com/2007/09/old-glory-run-dancing-in-rain.html

Nevertheless I want to do the Old Glory run again once they officially open the trails.

The Old Glory Again: The Groundhog Day

- Do you ever have deja vu, Mrs. Lancaster?
- I don't think so, but I can check with the kitchen.

- Excuse me, where is everyone going?
- To Gobbler's Knob. It's Groundhog Day.
- It's still just once a year, right?

I woke up at around the same time today as yesterday, put on the same running clothes and same Asics running shoes still covered with the clay from our yesterday's muddy trail run and pretty soon found myself at the trailhead of the same Madjeska trail we ran yesterday morning. There were few differences though that made me think it is probably not quite the same thing that happened to Phil Connors in the movie: there were just two of us there - Linda and myself, and it was not raining anymore :-)

We reached the Old Glory (again) and then went past it for 2 more miles or so:


The whole place was full of mountain bikers to the extent when it totally felt like being in the middle of a mountain bike race - except they were not wearing any race bibs. On our way back we met over 50 bikers (all going up): some riding alone, others in groups of 5 to 10 people.

In a mile after the Old Glory we saw a cave in the mountain - just a yard off the trail. Linda said she also saw a caveman in it but I did not. I guess I would if I had a mirror with me...


The trail and the mountains around it were so beautiful that at times we could only sigh more of the OCTR fellow runners did not join us this morning :-)


More photos from our run:

The Old Glory Again

The Old Glory Run: Dancing in the Rain

I love rains but enjoy them more when it rains behind a window, especially on a Saturday morning when you do not need to get up early (or at least as early as 5:30 am). I guess I am not a Fred-Astaire-type of a guy capable to sing and dance in the rain and above all enjoy it at the same time :-)



Therefore when we met on Modjeska Grade road this morning under pouring rain and wind my first impression was: Are we nuts?! Here is a group of people that really needs some serious professional mental assistance. At least myself for sure: I just had a severe cold that lasted for two weeks and have not fully got over it yet. What the heck am I thinking of?
But the whole thing turned out to be much more enjoyable than it initially felt like, even although some of the trails were pretty muddy and slippery and we were all wet through. I was wondering what it would feel to do a trail run with ankle weights. I got a good preview of it today - at times it was feeling like I had a pound of clay on each shoe.
Despite the weather conditions we had a pretty sizable group today: Jessica, Julian, Bobby, Skip, Tracie, and myself.

All the views were totally breathtaking:
And when we reached the Old Glory flagstaff, it felt almost like reaching Mt.Whitney summit (easy for me to say as I never did the latter myself).


Jessica did a post about our today's run as well: http://socalrunnergirl.typepad.com/trail/2007/09/my-rainy-day-so.html.

More photos from our run (29 photos):

The Old Glory Run

P.S. All the photos are 1024x768. If anyone needs original photos (1600x1200) for print or something, just let me know and I will make them available too.