Summer's Ending

 And it's ending in a flourish of hikes!  We did a few fun hikes this week, starting with this one.  We started at Bob Pond at Borges Ranch.

This was Wednesday.  My legs were still pretty sore from Monday's mountain decent. I was on the fence about hiking, half thinking my legs needed another day, half thinking a hike would work out all the kinks.

I was still very sore after, if not more sore...but then the next day things felt a lot better!

 Looking funky fresh in my recovery compression sleeves.  By the way, if you're wondering about the weather.....we were on the verge of being cold on this hike!  Quite a drop in temps in just a few days!

 Bob Pond in it's summer state.

 This trough had Mosquito Fish in it, we stayed clear of it...something about flesh eating bacteria ringing in my head....

 There's a coyote standing behind that dead tree that's on the ground. I guess he ran right in front of me - I know that because Em started yelling "Coyote!" and freaking out that he was right in front of me.  He got behind there pretty fast and I missed my shot at a good picture.

 Emma's got some new, real trail shoes : )

 I always love looking at my mountain, especially while the run down from the top is still so fresh in my mind....and on my legs.

 You can just barely see Myles in the trail way way up there.

 Picnic time!

 Myles explaining some complicated stuff to Emma.

 After lunch we headed up to Borges to visit the animals before we headed home.

Shucks, it didn't really work.
After this hike, we took a day off, then headed to Tilden for more hiking on Friday, plus did a night hike that night.
I'll save those pictures for my next post!

Mountain Monday

This was such a fun run for me. I got to run with someone who I see maybe every 5ish years, someone near and dear to my heart.  She has become a runner since I saw her last...like she's one 13.1 away from becoming a Half Fanatic, real runner, runner.  Pretty neat since the last time I saw her she was listing all the reasons she was so NOT a runner.  So to be able to see her, and get her up on my mountain was special.  She's from a cool, wet state....so temps in the mid 90's with little shade took it's toll, but we made it down off the mountain.  And by down...I mean we pulled out more than 4000ft of decent on a mountain that is only 3800 ft and change. 

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the day

 Ok, I totally realize that is a horrid picture of me, however I was getting a good laugh out of her downhill technique...she's backing down, if you cant' tell.

This was a new find for me. At the top of Mothers Trail (which is freakishly steep downhill and I would not come down that way again, ever) there was this spring, Burma Springs, dated 1966.  The water was super clear and clean, and although it did have fish in it, that did not stop me from splashing off with the water.  As a side note, that's a nice shot of Wall Rd on that dark ridge down in the background.

Volunteering at Brazen's Bear Creek

 Behold, the beautiful Brazen arch!  We headed to the start nice and early and were checked in and ready to head out to where the aid station would be at 6 a.m.  I should mention that not only did we get shirts, all the volunteers also had their choice of home made sandwiches, which were really good!

 You'll see this picture again later, but this is what the pile looks like when you get there, minus those garbage bags.  There's just a pile of what will become "your station".  If you are at one of the far aid stations, you can usually get a ride, but we were only a mile out from the finish, so we hiked in to our spot.  The stuff had been delivered the night before.

 After about 30 minutes, we had transformed that pile of stuff into an aid station!

 You may notice the signs, we were at a spot where the 5k, 10k, and 13.1ers joined back up together after being on different trails, and then headed off on the same trail together. It got a bit hectic when we had people coming at us from two different trails.

 That was the ice bucket. I got to give  a few people an icy sponge bath.

 
This was our crew!  Our family of 5, plus Gene.  He was a complete newbie, has never ran a race of any kind or volunteered.  He did great though!  He had the hardest job of the day, keeping those water and Ultima cups full!

 

 We were out there for about 5 hours.  We could see the 10k/13.1ers coming down a steep hill before they got to us.   The last runner was moving super slow with a gimpy stride, and then she sort of stumbled.  She looked to be in a lot of pain, so Brian ran out to meet her.  She was in tears thinking she was getting pulled for being over the time limit. Thankfully, we did not know of any time limit, so she was not getting pulled.  Brian offered to run in the last mile with her, but she was determined to get it done on her own. She was having IT band issues and could hardly bend her knee...which makes me wonder how she made it as far as she had, and how she was going to get down/up the stairs near the finish.  But, we know she did indeed finish because Jasmine said everyone finished.

 After the last runner came through, and then the folks from a different aid station came through, we broke down the station.   Emma ran back with Gene while Brian and I finished up.  Then it was time to run back to the finish on the beautiful singe track of Bear Creek Trail.

 

It was a great morning of volunteering.  It is work, and we were all wiped when we got home, but it is so much fun!  I love seeing all the runners come through, seeing all the happy faces and sweat and sometimes tears.  Plus, Sam and Jasmine make it more than worth it with those free race entries!
Decisions, decisions.....Trail Hog or Drag-N-Fly???

Tomorrow

I get to enjoy all the beauty and fun of the Mountain, but only have to do 1/3 of the work to get to the summit!
It's rare, like never, that I have the opportunity to be dropped off at Juniper Campground to start my run. Such a treat.  From there I'll head to the summit and enjoy the view. I think I'll add in a little exploring out to Devils Elbow (aka Devils Pulpit) before heading back down the mountain.
I'm super excited to hit Mother's trail, which I hear is a fun, fast, steep downhill single track trail. Then it's down Burma, across Northgate road, where I'll link into Buckeye loop for some more beautiful single track.  Then down and out on Stage.  Somehow I'm going to get over 4,300 feet of decent out of a 3,849 ft high mountain.  I know how to get my monies worth I guess!
While this is a mostly downhill run, the high tomorrow is supposed to be 99, so it should still be a challenging run, and I'd expect nothing less out of my mountain.
I can't wait for morning!

Randoms From the Week

 Auntie Jill and I serving breakfast for 30ish happy people!

 Emma doing her Middle School walk-through and getting her class schedule!

 We have a pepper tree that has a large nest of honey bees in it. About once a year they swarm, but other than that they are not a bother, so we just ignore them. Well, I was raking underneath the tree and realized they sounded a lot louder than they should have and looked up to see...well, bees. Everywhere.  They swarmed for about 30 minutes, then went back to normal.  Its a bit hard to see in the top picture, but if you look at the sky and see all the black dots, and then look at the trees and see all the golden spots....it's bees.  Below its not hard to see them at all. There's tons.

 And, big news here....Myles finally lost a tooth!  He was so excited! He's somewhere in the range of being 2 years behind the age when most kids start loosing teeth, but his dentist always has said they'll start coming out when they are ready.   I'm glad they are finally ready!

And the last picture, our last $1 movie of the summer!  We went every Tues or Wednesday all summer long. This was a special "summer" day, though. I took them to the $1 movie in the morning, then we got lunch and went back and saw Turbo.  It's summer, what can I say. 

Lastly, I'd like you all to know a hidden secret about my husband. He shoplifts.
I know, who would have thought sweet, calm, laid back Brian.  Don't be fooled, people.  He went into the gas station by our house this morning, where we stop often for junk, went in, got a soda, and walked out.  Like it was his kitchen or something.  We got to BART and he says "Did I pay for this soda?.....I think I forgot to pay."  So I stopped back by on the way home and payed for my shoplifting husband's soda. The lady thought it was hilarious and didn't want to take my money, but I insisted. I thought about prepaying for a few sodas for him in case he decides to live on the wild side and try it again.

Lastly, if any of you are running Brazen's Bear Creek this weekend, the whole Latham Family will be taking care of aid station #4.  If you would like me to have water to throw on you, just let me know.  I was thinking water balloons would make it fun!  Better yet, one of those huge water cannon squirt guns. Moohaha...beware runners : )