I am now in week two of the A-Z April writing challenge and today is the letter J.
J as in I’ll Just run over three thousand feet in altitude gain today.
My bfff (The extra F stands for Best Farty Friends Forever) Snow Flake was staying with me for a few days and we had nothing but creek hiking, trail running and a weeks worth of kale, spinach, almond flour, gluten free healthy cooking in the future.
We woke up refreshed bright and early and drove up to Big Bear to explore, hopefully a new section of the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail)
I wanted to take her on the pretty section of the PCT that runs a few hundred feet above Big Bear Lake and offers an awesome view of the lake below us sparkling among the pines. This section of the trail, from where we started on Delamar Mountain Road also offers awesome views of Holcomb Valley hundreds of feet below the trail on the north side.
So we parked at the big turn out at the top of Delamar Mountain and ran and ran and ran as the trail went up in altitude a little bit and than after five miles or so you make a steady descent into Holcomb Valley.
It was about this time we were both getting tired but our goal was to run fourteen miles today so we kept going and going and going. Snow Flake had never run fourteen before and had only done thirteen miles, a half marathon distance once; she was doing really good for not having done a lot of training.
At this point I decided we should just run back on Holcomb Valley road and cut across the valley floor. I thought this would save us a few miles heading back and would be less altitude gain.
This meant taking Holcomb Valley Road past Holcomb Valley Campground to Polique Canyon and than cutting up 2N16 back to Delamar Mountain Road. I had never done the last few miles of this road before but the map said the roads connected and I guessed the distance was about a mile.
As the sun snuck behind some clouds and it finally started to cool off in the valley (It had been about sixty two degrees all day and I was sweating profusely) we ran around the outskirts of the beautiful mountain valley located at eight thousand feet.
It was so gorgeous.
It was also, unfortunately a way longer distance back than I had anticipated.
One mile turned into four miles and the last three miles were all uphill.
I probably could have run this if it was the beginning of our run but at the tail end of a fourteen mile run I was fading fast and I had to walk the last three miles up hill.
I have never been so happy to see my car and the ice chest full of treats we had in the back seat.
When we arrived back at the car we discovered we had run over three thousand feet of altitude gain today! Wow! Other than Mt Baldy, that is the most altitude gain I have ever done!
