Revenge of Mt Baldy

   This morning I woke up to beautiful grey skies.. Fog, glorious fog. I love the cold wet weather so very much especially after a hot, hot humid summer spent in Southern California’s 909. Foggy weather actually makes me want to go running and my next race is in less than a month, so I should be hitting the trails training every day. Yet I have not. Yesterday I did eke out four miles but it was rough and it was hot (85 degrees) and I was hating life.  I want to enjoy running again. I want it to be twenty five degrees.
   When I woke up this morning to nothing but fog and drizzle I was so very happy. I was thrilled to strap on my running shoes. I even decided to check out Siberia Creek Trail, a trail I’ve only done once, although it’s relatively close to my house. Most of the trails in that area are in full sun and there is no tree coverage so they get hot, really hot. I do not enjoy them in the summer time. Siberia Creek has lots of switch backs all in the sun as well so it’s a real bitch in the summer. I do recall doing this trail, as a hike in early May a few years ago and calling it the death trail afterwards, as I thought I was going to die on the way up (And also because some flat lander was attacked by a bear on that trail)
     Last week the Inland Empire smelled like shit. Well to be exact, it smelled like dead decaying fish.
   The Salton Sea lays fifty miles to the East of us here. It’s like a huge salty mostly dry lake near Palm Springs. I don’t know how fish live in it, it’s so salty but every summer there is a huge fish die off and every summer the Salton Sea makes Southern California reek. It is not pleasant, but yea the fish smell has desisted and the fog has rolled in and it really does feel like fall today.
   I was so excited to go for a run.
   I felt like I could run all day.
  I only did about four miles and I was in a great mood as I returned to my car on Siberia Creek road.
   Until I reached into my pack to pull out my car keys and instead got a huge wad of sap. I mean like a quarter cup of pine tree sap in my pack, in my keys, on my phone every where.
  My brand new car keys that is for my brand new car.
  I had no hand sanitizer with me, which removes sap. So I threw my keys in the dirt to try and dry up most of the sap and hoped it wouldn’t ruin the little electronic part.
  The sap had to be left over from Mt Baldy and the sap I ate (And than threw up) I was so busy puking, I never realized it was all inside my pack. Awesome. Thanks Mt Baldy (You bitch)