Barefoot Ted's Adventures: The Verdugos - Huarache Tests Continue

AC 100s Mt. Wilson in the way background

Another very positive test of my huaraches in a real world setting. Today I put in nearly 20 miles in the Verdugo Mountains which are just North of Burbank, CA with downtown LA in the background.

Firetrail Training

I did some Google Map researching last night and found some overgrown fire trails that I had not been on before, so I decided to give them a try. This fire road ran along the ridge of some treacherous mountains with crazy steep uphills and downhills. As I ran I got a bunch of coyotes unhappy with me. They started whining which got others whining in adjacent canyons. Quite a stir. They must of thought I was a predator.

No on had been here for a long time.

One highlight of the run was finding and photographing a Bobcat sitting in the grass. I had to use the digital telephoto on my camera, but I got several shots of him. See below.

Which leads me to mention what I saw last night at Hansen Dam. Yep, I saw a mountain lion. Fastest animal I ever saw in nature. Luckily, he was not running at me, but not exactly away either. He was pissed that I had seen him. He may be the one that was spotted a couple months ago near here. The lasting impressions I have are FAST animal, low to the ground and very long tail. All happened in a fraction of a second. I turned around and started heading home.

He's there, but you can't see him.

Bobcat close-up: 34°13'29.10"N | 118°19'59.89"W

In the end , I did have to repair the huaraches once during my run at about mile 16. As I was crossing a stream, my foot got slippery and slide to the side of the sandal. The sandals had loosened up a little during the run and I had not bothered to adjust them. As I slid, I put enough force to pull the knot loose. Took less than 3 minutes to repair.

BFT
FYI from Wikipedia: Verdugo Mountains

The Verdugo Mountains are a rather rugged offshoot range of the San Gabriel Mountains and are located in Los Angeles County, California. The mountains are California state-protected property. They were named for the Verdugo family, holders of the Rancho San Rafael land grant which covered the mountains during California's Spanish and Mexican period. The range runs roughly southeast to northwest between the City of Glendale and the community of Tujunga. The City of Burbank is to the south, and the Crescenta Valley is to the north of the Verdugos.