Yucca Sandal Expedition with Paul Campbell

Ona and I met with Paul Campbell today. He introduced us to a huge variety of native sandals made from agave, yucca and other materials. He has a fantastic collection that can be seen in his book "Survival Skills of Native California".



Proud results. Ona holds today's prize

Paul took us up into the local mountains. We found an excellent spot to test manufacture some yucca sandals.



Where we turned off the trail



Our spot



Looking opposite



Raw materials



Necessary tool



Start the toe



Finished, dried sandal

Although I have not had a chance to test the sandals (we only made one today), I know that this are going to work. They are very similar to Japanese waraji. They are lightweight and fairly easy to manufacture (especially if you were making a pair a week). The also are like waraji and AEI Shoes: they flex forward and back, but not side-to-side, which may help prevent punctures.

All in all, we had a great time and very much look forward to learning more from Paul in the future.

One of the highlights of the meeting was getting a chance to eat some dried yucca that was over 3 years old. It was delicious.

Best, Barefoot Ted (and Ona, too)

17 Miler with the Wild Mountain Runner Club

We ran up on the Santa Monica Mountains from Reseda Blvd. out to an ocean view point and back. Beautiful weather. Felt a bit tired, and the feet were sore in some of the tougher sections of this up-and-down out-and-back run.

Olive View Mountain Run 10 Miles - SF

Got up early and ran with the WMRs on Sunday pushing me over 30 miles of barefoot running for the weekend.

Mt. Wilson Summitted Again - Barefoot

Andy Kumeda of purEndurance.com and I once again spent 7 hours on the trails of the Angeles Crest. This time, I was barefoot the whole time. After getting to the summit of Mt. Wilson, I put on some half-socks and wrapped my ankles to handle the long, steep downhills.

One of the highlights of the trip was running into Hal Winton, 72, Angeles Crest 100 Race Director. It was an honor. Hal, keep up the great work, and thank you for inspiring so many of us!


Wilson ahead



Hasting's Peak



From Hasting's Peak



Mt. Wilson Toll Road



Half Socks: excellent for descents



Minor adjustments



Down, down, down...



Over the hills and through the trees...



Just above Sierra Madre, you can see the hospital where I was born
I have been looking up at these mountains all my life



7 hours later...
Count'em, all 10 remain!

Like Father, Like Daugther

Barefoot bounding. Covered in mud. The joy of childhood.

Best, Barefoot Ted

PS. Although it looks like she's jumping far, it really was only about a 4ft. jump. She did it over and over and over again.

26 Miles of Trail - Solo

Howdy Folks

I thought that I was going to do a back-to-back weekend again, but yesterday's 26 miles proved to be more than enough.



I decided to do a course that leads from Village Christian School in Sun Valley, up and over the Verdugo Mountains to Brand Library in Glendale, and back.



I decided to bring my special sandals along to test in some of the harsher parts of the course, but ended up barely using them at all. My special sandals have a serious design flaw...rocks get under the foot too quickly...really irritating.

Ran into deer a couple times on this run. Started at 6:30 am. I have often seen deer tracks, but today was the first time to actually see them in these mountains.



This course has a little of everything, starting with some rather steep single-track, followed by a long, long climb. The killer is the 5 mile descent to Brand Library, a descent that has to be reascended!



It remained fairly overcast most of the run. The biggest problem came after I stubbed my toe on a rock coming up the Brand Library climb. My feet were getting a bit tender, especially as I started to descend the last 7 miles. Those were tough miles. I thought I would make it easier with the Foxy Feet™ sandals, but rocks would quickly get stuck under my feet in the sandals, so back to bare.

I think that the trick with sandals is that they have to be tight against the foot, with no play where rocks can get in.



Somehow I made it back. Can you believe, it took me 6:44 to run 26 miles! That was a hell of a long time, but in the end, I think it was a great training run.

Best, Barefoot Ted

40 Mile Running Weekend

Spent the weekend running...literally.


Final mile, I can taste the peach in the car!

Running down the Chantry Flats access road, closed to automobiles, but barefooters were allowed. Notice that I've got my special sandals dangling from behind (see more below).


Mt. Wilson, 5,710 feet

On Saturday, I joined Andy Kumeda, Bill Graney, Wendy and others on an 18 mile trail run from Mulholland to Trippet Ranch and back, passing Eagle Rock. Weather was perfect. I ran to Trippet barefoot. The trail is much smoother this year, had almost no problems. Coming back, I wore a pair of my special polypropylene sandals. I was testing them to see how they would handle off-roading. More about them later.


Eagle Rock in the distance, heading home

Sunday, woke up at around 6am and headed off to the top of Santa Anita Blvd. to meet Andy at 7am. We started up to Chantry Flats. The gate is closed at the entrance because of some very serious landslides that have removed the road in a couple places. 3 miles to the top on pavement.


This is how the road looks up to Chantry!

Once we got to Chantry, we headed left and up, following the AC 100 course toward Mt. Wilson. I ran/walked/hiked this section barefoot, and had little or no problems. It gets a bit technical in places, but is doable by advanced barefooters.

After some serious climbing, we finally got to the summit. On the way up we hardly ran into anyone; however, we did meet a group who were doing some trail work. We think we recognized AC 100 veteran Hal Chiasson and spoke for a moment with a coach from Arcadia High School who works with O'Brien.


View from the top of Mt. Wilson. Summitted Barefoot

We had an amazing view from the summit...cloud cover out past Catalina Island, so only the peaks of a few mountains were visible. Nice.

At the summit, I changed into my newly purchased Foxy Feet sandals (gotta love the name...catchy; however, they only weigh 5 ounces each!) for the run down the backside of Mt. Wilson to Newcomb Pass, continuing to Sturdevant Falls and finally back to Chantry. During this section, we did not run into anyone until we got just past Sturdevant Camp. That's where we met Chris and another fellow who both live at Sturdevant. I really envy those guys. Peace and quiet.

The sandals worked okay, but had problems. The straps seemed to get loose too quickly and they caught too many little rocks; otherwise, they were okay. However, my long-term goal is to create sandals from indigenous plants using native sandal patterns.



My Special Sandals: Do I hear you say, "Trendy!"


The Falls


Typical view near Chantry


The Trail

Best, Barefoot Ted