Departure: 7:12 am

Weather: Sunny, Clear, Mid 50s

Time to Summit: 50 minutes 39 seconds

Time to Descend: 35 minutes 6 seconds

Total Time: 1 hour 25 minutes 45 seconds.

I arrived just at sunrise as planned to snap some nice photos and begin my stretching warm-up routine. After I was all warmed up and had my camelback situated with all the essentials including the “just-in-case” supplies, I took off on a light jog up the trail. It was nice and mellow steady uphill at first with a wide path (this made getting around early traffic nice).

After the initial climbing leg, the trail shrinks to a single track along the side of mount Lawlor with unbelievable views of Los Angeles to your left. On this morning there was a heavy marine layer covering all but the tallest buildings in the distance making it feel as though I was running on another world high above the clouds: truly surreal. After putting down a quick mile and a quarter on this stretch I began to slow as the trail starts really climbing. About a mile of heavy breathing and cramping quads later, I arrived at the summit to see a few small groups of people already there. I swallowed a CLIF Bar while listening and talking with the others about various mountains and trails we plan to tackle; my planned five-minute stop at the summit passed by in a moment and it was time to see how much quicker I could get back to the car.

The trip down from the summit involves some areas where you need to go slow and scramble perhaps, but the sticky rubber on my Nike trail running shoes gripped every stone I asked them to. I fear I'm getting a bit too confident with these shoes but seriously!-they STICK to the trail.

This is likely the last running peak. I plan to head up Baden-Powell next weekend and from what I'm reading there's not going to be much running up those switchbacks! We'll see 😉

-Chris