Trailing Down Dipsea Thursday.

Thursday 24th October

Another slightly later start to the day, I think we have now fully adjusted to the time difference or maybe we're just tired after a couple of days of hard hiking and biking.  Either way early starts are a thing of the past and normal service is resumed.

For the first time since we arrived in California the sky was overcast and there was no sun. The fog which has shrouded the coast all week had engulfed us up on the ridge this morning too giving us the perfect excuse to linger over our coffee and relax for a while before finally getting our running shoes on.

We had planned a run down to Stinson Beach and set off along the Panoramic Highway for a short distance before cutting down to the Redwood trail and turning south. By this time the sun had broken through and the sky had resumed it's more normal colour. We followed this trail through the trees to the Sun Trail and eventually linked with the Dipsea trail which would take us all the way to the coast.

Whilst in the area we have discovered that there is the historic Dipsea Trail race which is held on the 2nd weekend of June and which has been run every year since 1905. It follows the Dipsea Trail from Mill Valley up the 500 plus Dipsea steps and finishes at Stinson Beach 7.4 miles away. It has a unique handicapping system - if, for example, we were to return to run it next year, as a 50 year old woman I would get a 13 minute head start. Competitors start according to their handicap time and not all at once. Naturally we both really want to do this race!

Today we meandered rather than raced. It's hard to remember that it is still only 10 days since we ran a hard marathon because we have done so much and it feels as though we have been here much longer.....but as soon as we encounter a hill (and there were plenty of those today) the legs immediately remind us that actually they'd really rather not run thank you very much.

It's also hard to try and describe the beauty of these trails as they wind and dip through the redwoods crossing streams and other tempting trails. I want to explore them all but for today we stayed on the Dipsea Trail and as we descended towards sea level we left the bright blue sky and sunshine above us and encountered much cooler air and heavy cloud.  We emerged onto the road in Stinson Beach after about 8 miles of running and immediately turned west to pick up the Matt Davis Trail which would take us most of the way back. We had walked the more westerly part of this trail on Tuesday and found it delightful and this section climbing steeply up from Stinson was, if anything, even more attractive zigzagging up through the forest. Unfortunately the unrelenting climb back up to about 1200 feet took it's toll on my legs and I effectively "hit the wall" which was a real shame because the route was so pretty and I wanted to enjoy it.

 Once we finally reached the Pan Toll Ranger Station we could at least have a drink of water which helped but what I really needed was some calories and some new legs! I tried to focus on how great the trails were to take my mind off how tired I was and this was partially successful as we headed off on the Alpine Trail. After a very short distance this brought us to the Bootjack Trail and a duplication of our hiking route on Tuesday. However we only repeated a short section: on reaching the lovely Alpine meadow, where we paused for a quick photo shoot, we turned up the Troop 80 Trail and followed this as it meandered along under the Panoramic Highway narrowing between the redwoods until it dropped down to the Alice Eastwood road.

We were both struggling now but it helped knowing that we only had a mile or so to go. Once we had climbed up to the Panoramic Highway we could follow the Panoramic Trail alongside it for the half mile or so back to the cottage. By this stage I was reduced to walking even the very slight inclines and I have seldom been more pleased to reach the end of a run - 15.4 miles with 1238m of climbing.   I would really love to run this route again when my legs have a bit more zip - in 4 days we have covered 63 miles of hiking, running and cycling and with the amount of climbing and so close to a marathon it proved too much for me.

After a shower and much needed lunch, again enjoyed in the sunshine on our little brick patio, but without the company of Max and Nepos, we took the lazy option and drove back down to Stinson Beach. For the first time all week the coastal fog had lifted and the beach was beautiful if a little breezy. We walked to the southern end and found a sheltered spot where we settled down to relax, read, practice juggling and head stands and paddle in the icy water.

On the way back we took the scenic coastal route and stopped at the Muir Beach Overlook. The beach is currently closed for maintenance work but from above in the late afternoon sunshine it looked beautiful.

In the evening we drove down to Mill Valley planning to eat at the Punjabi Burrito which we had found on an Internet search and which had great reviews. We'd been looking forward to this and had deliberately saved it until our last night.  Unfortunately our research did not include checking the opening hours and arriving at 8.15pm we made the sad discovery that it closes at 8pm! We walked around looking for somewhere else but eventually decided to go to Whole Foods where we picked up a couple of pizzas and a bottle of Chianti for a fraction of the price of a restaurant and returned to the cottage to enjoy them.

The long run had certainly worked up a healthy appetite and once again the number of calories in probably exceeded the number burned!