Huntington Lake Hiking/Running Routes

If you ever happen to find yourself near Huntington Lake and are looking for some good routes to run or hike, I've got a couple you should check out. Both of these trails start at the end of Upper Deer Creek rd., where the D&F Pack Station is(there is a big sign that says parking for hikers). The first one takes you away from the normal switchback route to Kaiser, it spreads out the elevation gain over about 9-10 miles en route to the Peak. From the Peak you continue on down the trail about 5-5.5 miles back to where you began (last 5 is pretty steep, but a nice quick way down if you're running).

This route starts from the same place as the last one and takes you almost the same way, except about 4-4.5 miles in you will come to a wooden sign that points you to the left for Nellie Lake or you stay straight to get Kaiser Peak. The Lake is about 1.5 miles from this marker and relatively flat, well compared to continuing towards the Peak. The lake is beautiful and is open to camping, with a permit, you'll see a couple fire pits in the clearing once you happen upon the lake.

Montana de Oro State Park Run

 August 8th 2012
       My wife, son and I got a chance to get out of town for a couple days and headed out to San Luis Obispo to see my sister, hang out by the beach, oh and run of course. A few weeks back one of our local running stores Soul 2 Sole hosted a big group run out of town at the Montana de Oro state park, I didn't get the chance to go along but since I was going to be in the area I knew this would be a good place for a run. Otherwise I probably would have just hit up the Bob Jones trail, which is nice but its a short bike path that cuts through a golf course and ends at Avila beach, still a beautiful place to run but I wanted to check out some real trails.
    I drove out to the park, which was only about 15 mins from our hotel in San Luis and according to the small map I was looking at the night before on my phone I was going to park just inside the entrance of the park. I parked on some dirt off the side of the road and looked for the trailhead, hoping that my car wasn't parked illegally.

       Based off the small map I had (see above) I started on the trail near the northern part of the park where the cable trail and bloody nose meet. Well somehow this map was not completely accurate or I just didn't read it right. From the way I saw it where the trail started there should have been a fork one for cable trail and one for bloody nose, yet I was heading down cable which was equivalent to running on the beach since it was soft sand, and saw no turnout. I could see another trail at the bottom  of a steep embankment but with no clear way to get down there. So after about 15 min I just decided to bushwack it down to the lower trail which turned out to be bloody nose trail. Finally on the correct trail I was able to enjoy the journey which wound down around and back up a small hill to a camping area, from there the trail forked. One way headed back towards the beach and the other took you up a little higher to Hazard Peak, which is the way I went. The climb up to Hazard peak was mellow and once at the top there are some benches so you can hang out and enjoy the awesome views. I wanted to continue running on some of the other trails but was limited on time so I just headed back to my car using the same route.
      I definitely look forward to running the trails out there again, with the perfect weather and awesome view who wouldn't want to run out there.

Trail Markers

Views from Bloody Nose Trail

Bloody Nose Trail

Headed up towards Hazard Peak

Hazard Peak

Looking Inland

Trail Marker

My Garmin Map

 

SAR 10k Wild Run Shaver Lake, Ca

August 5th 2012
      I loaded up on carbs for this 10k, some Lagunitas, pasta and bread, definitely necessary for such a long distance race. This was a cool event put on to benefit the Fresno County Search and Rescue and took place just a few miles up Dinkey Creek Road on the perimeter trail of Shaver Lake, Ca.

Pre Race Carbs

SAR 10k Course route

The weather was perfect, with the sun out in clear skies, cool mountain air and nice areas of shade where the trail cut between the trees. With temperatures in the valley expected to be north of 100 degrees this race was the perfect excuse to make the hour long drive for a 6.2 & 3 mi. run.

   My expectations for these small local races in the mountains are to anticipate a small turnout, nothing to indicate a race occurring( no signs on the road or increase in traffic-due to small turnout) and maybe an aid station with water at the halfway/ turnaround point. Because that's what Baz's runs are pretty much like, not to say that it needs anymore than that becasue they are a blast, but thats just what I expect. So I was overly impressed when I saw 3'x3' signs on 168 that said "SAR WILD RUN" with an arrow pointing up Dinky Creek rd., professionally printed signs at that! When we pulled into the parking area it was a full on race, with parking staff and more signs! In the start/finish area they had some big inflatable arches, a big stage with music blasting, BBQ going and a beer garden off to the side. This was my kind of race, with BBQ and beer waiting at the finish it gives you a little extra incentive to get done faster so you don't have to wait in line. Now that this wasn't turning out to be such a small race anymore I figured there would be some good competition out there, then I saw Oswaldo Lopez and knew there would be no first place finish in my future or anyone else's for that matter

    At the start I took off really fast right behind Oswaldo and another younger guy, it was single track and there was a cluster at the beginning so this worked out quite well in getting me some space. Coming into the first uphill, the younger guy, almost to the top, started to walk and this almost made me laugh out loud. I almost laughed because I could tell he was a fast runner but when you throw some good hills into the mix it can break the best of them, except Oswaldo I think he started running faster. 

   On the next downhill I got passed by a few people and had to slow down to catch my breath as the hills were kicking my butt. After the turn around there were six people in front of me and I had one of them in my sites, as we approached a hill around the 4 mile mark I made a move and just powered up the hill and around the guy in front of me. As I was going up my wife was coming down and she gave me a "yeah! Sexy!" which made me laugh but was cool because I wondered if she saw me hauling ass up the hill. I asked her later and she just said, "you looked like you were trying really hard," not quite the response I thought I was going to get but I explained to her what was really going on, haha. 

      I finished in 45.12, 5th place overall and 1st in my age group, my garmin said the course was only 5.6 miles but I'll trust the RD's measurement of 6.2 mi. We hung around afterwards had some good food and beer and I got a cool engraved compass as an age group award.It was a glorious morning up in the mountains.

Garmin splits. Distance isn't accurate, I hope. 

My wife smiling into the finish.

Jill and I post race

Compass I received for 1st in my Age Group

Results are in!