Day 2 - Muir Beach to Mtn. Home Inn

The start of Day 2. Looks innocent enough, right? Well, as you might imagine, the legs moved a little slower today. And the hills were much harder.







We started at Muir Beach and went through Muir Woods National Monument (a stand of Coastal Redwoods). They actually charged us to "enter Muir Woods". Mark was aghast when the guy at the entrance stopped us and said, "you go through those gates, you pay". So, pay we did because we had a course to run. $10 total. I think Mark's still mad because it came up again at dinner with a scowl.








Here we look like a couple of sightseeing tourists posing inside a giant redwood. In reviewing the pictures from today, I noticed more than a fair share were taken inside the woods.

I'm not sure if we were trying to get out money's worth or were simply trying to postpone the inevitable - that our legs would soon be on fire as we climbed the 1600 feet out of the woods. I don't think our legs have ever burned like that before. But "words" were only exchanged once all day and it following much climbing. Grace is good.





Here I am suffering up the climb out of the woods.











As we ran along today, we came up with "The 10 Things to Keep in Mind When Trail Running" long distances:

1. King sized beds are good.
2. Lactic Acid is not good.
3. Poison Oak is not good.
4. Technu is good (at least so far).
   
5. Map Guy (aka GPS Guy) is good to have along. He's also really cute.
6. What goes up, must come down and the opposite is also true. When heading for a peak, if you go up, you must do everything you can to stay there because if the trail wants to wander downward, you have get back up there somehow. You might also glare at Map Guy.
   
7. Don't call Map Guy an a@$hole. It's just not nice even if he deserves it.
8. Twittering at mile 12 of 14 makes Map Guy very irritable. If you're going to stop to Twitter, do it early in the day.
9. Post-run hamburgers are good.
10. The ice bath will be worth it tomorrow. Brrrr.

The view close to the top. I should note here, that I thought this was our top for today. But, in fact Mark "had to summit", so off we went another 200 feet to the East Peak. I'm sure Peter, Jenny, Dave and Heike, et al understand this need. And it was worth it.






Mark at THE EAST PEAK. Picture was taken from the below the Fire Lookout here. San Quentin and West/East Marin Islands in the background.









This is the path on the way back down. We ended up 1000 feet above the Mountain Home Inn, so down we went. Lots of rocks and slow going. But, down and slow were both appreciated at this point.











Mecca. Back at the Mountain Home Inn 15. No, the irony of Handicap Parking sign was not lost on me.

Day 1 - Sausalito to Muir Beach

It started with a bang as we climbed out of Sausalito (810 feet elevation gain) and continued up and down for a total elevation gain of 3100 feet. But, the weather and views were amazing and after all, it IS only Day 1. Tune in tomorrow or maybe Day 3 and see if we're this chipper. Today ended up being 12.2 miles.





This is heading up Wolf Ridge. We're heading up to the peak in the distance, where on the other side is the beach and where we picked up the Coastal Trail.










This is heading down the Coastal Trail toward Muir Beach. That's me off to the right. The next picture is where we ended before descending to Muir Beach.







Peak before descent.









We've arrived! Muir Beach.









Pelican Inn. This was supposed to be our lodging for tonight, but there were no rooms at the Inn so we went for two nights in Mill Valley at the Mountain Home Inn. Interesting hitchhiking from one to the other. We no sooner stepped onto the highway after leaving this inn when we were picked up by the Friendly Idahoans. She was a kick butt ultra marathon gal in from Boise with her husband to do the Dipsea Race. What this race lacks in distance, it totally makes up for in hills. Go "Boise". They dropped us in Mill Valley proper because we knew we'd be needing to shower with Technu after the amount of poison oak we saw and I'm sure came into contact with. Hitching out of Mill Valley (think all Mercedes and BMW's) wasn't so easy. Just when we thought it was going to be an ugly hike to the Inn (they don't call it "Mountain Home Inn" for no reason), this great surfer guy who just graduated from Santa Cruz (and is heading to Berkeley next year for a Masters degree) comes by and takes us to Mecca. Thank you, Man!

We've Technu'd and the lower extremities are beginning to stiffen up. We're supposed to start in Muir Beach tomorrow and end here, but I'm thinking maybe we run it backwards? Mark's still getting his head around the idea and since he's our official map dude, he's calling the shots on this one.

One side bar - If you have to choose between the Garmin Forerunner 405 (new version just came out, I think) and the Polar kick butt model, go with the former. I've about had it with my foot pod which is constantly running through batteries. They made it 1/3 the size of the last one, but it sucks the batteries just when you need them. This time, I had a fresh battery (smart, right?) and it plain didn't work. Grrrrr.......I can tell you they don't sell lithium batteries in the mountains.

Say, "Good-Bye Luggage"

It's official, we're off and running. Our luggage has been sent on ahead and will hopefully be waiting for us when we arrive in Mill Valley later this afternoon. We're heading for Muir Beach today. Please say a prayer for us and cross your fingers. We're just glad we're not in motorhome right now :>)