25 May 2012 - Behind Talega Run - The Shire

[Sun Dance]

On a beautiful evening I decided I'd go for a short run before gorging at Selma's. At the end of Avenida Talega there is a nice trail that winds through some Shire-like country with rolling meadows and large old live oaks. The trail starts out tame enough on a fairly flat double-track, narrowing eventually into a nice singletrack. There are other trails breaking off to the south, but they're all gated with large No Trespassing signs. One of them leads to Northrup Grumman testing land whereon scenes from Star Wars were filmed. I've been down these before but am getting paranoid in my old age.





I took a small detour to check out the hollow of a live oak. Good place for a picnic!



At the end of the singletrack, the road breaks sharply uphill back toward the housing developments. From previous hikes here, I remember it being very steep to hike up, and seemingly impossible to run up. But I knew it was fairly short so I decided to try it. Took a couple of short breaks for pictures but did end up running the whole way.





Uhh, yeah. A little tired. About 1/5 mile, gaining 243 vertical feet. That's an average 24.7% or 14 degree slope, with a max 39.7% or 21.5 degree slope. If you look hard you can see the beginning of the road at the bottom of the hill on the left side of the photo.



Up over the top, back into Agrestic-type country.



2.1 miles, 558' vertical gain, 24:49, Vibram FiveFingers.

[accadacca]

Sweet!