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| Rucky Chucky Roundabout 50Km Foresthill, CA March 22, 2003 Page 4 of Photos |
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| Photo 18 : Partway up the climb from RuckyChucky, I stopped and took a photo looking back down at RuckyChucky. |
| Photo 17 : Looking across the American River from the Far-Side of Rucky Chucky |
| Photo 16 : Sign at Trailhead . (note the missing "R") |
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| Photo 20 : Alan standing by the trail sign located near the river, where Browns Barr Trail ends , downstream from Povery Bar. |
| Photo 19 : Low hanging clouds kept the weather cool and misty for our run. |
| SUNDAY (3/23): Sunday morning I met Alan at the Firestation in Cool, CA. We left his car there and took my car to Aubrun Lake Trails development, and left it at a parking area near a trailhead of the American Canyon Trail. From there it was 6.6 miles down to the far side of the Rucky Chucky River crossing. |
| We found our way to down to Rucky... and stayed there awhile to reflect and look across the other side where the 50k turnaround point had been the day before. The river crossing looked more imposing from this side than the other side. From the other side it did not look too bad, but then you think about having 78 miles on the legs and it being late at night and the quads will probably be tired by then from the canyon descents.. Probably the water crossing is not a cake walk. We both agreed that reaching Rucky Chucky River Crossing in June would be a major milemark in the WS race.. Feeling excited on one hand, and little scared on the other, it was a sobering moment. |
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| We began traversing about a 15.5 mile section of the WS course, up from Rucky Chucky Far Side (78 mi mark) to Hwy 49 crossing (93.5 mi mark) . Armed with trail maps, topomaps and seeing an occassional yellow ribbon in a tree or trampled in the dirt would help us keep on course for remainder of day (except for an accidental 2mi detour to Hoboken Creek and back!) . We went by the memorial that was set up for the lady runner who had been killed in 1994 by a mountain lion while running the Robie Trail. We went through numerous creek crossings and I had a chance to see how my feet held up in wet shoes and socks. There were many red bud trees and manzanitas in bloom and there were several sections of bright indian paintbrush. The day was overcast with a light mist and low hanging clouds making it seem as if we were running in the plush forests of Oregon instead of in this part of CA. The salamanders were in heaven with this climate, and we had to be careful not to step on them while running the trail . The vibrant spring colors are short-lived here. By early May, all the moisture and green of spring will give way to dry dusty trails and brown grass... preparing the setting for WS. |
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| Finally we dropped down to Brown Bar and took the quarry road for a stretch along the American River before turning left to start the climb up to the old quarry, the highway 49 crossing and on to Cool where Alan's car was parked. Two runners passed us going the other direction on Browns Bar Trail. |
| After crossing Hwy 49 and a little later departing the WS trail to head toward Cool, we saw a coyote. Mr Coyote quickly jumped up on a fallen oak tree trunk and watched us watch him. We stayed there for a few minutes, and the coyote seemed very comfortable on his perch. He yawned a few times. Finally as the afternoon was drawing to a close, the sun had broken through the clouds. A hawk flew by. In this final stretch of the trail I found myself on the Rio Del Lago-100 course, and traversing it back to the car brought back memories from last September. We covered between 25 and 26 miles on Sunday. Good training run! Alan drove me back to my car in Auburn Lake Trails. Then I drove back to my friends' house in Folsom... down Hwy 183 to 49 to the beautiful Salmon Falls Road which winds through geologic exotic imported-terrain across the south fork and back up to Green Valley Road which leads one into Folsom . Salmon Falls Road had been one of the roads I used for hillwork on my road bicycle in the 1980s, and there used to be a time trial race in the Spring up the road to Pilot Hill. My friends Ron & Christine fixed a nice dinner for me at their home in Folsom when I arrived. I flew back to Houston the next day. |