Sunday, May 1, 2011

It’s Springtime!

The weather has been absolutely stunning the past few days here in Southern California. Bright blue skies, temperatures in the upper 70’s and low 80’s, humidity in the single digits. Time to head out into the hills.

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Looking north toward Irvine and down into the canyon we’ll be running in.

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One third a mile into the run I see my first snake of the day. A rattler! Buzz!!!!!!

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Right down the trail I see another. At least this gopher snake isn’t poisonous!

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The view toward the ocean.

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Heading down some single track. With all the snakes out, I better keep my eyes and ears open.

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A wet winter means that the flowers are in full bloom.

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Down at the bottom of Deer Canyon. Nice campsites here.

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Time to climb out now. Crap.

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That shouldn’t be my heart rate when walking!

Okay. It isn’t Garden of the Gods, the Grand Canyon, or the Sierra Nevada, but it’s four miles from where a million or so people live. I’m lucky to have it!

18 comments:

  1. Your snake pics always terrify me; whenever I possibly hearing rattling in the bushes, I just run instead of looking to see if it's a snake.

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  2. Speaking as a hay fever sufferer, I am sneezing just looking at all the brush and blooms...thanks for the pix!

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  3. Green!! Nice flower pics, thanks! :-)

    You need some hills, Mr. Jones. We're 6 weeks out from that little hill climb you got us all into.

    Much as I'm loving this warm weather, I would like a few hours of damp overcastness on the 18th.

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  4. Amen to that...It makes a mortgage $1000 + higher than it should be worth it for a house 1000 sq ft smaller than it should be worth it. Especially if I can get myself bitten by a rattlesnake.

    I'm just kidding of course.

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  5. I thought I heard a rattlesnake on my run today. It was just the 26.5 MPH wind blowing some dry leaves on the ground.

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  6. again, could do w/o the snake pics ;)

    beautiful blue skies!

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  7. Nice way to take advantage of the great weather! It was gorgeous!

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  8. Beautiful scenery and weather. Those snakes don't look fun, though.

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  9. It was another prefect day in the OC yesterday. Had a really nice run doing the OC HM. I actually liked the course changes.

    Sorry I did not get a hold of ya Glenn. We just got out of town in time to get there for the expo. then our hotel actual lost power in the morning - Cal/Edison was working on some lines near us. Great! I was able to get to the start though in time.

    Fun race! No time after. Just a quick hello to Balboa Island Beach and off.

    Next time I am in town - I am hitting the trails with ya!

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  10. Runner exchange program? You can have Garden of the Gods for a day if I can have that trail? :)

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  11. gorgeous Glenn! although i'm with rachel on those snakes. :)

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  12. stunning Glenn! Thanks for sharing the pics. Yes, the weather has been spectacular. Take care, and enjoy the spring time.

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  13. This made me want to run down the street and into our little piece of heaven ... and it's only 5 a.m.!

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  14. Beautiful post!! The weather has been amazing here!! Love your pictures!

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  15. I see little bull snakes all the time but if I saw a rattler, I'd probably freak! When I was in Wyoming for geology field camp, the guys in camp were shooting off their rattles .. then those snakes would come up on us later at camp and they had no rattles...stupid kids!

    The flower pics are sooo nice!

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  16. Can't believe I missed a snake post!!! Nice running Gleen - enjoy the weather, even though it does bring out "Snakes on a Run" :)

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  17. Wow! Snake central ... that right there would cause me to have my own impromptu speed workout!

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