Getting lost in Sacramento....

Friday morning I found myself in Sacramento, California. It was a couple days before the Bay to Breakers 12k in San Francisco and the friends I'm staying with are working until the afternoon. Sounds like a good opportunity to explore the area by running!

The plan: To run 2-3 miles from the residential neighborhood to a park with bike/running trails and come back.

What happened is as follows in a photo essay. . .



Started off in your average California neighborhood. Nothing special, except the rolling hills were a nice change.


One mile into the run I found the bike trail, which reminds me of the Hawthorne Trail near Gainesville, Florida.

Oooooh distraction! I had to stop to take some pictures of the wildflowers, which are going nuts right now!

Then a rather large squirrel crossed my path...


The pavement of the bicycle trail is getting old. This Jeep path looks fun...


Ok... now I'm a little confused about which way to go as the Jeep trail abruptly stops. . .

This looks fun. I'll run down a path of large smooth rocks!


Found a lake! The water is super cold. We kayaked here about a year ago and my cousin capsized. I check my watch and whoa, I've been running for 35 minutes already. So much for a short 2-3 mile run. Better figure out my way out of here.


More wildflowers, but wait, is that a turkey???


After chasing the turkey I come to an open field to run across. Over to the left there were piles and piles of rocks. The smooth river rocks stacked into huge hills. I wondered at the time (and wished I taken a photo) if these rocks were piled up when they built a nearby dam or if they were from the 49ers and the gold rush. Later, I'd learn they were from from the gold rush.


When I found my way back to a road this turkey cross the road right in front of me. I yelled at him that the female turkey was back in the wildflowers. Not really knowing where they hell I am at this point, I give in and use the GPS function on my phone and Google Maps to see where I'm at and come up with a plan to get back to the house. It involved a different route that looped through some even more hilly neighborhoods!

Then this gigantic rabbit crossed my path. It was seriously as large as a small dog.

After running for about an hour I realize that I'm hungry. I stop into a NY Bagels (because you know out here in California it seems smart to eat something New York?) and have myself an organic turkey sausage, egg and cheese blueberry bagel. Mmmmmmmm.....

After getting back I Mapmyrun.com what I think is my path using the My Tracks app on my phone and discover I ran 7 miles. Oops!

Next up Bay to Breakers 12k 2010... the craziest race I've ever run in my life! Stay tuned.