~6 miles @ ~14.5 min/mi
On Sunday morning I drive my Mother to her church, then go to worship at mine. Today's services are held at the Walnut Creek Metro Park, where the maze of twisty mountain bike paths humble me as they did when I first visited. (2010-07-19 - Walnut Creek Metropolitan Park and 2010-07-20 - Tangle of Trails)
Following imaginary trails I climb a crumbling limestone cliff and suddenly discover that I've left the park and entered an ancient cemetery. Casting about for the way back turns up a barbed-wire perimeter fence. A biker waiting at the corner helpfully gets me turned around and directs me inside.
From here onward marker posts keep me more-or-less on course. Westward past the "Tangle of Trails", down "Power Line Hill", across the detention dam to "Log Loops", then random-walk "Rock Bridge" back to "Endo Valley". Some heathens have left an empty TrusteX brand condom wrapper on the ground; it gets picked up and put in the trash. A deer crunches through the dry brush. "P" signs point to the parking lot. The closer it is, the more hikers carry vente lattes as they amble. Now it's time to go back and pick up Mom.
GPS trackfile splits: 12:16 ⇒ 18:54 ⇒ 12:33 ⇒ 16:38 ⇒ 15:42 ⇒ 10:52 with that final mile accelerated by the easy path back to the car plus an out-and-back road sprint to make the GPS odometerdisplay a round number.
^z - 2012-01-26