Cerro Alto – Slacker Runner

Other than one of my favorite songs, that word rarely means good things.

At work I have a bad habit of saying that I focus on the big fires first than double back to the little ones. Figuratively, of course.

Except last week there was a literal fire in the parking lot. Really 2020?

All is fine and it was put out quickly with no lasting damage. But it did make me realize I needed to better acquaint myself with where the fire extinguishers are.

A heat wave also rolled in last week and made my usual slacker-ness even easier to do. It was so hot, I actually ate lunch in the building on Thursday and Friday. I usually eat lunch in my car.

After a week of hot weather and laziness on my part, I wanted a woodsy trail on Saturday. So I headed for Cerro Alto. I somehow forgot that Cerro Alto begins the canyon down to the ocean and retains our temps and not beach temps. It was 90 degrees. I was struggling 3/4 of a mile in and knew it was only going to get worse. I knew I could likely finish the 6 mile hike but I would also wreck myself. I wish I could say it was all common sense on my part but it mostly my absolute refusal to become a news headline. “Hiker rescued after becoming dehydrated, air lifted out”. Seriously, that happens all too often out here.

So I turned around and headed back to the trail head. 1.5 miles with around 350 elevation gain in the first half.

But I wasn’t done, I refueled both myself and my car as I hadn’t been planning on making a circle of the county and headed to Harmony Headlands. And the temp dropped to 60, so much better.

Harmony is pretty easy, the dirt path is well defined for 2/3 of it, so I have troubles considering it a “trail run” or a “hike”. The last portion does turn to single track but it’s still what I would call easy. I rarely even take water. I had my pack bladder filled for Cerro Alto so I figured I might as well use it. I power hiked, climbed some rocks and enjoyed some ocean views. 4.3ish miles bringing me to under 6 for the day. My watch tells me Harmony has an elevation gain/loss of 340 each way but I swear it’s flat.

While I didn’t end up dehydrated or with a killer heat induced migraine, I did wind up with a sun burn. Really??! My shoulders were fried as well as the backs of my knees of all places. It was the kind of burn that messes with your internal temp control so I just napped on Sunday. Not that I was super eager to brave the 104* weather outside.

It was little but it was a good week. Onward and upward.

How was your week?

Since the 25k is all trail, I gave myself some wiggle room in my training plan. I can sub a climbing hike in as one of the longer runs. So with that in mind, my mom and I headed out early Sunday morning to hike Cerro Alto. We had last done Cerro Alto in January of 2013 and I remember it being a climb but pretty easy. Either my memory is seriously faulty or I am completely out of shape, that climb kicked my ass. Maybe my legs were tired from the previous day’s 5 miles or I was just tired but man that uphill seemed to go on forever! In reality the hike we chose was 3 miles up to the top of the mountain and 3 miles down. According to my Garmin, we gained 1700 in elevation. However my Garmin crapped out for a 1/4 mile on the way up and 1/4 mile on the way down, so who knows. The trail is measured fairly well and we have done it before so I know it should come in around 5.9 miles. I never could tell where exactly it was that my watch had troubles, I was paying more attention to where I was putting my feet but I know it was after the 1.7 mark, because it was dead on until then. My mom and I kept pace together and power walked/ hiked up. I honestly don’t think I could have gone any faster though. In the end we got to the top in 58 minutes. Which we were both kind of butt hurt about. But looking at last years time, I noticed that we were 10 minutes faster, so woo hoo! Did I mention that my mom wants to run the 25K too? Well, hopefully. After hanging out at the top a bit- and of course taking pictures- we headed back down. The views were amazing, and the skies were clear but the top is super windy. You get cold really fast. No one really spends too much time at the top, as opposed to Valencia Peak where people often eat lunch at the top before heading back down. Coming down is where things got sketchy. We were looking to increase our pace and get a good idea of what we could maintain for the 25K. About 1/4 of a mile down, the trail narrows and gets rocky and even more uneven. You really have to watch where you put your feet. At some point my mother stepped wrong coming off a rock. Not sure exactly how it happened, but she went to walk ahead, froze and let out a 4 letter word. Uh oh. Stretching out and shaking it out didn’t help. Every other step down the mountain was accompanied by pain and some colorful language. I felt bad that I couldn’t do anything to help but also bad because listening to her was kind of funny. She later agreed that she probably sounded interesting to anyone else on the trail. But hey, at least we weren’t the 3 college age girls stopping to crack open beers at the mile 1 marker at 11 in the morning. Nothing wrong with the beer but get to the top first! Or better yet, get to the top and then back down first. Every mountain we’ve hiked so far has had memorials on it. And the news frequently has stories about hikers having to be rescued from the local mountain trails. Even with my mom being in pain, we were able to get back down the mountain in about 45 minutes. Not too bad considering she was limping. In fact, that was the only thing marring a great hike! Unfortunately, she couldn’t rest just yet. She and I then moved on to SLO to do some shopping while waiting to meet my dad and brother at Olive Garden for dinner. I was treating my parents for an early birthday dinner. Their birthdays are only 2 days apart in December. I told her to make sure to RICE once home and take it easy the next couple of days.