...Readin' Rolling Stone, Readin' Vogue..

It is about 7 a.m. Look how dark it is now. The days are getting shorter, I like the later morning dark like this, but it's hard for the kids to wake for school. Pretty soon the time will change when we go to Daylight Savings. We're on our way to see if we can find a mountain lion. Well, not really. We are on our way to trail run, but I can't get the lion's out of my head. So I will be looking and listening. Believe me.



Romero Canyon Trail, in Romero Canyon, Montecito. This trail is one of my favorites. It's a beautiful hike/run. You can make it as long or as short as you want. But it's always hard. It's up. Up. up. Of course, until you go down, which can be even harder, on the knees. Here is the start of the trail and the signs I was telling you about in a previous post. There were several. We noticed only 2 other cars besides ours. It's probably just because of the wind. not the (gulp) lions.

We started out just enjoying the morning, me at a slow jog to keep up with my husbands long stride. We looked all around at every turn. There are so many places out here that a mountain lion would love. There are sandstone outcroppings in the chaparral. Big flat rocks that you can just picture a cougar stretched out on. We only saw one mountain biker and two trail runners. One of the reason's I love this trail is because often times you can be the only one on it. Just you and the mountain lions and bears and rattlesnakes and tarantula's...

You can see my husband going up the right fork, this leads to the top of the ridge. Most of the time I go to the left, which leads back down and it makes a big loop, about 5 miles. The way we are going today is about 10 kilometers in all.


Would you believe I forgot my bells? In my morning fog brain I forgot them. Instead, in my waistpack I put the most basic bare essentials. Here is what I grabbed. A beanie. My reading glasses, you know in case I run into a newsstand or something along the way. A debit card. Same reason. A box of tictacs. A lip sunscreen and my mobile phone. Oh, and a Sigg water bottle. We're not supposed to buy plastic bottled water. What was i saying about running with excess weight? I never said I was brilliant. I'm just sayin'.

It is so dry. It may not look it, but California is in the middle of a drought. Water is our most precious resource and wildfires in this area are one of our biggest threats. Yet even in a stressed state the trees and plants have so much beauty. The hardy oak and it's acorn.


Here is one of the creek crossings. Sometimes the water comes all the way up to the tree on the right. That is an incredible sight, watching the creek rush bubbling over the rocks!

This is all over the trail. Sage. It has the best smell. Its uses are many. My favorite besides to smudge is to put a bundle in my husbands truck and then it doesn't smell so awful. The truck. Not the sage.

Look! A porcupine! ok, not really. But doesn't it look like it? Well, I try running meditation but I'll admit, my mind wanders.In fact I want it to so I can pretend I am somewhere else. Some place other than trying to run up this hill.


Can you see him? If you look really closely you can see my husband, he's in that little divot in the hillside. He was calling "wifey! here I am!" I don't even try to keep up anymore. I tell him to go ahead. See ya when I see ya.

This may not look steep to you. But it is. Oh it is. My mantra "one more step, one more step, one more step..." sometimes turns into " take me now, take me now, take..."

Look how high we are. Here you can see Santa Cruz Island in the distance. This is part of the Channel Islands chain. Santa Barbara Island (the one we were going to) is way behind this. Hi. I see you islands. Now there is no wind. Not a bit. Stop laughing at me islands.


There is my husband. Sitting waiting for me. He is enjoying the wonderful view. I can't wait to join him. We are half way done.



I made it! Time for a little rest before we head back down. My husband said to me, "I heard you coming a long way away. What is in your pack?" I pulled out all my stuff. He saw the tictacs. "There's your bells."

He was right. The tictacs (which if you are not familiar, is a tiny box of mints) were making a sound like mexican maracas. There was a fiesta in my pants all the way back down. La Cucaracha!

Oh, and in case you were wondering why I titled my post this way, it's because that is what I did the rest of the day after our trail run... And...

after taking my grandbabies to the zoo!

xx lori