Sunday, January 23, 2011

DAY 70: LA JOLLA CANYON

DAY 70: LA JOLLA CANYON
Miles: 2.5
Elevation Gain:  325 Feet
Time: 1.25 Hours
Difficulty (1-10): 2.5
Reward (1-10): 4.5
Description: Less than a mile hike to a chill waterfall.  Bring your young-ens, the trail is very easy.
Where?: Ventura County/Mailbu, CA
Directions: From the 101 Freeway in Camarillo, exit Las Posas and drive out toward the Ocean.  About 8 miles down, you'll hit the PCH.  Turn left and drive towards Malibu.  You'll pass Mugu Rock and then La Jolla Canyon is about three miles up on the left.  Look for signs. 
**MY 70 DAY SUMMARY:  243.5 Miles  +37,325 Feet**
 La Jolla Canyon Falls

 **Before the auditors complain about the math on "My 70 Day Summary", I added another .5 miles to this total for running with my son at Pleasant Valley Fields before Alyssa's soccer game.  Generally I do not include any additional daytime activity like walking around a park, climbing stairs, etc... but when there is sweat involved and it's outdoors, it should count...
Alyssa's Soccer Tournament, continued.  In her first game, she scored three goals against Santa Paula, but lost the contest 4-3.  That's back to back Hat Tricks in a tournament!  Amazing!  --We had several hours before the next game so Jess, Ayden and I went to La Jolla.

We drove to the back of the self-pay parking lot and picked a random spot.  To my surprise, I found the end, or maybe what's considered the beginning to the Back Bone Trail.  The trailhead is just to the right of the parking lot, but we didn't choose this route today.  Instead:


As I mentioned in the description, this was a very simple hike.  The trail was a bit rocky in some places but we saw plenty of mothers and fathers strapping their little 3-month-olds to their chest.  The waterfall pictured above is only 0.8 miles from the parking lot.  I was once back here many years ago and witnessed a much more intense waterfall than what we saw on this warm and windy day.

With more time to spare, we continued forward.  Another 0.4 miles with a small switch back takes you up to a trail junction.  With my 7-year-old acting like a tired tot, we turned around.




**On our drive up the PCH, it must have been high tide because the crazy wind was blowing the ocean water up onto the road way.  There was one moment where my front window was slammed with what felt like a hundred buckets of water, not just some mist as you might expect.  This was right near Point Dume where just a week earlier the wind nearly lifted me off my bike.  Crazy!  On the way back to Alyssa's soccer game, I had to take a picture of the Rock at Point Dume:
 
You'll always see rock climbers attempting to climb to the top.  Not me, I'll stick to the trails.  The ocean water in this area tints a fluorescent blue and for surfers, there is some gnarly surf going on just beyond at Point Mugu.

To conclude the day, Alyssa's team faced the #1 Camarillo team in her 7th and final soccer game of the tournament.  The top four seeds in this bracket move on to play next week.  Win or lose, her team only needed to score three goals or tie the game to guarantee a spot next week.  Unfortunately, they lost 2-0 and finished 5th in this division with a 3-3-1 record.  The fourth place Santa Barbara team had a 3-4 record and we beat them last week heads up.  However, they racked up 2 more total points than our girls, which leaves us out.  Well, no big deal!  Alyssa did her best by scoring something like 10 goals and 4 assists out of the 16 total goals scored for her team.  In a few weeks, she will be on the top Viper Team where the real tournaments will begin!




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