Derby Junk Cars - Seen from the Grotto Trail
Day #704 * Hike #847 * New Track #680
Saturday October 20, 2012
O'Melvany Park - The Grotto Trail - Granada Hills, CA
My Tripometer: 3 Hours * 4.5 Miles * +850 Feet
Good Morning...
Directions:
From the I-5 heading south from Santa Clarita, take the San Fernando Road and Balboa exit. If you are not careful you can easily pass this like I did! It's just after the 14 and just before the 210. Note, you cannot reach this exit coming from the south. I know because I tried. I should have jumped on the 118 to scoot back over to the west but I was just all confused and didn't have my morning coffee, nor did I have GPS...
Anyhow, if you exit on San Fernando, follow this to Balboa and turn right. Then turn right on Sesnon and that will lead you to the park...
Foggy Walk-Thru...
Off the race course, a trail to explore some other time?
The Grotto Trailhead
After spending 30+ minutes on the walk thru, looping around the 1.8 mile course, I split away from Ayden and made my way back to this trail...
It goes back there and climbs!
A split to the left, but I kept straight...
Looking back, where am I?
This is quite a steep climb and I wasn't really prepared for it. Running the trail was out of the question. I marched up about 3/4's of a mile and nearly 700 feet by my best guestimation. I heard the gun go off for the first race but kept going. The sound of the cheering became faint and my visibility wasn't much brighter than that up here. Finally, I turned back and heard the next gun shot go off for the next race. Knowing that Ayden would be running soon, I raced back and warmed up the bantam boys for their race...
Ayden running on his first lap
His asthma limited his breathing. Whenever this kind of weather sneaks up on us, Ayden can't breath very well. He finished the run but it wasn't pretty...
The Nature Trail
We left the course shortly after Ayden completed his run. Meanwhile, the midgets and youths were still competing. Although Ayden wasn't feeling great, we had a big day ahead of us...
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