San Bruno Mtns and Black Mtn Running

Those of you who live in the San Francisco Bay Area have probably driven north on 101 at some time and seen the "South San Francisco" sign in the side of a hill.  I didn't go there on Saturday, but Toshi and I did go running on those hills behind it.  The San Bruno mountains are a pretty fun place to run.  There is definitely some steep stuff, basically any trail that gets you up to the ridge, but then the ridge is some fun up and down running with awesome views.

We parked on some random street that we found that dead ended into the mountains.  Toshi tried to tell me there was a small trail that went off to the right after we crawled through the fence, but it looked like a clear shot up the hill and I didn't want to waste any time getting to the top, so off we went.

See that road down there, we just crawled up that hill...

Summit.

Views of the Pacific from the Summit

Toshi and another of his "poses"

The bay with Mount Diablo in the distance.

View of the bay as we were getting closer to 101.

Toshi, contemplating whether to jump or not.

Interesting down hill technique.

We hit the summit, ran along the ridge, did a couple of down and ups on the steep side trails, and now we can say:  Yeah, we've been there...

On Sunday morning I got up bright and early for a Black Mountain run.

First interesting thing I saw.

Approaching the clouds.

In the clouds.

Above the clouds.

Views of the bay.

Views down the ocean.

Back down to Rancho.

I took the long trail up to Black, windmill pasture-black mountain trail.  Hit the summit, then went down the other side on the Bella-Vista, then Canyon, then back up Indian Creek.  Hit summit again and then back to Rancho the way I came.  Toshi and I did about 2.5 hrs of running Saturday, and I was wondering how my legs would respond on Sunday morning, and everything went good, which was encouraging.  Got another 3.4 hrs of running.  I usually do one long run per weekend (unless on some crazy fastpacking adventure of course...).  But this was an interesting change of pace.  I might have to try this a few more times...