LAKE CLEONE

J. Loomis photo

 Happy New Year to all.  This morning, we met at Lake Cleone.  I think that everyone, both runners and hikers chose to go south, mostly on the Haul Road.  Joel ran the single track along the bluff.  It was nice this morning, about 49  degrees, I've forgotten now for sure.  The ocean and clouds were beautiful!

Lake Cleone boardwalk, J. Loomis photo

Out to enjoy the last morning of the year:  Steve and his daughter, Jodie, (thanks Steve), Zelda, Cheryl N., Neil, Shari, Peter, Jan, Joel, Nancy T., Roger, John, Nancy and Tom.  We met Toni for breakfast at David's (15).

Ten Mile Beach and morning mist, J. Loomis photo

I've got a bit of good news, Big River Road is again open!  We'll go there often, as long as the mosquitoes are still sleeping.  This week, the Mid-week Fog Dodgers will check it out on Tuesday.  Soon also, I think, the two halves of our new Coastal Trail should be connected and that will give many options out there.  Things are looking better!

Invite your friends to join us.  We will always enjoy more members, especially runners.


Sunday, Jan. 7th, Group Run and Walk, POMO BLUFFS - HARE CREEK (see "Our Routes" above)

Sunday, Jan. 8th Upper Russian Gulch State Park, beginning on Road 409, 3.2 miles east of Hwy One.  It is right where the paved road ends and there is a sign that says, "Horse Camp".

Sunday, Jan. 15th, Big River


NEXT SUNDAY,  JAN. 7TH, GROUP RUN AND WALK, POMO BLUFFS - HARE CREEK - NOYO BAY, beginning at the Pomo Bluffs Parking Lot.
     depending upon how fast you go, there's many options built into this one.

EVERY TUESDAY AND THURSDAY, GROUP RUN @ 7:00 A.M.: This Tuesday (Jan. 2), we will return to Big River and check out how this one is.   On Thursday (Jan. 4th), we will run at Mendocino, beginning at the Heeser Dr. restrooms.   

POINT CABRILLO LIGHTHOUSE and CASPAR UPLAND TRAIL

Merry Christmas everybody!  A lot of the Fog Dodgers are away visiting family.  Present today:  Zelda, Steve, Charlene, Ron, Nancy T., Roger, Jan, Bob, Nancy and Tom.  Afterwards, we went to David's for breakfast and were joined by Toni, Geri and Rick (13).

Point Cabrillo Lighthouse, J. Loomis photo

This run/walk today, was kind of a test.  It was the first time for this venue and we didn't know how it would work out, time and distance-wise.   I think it worked out well for both walking and running.  Now, if it gets wetter, the runners may have problems, as part of the trail gets pretty flooded.  For running, the whole loop came out to 3.78 miles, with almost 400' of ascent.  It's a good loop!

Greetings from John

Pt. Cabrillo Lighthouse on a foggier morning, J. Loomis photo

Skip Brand owns the Healdsburg Running Company.  It's a great little shoe store and they sponsor many races, runs and other activities.  At each event, they try to photograph some or all of the people that were present.   It has been suggested by several, to include some "people pictures" on our blog and that would make it more interesting, I agree.  We will try to do that.  Today's photos came out kind of fuzzy so we'll work on it.  There was this one that could be used.  Would anyone like to be "the people" photographer?  It almost has to be one of the walkers, as the runners all have to take off at exactly 8:00 and John already has done his volunteer photography long before that.

Sunday, Dec. 31st, Group Run and Walk,  Lake Cleone, starting right in the parking lot at Lake Cleone, MacKerricher State Park.  You can run/walk from there in all directions.

Sunday, Jan. 7th, Group Run and Walk, POMO BLUFFS - HARE CREEK (see "Our Routes" above)

Sunday, Jan. 8th Upper Russian Gulch State Park, beginning on Road 409, 3.2 miles east of Hwy One.  It is right where the paved road ends and there is a sign that says, "Horse Camp".

NEXT SUNDAY,  DEC. 31st, GROUP RUN AND WALK, Lake Cleone, beginning at the Parking Lot.


EVERY TUESDAY AND THURSDAY, GROUP RUN @ 7:00 A.M.,  MENDOCINO, starting at the Heeser Drive restrooms.

MENDOCINO HEADLANDS AND TOWN

It was a beautiful morning!  At our start, it was 42 degrees, but with lower humidity than normal and crystal clear blue skies, very pleasant.  The ocean was all stirred up and beautiful too!

Mendocino water tower, J. Loomis photo

Thanks to John, for today's photos.  It's nice, to run around the town of Mendocino, as there are so many interesting sights.  No "cookie cutter" homes in this town!  And the views around Heeser Drive and the Mendocino Headlands are unbeatable!

Mendocino crooked fence, J. Loomis photo

Present today:  Shari, Peter, Cheryl N., Neil, Nancy T., Roger, Zelda, Charlene, Gay, Mark, Joel, Jan, Bob, John, Nancy and Tom.  We joined Geri and Toni at David's Restaurant for breakfast (18).

Mendocino Christmas Spirit, J. Loomis photo

There are a couple of new venues coming up, Point Cabrillo and Upper Russian Gulch.  They should be fun!  They've been recommended and it will be up to us, to see if they can be made part of our regular routes.  A COUPLE OF CHANGES BELOW!

Sunday, Dec. 24th, Group Run and Walk, Point Cabrillo Lighthouse (A new and suggested route).

Sunday, Dec. 31st, Group Run and Walk,  Lake Cleone, starting right in the parking lot at Lake Cleone, MacKerricher State Park.  You can run/walk from there in all directions.

Sunday, Jan. 7th, Group Run and Walk, POMO BLUFFS - HARE CREEK (see "Our Routes" above)

Sunday, Jan. 8th Upper Russian Gulch State Park, beginning on Road 409, about 3 miles east of Hwy One.

NEXT SUNDAY,  DEC. 24TH, GROUP RUN AND WALK, POINT CABRILLO LIGHTHOUSE.  This one, is not in "Our Routes" above and we've never done it.  We will check it out and improvise. I'm putting it in now because  of the dry weather we have had.  The grass here can become very wet and spongy.  Parking/starting, is in the Parking Lot at the top of Lighthouse Road.

EVERY TUESDAY AND THURSDAY, GROUP RUN @ 7:00 A.M.,  MENDOCINO, starting at the Heeser Drive restrooms.

CASPAR LOGGING ROADS

We ran and walked the Caspar Logging Road (Jackson State Forest Rd. 500).  It was chilly, 39, when we started but after warming up, it felt just right.  It was a beautiful morning.

Caspar Bay

We followed our run/walk with our Annual Pot Luck Breakfast and Cookie Exchange.  Since some could make the run/walk but not breakfast or breakfast but not the run/walk, I'll just list all names that were present today.  There was:  Dorothy, Fran, Jim, Gay, Mark, Bob, Cheryl, John, Charlene, Ron, Toni, Zelda, Nancy B., Rick, Shari, Peter, Nicole, Noah, Reya, Serena, Nancy, Tom (22).

Caspar Robin

The Fog Dodgers had a wonderful breakfast at Mark and Gay's today.  Nicole brought Noah and the kids, Reya and Serena.  It was really fun to have the kids experience the Fairy Tree House and Giant Swing.  Actually, not just the kids but all of us enjoyed it!  Thank you very much, Mark and Gay, for a great morning!

Caspar Llama, thanks, John, for all of today's photos.

Next week, we will run and walk at Mendocino.  We tried this once before and it was well received.  On this one, you can run/walk along the bluff-top single track, all around the headlands, or you can run/walk on Heeser Drive and if you're running, we usually cover most of the town's through streets.  What you make of it, is completely up to you!

We've become a group of "old" people. Sorry folks, and yes, I'm one of them.  We started out 20 years ago as a running group of middle aged and have just evolved.  It was very nice to have Nicole with us today and her family.  I've encouraged her to invite some of her friends that run and I'd like for everyone, to try to invite anyone, especially younger folks, to join us.  It would make us a much better group.  I will try putting up an invite on the C.V. Starr bulletin board, maybe get some of those folks off of the treadmills and onto the trails!

Sunday, Dec. 24th, Group Run and Walk,  Lake Cleone, starting right in the parking lot at Lake Cleone, MacKerricher State Park.  You can run/walk from there in all directions.

Sunday, Dec. 31st, Group Run and Walk, POMO BLUFFS - HARE CREEK (see "Our Routes" above)


NEXT SUNDAY, SUNDAY DEC. 17TH @ 8:00 A.M.: MENDOCINO HEADLANDS AND AROUND THE TOWN.  MEET AT THE HEESER DRIVE RESTROOMS. You can read more about this venue two paragraphs above.

Roger has updated "Our Routes" at the top of the page, thanks Roger!  When you look and see how many different options we have, you wonder why we keep doing the same ones over and over.  Well, there are little glitches with each route and I tend to pick whatever seems to please most of us.  Be sure to let me know if there's one that you want to try again.   Roger has all of the maps looking really good  and it will help us all get to the right starting points.  

EVERY TUESDAY AND THURSDAY, GROUP RUN @ 7:00 A.M.: MENDOCINO HEADLANDS AND TOWN.  These mid-week runs beging at the restrooms on Heeser Dr.

TEN MILE RIVER LOGGING ROAD

Pink Clouds off Ten Mile Beach

It was 40 degrees and the slight breeze made it seem much colder.  It was impossible to keep most everyone from jumping the gun at 7:58.  Mark held back a moment, to make sure nobody arrived just before our 8:00 a.m. start, thanks Mark!  That always seems to happen when it's cold and breezy.

Ten Mile Farm House

It had been almost two years since we last ran and walked at Ten Mile River.  It's still as pretty and nice as ever.  I timed the difference between Ward Avenue and Ten Mile River this morning, only six minutes, so hopefully we will do Ten Mile more often.  Don't tell me it's too far!

Thanks to John, for all of this morning's beautiful pictures.

"Ten Mile Mystery Home"

Present today, a small group:  Zelda, Gay, Mark, Charlene, Ron, Joel, Jan, John, Nancy and Tom (10).  Afterwards, four of us met with Toni and had a great David's breakfast.

Following our run/walk next week, we'll have our Annual Pot Luck Breakfast and Cookie Exchange.  It will be at Mark and Gay's beautiful home and I have been told that the Gnome Tree House will be open.  You should really try to make this one, even bring your family, it's a very nice event.  The "only rule",
is that if you want to participate in the Cookie
Exchange, you must also take home a plate of
cookies.  Mark and Gay don't want too many
left overs!  Gay will be providing steel cut oat-
meal and a waffle bar, you may bring anything
breakfast related you'd like.

South Fork Ten Mile River

If you haven't been to Mark and Gay's, you can follow one of the others or ask me for the address.  It's close by.










NEXT SUNDAY, DEC. 10TH @ 8:00 A.M. CASPAR LOGGING ROADS.  OUR ANNUAL POT LUCK BREAKFAST AND COOKIE EXCHANGE FOLLOWS IMMEDIATELY AFTER. 

Roger has updated "Our Routes" at the top of the page, thanks Roger!  When you look and see how many different options we have, you wonder why we keep doing the same ones over and over.  Well, there are little glitches with each route and I tend to pick whatever seems to please most of us.  Be sure to let me know if there's one that you want to try again.  Today, Shari suggested a couple of trails around the Pt. Cabrillo area and I'll look into those.  Anyway, Roger has all of the maps looking really good  and it will help us all get to the right starting points.  

EVERY TUESDAY AND THURSDAY, GROUP RUN @ 7:00 A.M.: MENDOCINO, beginning at the Heeser Drive restrooms.