Goal Set -- Goal Met

So I woke up this morning and decided I would hike to Henninger Flats and jog / run down. From looking online, I saw it was about 2.7 miles from the Bridge at Eaton Canyon and was supposed to be a moderately steep climb up the Mt. Wilson Trail Road. But I also wanted to see whether my time on the Arrogant Bastard time trial route had improved at all.

So the plan: Run from the speed bump in the parking lot up to the gate over the bridge. Then jog down to the bridge and hike up to Henninger Flats. Then run all the way back to the parking lot.

The day was sunny - almost too warm - 74 degrees in January. And we wonder why people love it here in Southern California.

So I set off from the parking lot, got to the stream and realized I left my phone in the car --- out on the seat. So to prevent it being stolen, I went all the way back.

So Take two:

I left again . . . and made my way back to the stream, crossed, then up to the bridge, then the final push up to the gate. I am still way tooo slow for the Arrogant Bastards, but chopped a minute off my time from about 3 weeks ago.

As I jogged down to the bridge, seemed much hotter than 72 degrees and the sun was high in the sky. I have never hiked to Henninger Flats before. Not sure why I wanted to do it today. But knew it was about 2.7 miles. I was limited on time, so to make sure I could get back home in time, I decided to give myself an hour and see where I was. Hopefully I could make it, but was not sure.

So up I went, passing a few people. Made it to the first bench, then the second. By now it was really hot, I was running low on water, and felt a little dehydrated. At every turn it seemed it was always getting steeper. But again - it was the Mt. Wilson Road - and anything with Mt. Wilson in it means steep. So I walked on and saw the 7/10ths sign to Henninger. Never wanting to quit and excited I had made it this far in about 37 minutes, I continued on, figuring I could hike the last 15 minutes or so. And I did. Took me 51 minutes to hike up from the bridge to the sign. Was not pushing it, but not lolly-gagging either. I found some water to refill my water bottle, took a few minutes to appreciate the view, and then set off jogging down the hill.

The downhill goal was to run all the way to the parking lot - about 3.8 miles. As I was leaving, some guy left before me, and I followed him down a while. At about 1 mile from the bridge, I passed him, picking up speed. Not sure where he went. I made it down to the bridge in 25:45. I had to stop for 10 seconds to fix a shoe lace. Then it was a run back to the parking lot. I only stopped long enough to cross the stream - and made it back in to the speed bump about 15 minutes. Not really very fast, but I did not stop and sometimes that is part of my battle.

So all in all covered about 7.8 to 8 miles (depending on who's counting) and about 1400-1500 feet of elevation gain. I was pretty tired. But in the end, I had met my goal.