JMT10: Ninja Hikers

With a 1:00 Zoom call in the back of my mind, I started off Day 10 from the Tamalpa trailhead yet again and found myself improvising within the first quarter mile, when I turned right off of Tamalpa onto a little offshoot called Easter Lily Trail. To be fair, I’m not even sure why Easter Lily exists. It runs almost parallel to Tamalpa for about a quarter mile before emerging onto Hoo-Koo-e-Koo (the fire road version) just past where Tamalpa does the same. At the same time, it is a little more runnable and a tiny bit of a shortcut, so I’ll take it. I give it a B+.

I headed down Hoo-Koo-e-Koo, sloped back up to Blithedale Ridge, and then ran up a steep hill that I like to call “The Extra Point” to Indian Fire Road. I really like this spot because you can see pretty much anywhere. From the bottom of the extra point, I managed to take a picture of what I failed to capture yesterday, and from the top, you can see much of the other side of Marin.

Even after The Extra Point, this is where the real climb starts. The initial push up Indian Fire Road is one to be taken slowly. It ultimately ends at the point where it meets Eldridge Grade Fire Road, which runs all the way from Phoenix Lake to just below East Peak. From there, I turned onto Eldridge and started the day’s main event.

I like to think of Eldridge as Railroad Grade’s slightly steeper, choppier mirror image, as it snakes up the other side of the mountain in a similar manner, albeit with more switchbacks, and literally emerges right across East Ridgecrest from the end of its distant cousin. They form an imperfect, somewhat circular shape around the mountain, which is pretty neat in my mind. Aidan has told me that he thinks that it looks like the head of a tennis racquet, but he is very, very wrong. It looks like the Buffalo Bills logo.

One thing that I enjoy about Eldridge is that I don’t feel like I’m on the same mountain anymore. The north side of the mountain has a distinctly different feel: there’s more shade, the trees and plants are slightly different, but I couldn’t really explain why. No matter, I like how it takes me out of my comfort zone. It makes me push a little harder up the hill, and it makes getting to the top just the tiniest bit more rewarding.

From the top of Eldridge, I waved hello to my good friend Railroad Grade, and continued on a short pavement path to the mouth of Fern Creek Trail, where I began my descent. It pained me a little bit to skip the peak when I was right there, but this project calls for me to explore as much as possible in as few miles as possible, which sometimes means making sacrifices like that.

Moving on: Fern Creek is awesome. Remember when I talked about “avoiding gnarly single tracks” the other day because of the weather? Well, this is what I was talking about. The trail combines rocks, roots, overhanging plants, random pipelines, narrow footbridges, and the occasional staircase to create a challenging downhill experience that will most definitely keep you awake. I’ve heard rumblings of a legendary competition between a group of Mount Tam runners to run down Fern Creek Trail the fastest. I can’t even imagine running anywhere close to top speed on this sort of terrain.

On the way down, I passed another old Mount Tam landmark, the old Tavern Pump, named for the tavern on the mountain that it used to run water to. From this point, the trail splits, with Fern Creek continuing downwards while Tavern Pump Trail veers up towards the top section of Railroad Grade.

Not long after, the trail becomes a windy staircase for its final stretch before meeting up with Railroad Grade. As I ran it today, I couldn’t help but envision that if the lady who bought the stairway to heaven had opted for wood instead of gold, it probably would have looked something like this. Just a thought.

At the bottom of the “Stairway to Heaven,” I saw something truly awesome. A group of elderly hikers, about to venture up Fern Creek, aggressively pointed what appeared to be customized, six-foot-long, social distancing sticks at me to ensure that I stayed away. As I ran by, they all kept their sticks focused on me like we were in a lightsaber duel or something. I found it to be extremely entertaining, to say the least.

I traveled down Railroad Grade for about a mile before cutting back across Hoo-Koo-e-Koo and returning down Easter Lily and Tamalpa to cap off what was a very enjoyable run, one that was chock-full with variety. And, to top it off, I sat down for my Zoom call at 12:59. See you tomorrow!

👊✌️

Jonathan