Stinson trails

One of the pleasures of going to the Bay Area is to visit the trails on and around Mount Tamalpais.

One such set of trails is to drive [the very] windy road to Stinson Beach and then from there run up the Matt Davis Trail to Pantoll Station and then cruise down the [famous] Dipsea trail.

On the Matt Davis trail there are a good number of stairs on the trail. [As there are on Dipsea].

Almost at the top section of the Matt Davis trail looking back toward Stinson Beach.

On the top section of the Dipsea trail. Beautiful.

More stairs on the downhill section.

 

The view on the finishing mile is really something else. Classic.


Distance: 7 to 8 miles.
Total Time: 85 minutes

Will Rogers

One of my favorite trail runs, close to where I live, is in Will Rogers State Park. The trail is the start of the 45 mile [or so] backbone trail, which extends all the way to Pt Mugu. I usually just run for 40 minutes up and then turn around at a particular spot.

The first section of the trail leads to a bridge, which you can see off to your right. This is the high spot of the first section. About 17 to 20 minutes of running.

The trail rolls along and has a lot of different green flora. Note the yucca [cactus] at the far end of the trail.

The toughest stretch is between the yucca and the oak tree. It's is about 7 minutes of punishing uphill that, fortunately has pretty good brush and tree coverage.

Once past the oak tree [not pictured] the trail gets flat for a while and has really nice shade. This is usually my cool down spot before the next section.

This is coming back from the top section. Other than the occasional mountain biker this section is usually very quiet. Hikers take too long to get here. There is no real high point on the trail but the views are still terrific all around.

Total Time: 73 minutes