I'm in Mammoth Lakes, CA right now for a company meeting (one of our guys, Ross, has a killer house here that we're using). Yesterday, Sam and I headed out around 5:30pm for a quick run. First Tough Mudder team training run (except Ross skipped it :). We had planned to just do a quick say 2 miles, as Sam was really affected by the altitude (we're apparently at about 7000-8000' here). We had some vague directions/idea from Ross, and wound up running some trail and a chunk of pavement up to the resort. But, then from there we picked up the trails again and headed back. Some decent hills, and a little over 40 minutes later we were back. Nice easy pace (lucky for me I wasn't feeling the altitude at all), and just a real nice set of trails.
The particular trails we were on were singletrack, with lots of twists and turns through the trees. Clearly sweet mountain biking trails too. Smooth, but looking like killer flow with many banked turns and just a nice fun set of trails. The other thing I noticed was that they seem to have two trails that parallel each other, and it appears it's so that bikes just go one way on each. VERY nice!
This morning I didn't want to miss getting out on these trails once more before we fly out tonight. I really really like these for running, and the dry clean air, gorgeous setting, and perfect temperatures are just too much to pass up. So, up "early" at 7am, after a bit of a fitfull night (stomach didn't feel great). First 15 minutes of the run were a bit rough, but then got mostly warmed up (was 45 degrees), and went up the singletrack, turned around up near the resort, and back down. 40 minutes, maybe 3.5-4 miles (iPhone's RunKeeper said just over 3 miles, but as we found yesterday, all the twists and turns clearly had it coming up short on mileage). Uphill for the entire first half, and then such a sweet downhill back, awesome.
I'd really like to have had more time here. I originally planned to bring my bikes and spend more time, but thought the trails were under snow (ski resort is still open, but down here at the base, there isn't much snow). But, maybe I'll have another chance this summer.
