Grand Masters Running

On a cool, foggy February morning in Arroyo Grande, California we loaded up the car with our running gear and our Blue Heeler, Jackson, and pointed the car toward Santa Margarita Lake north of San Luis Obispo.  The town of Santa Margarita is only about 8 miles north of San Luis Obispo yet we had never been there and today, though we drove through main street, it was so obscured with fog that we couldn’t count it as having been there.    Following the guidebook directions, we felt our way through the murkiness for 14 miles down the well maintained highway toward the trailhead.   As we approached the primitive and empty dirt parking lot for  Blinn Ranch, the fog magically disintegrated leaving us with a pristine view of the surrounding green mountains.  While the temperature hovered at around 43 degrees, the newly emerging sun made for a pleasant start to our trail running adventure.

Though our 7 year old cattle dog is always ready for a new experience, his definition of fun is usually different than ours.  He is interested in stopping to absorb the scent of every flower and plant along the path for the first 5 to 10 minutes.  When he finally gets his fix of new aromas, he’s ready to get into the run on the relatively flat double track along the Salinas River.   After cruising through a mile or so of meadow, the trail changes to a wide single lane, rock and sand traverse of rolling, tree lined hills.  None of the hills are too long or steep to inhibit running but certainly require some effort to complete.  The views of the surrounding mountains and occasional glimpse of Santa Margarita Lake make for a scenic and enjoyable run to the 2.5 mile mark.  At this point, Jackson has had enough and is ready to turn around.  He is just a small guy and five miles is about his limit, so we oblige and head back toward the trailhead.  Back along the Salinas River, we run into the only other people we would see all day.  A man and woman on horseback with their two golden retrievers out for a pre-Super Bowl ride.  Following a brief conversation, we run the final mile back to the starting point happy to have completed our Sunday 5 miler.

This is a beautiful backcountry trail run with many more miles to explore.  We’ll be back to see what the rest of the trail is like.