EISPIRATEN

The day after (Sunday July 13) my son and I mountain-biked to Josephine Peak on the Josephine Fire Road, I returned for a morning trail run on the fire road with my running buddy /neighbor. We ran up the fire road to the ridge and, for a little extra, took a right and ran the 1/2 mile to Josephine Saddle. We then retraced our steps back to the trailhead. It was a beautiful morning. I always enjoy the flora along this fire road and there is always some type of flowering out even during the driest part of the year. And, of course, anywhere in this vicinity, Strawberry Peak is a constant presence in the distance.

Our pace was slow/moderate and we covered the 5-mile roundtrip in 1hr. 10 minutes.

A COMMENT ON RUNNING VS. BIKING THIS ROUTE: at least for me, mountain biking a route is always much harder than running it. Mountain bikers seem embarrassed when I'm running and pass them as they crank upwards, but they needn't be because they're doing the harder activity.

BY THE WAY, as long as I've gotten this verbose, I offer up the training tip that mountain-biking is one of the best ways to keep to attain and keep top-notch fitness for mountain climbing and hard hiking.

Augie wrote:BY THE WAY, as long as I've gotten this verbose, I offer up the training tip that mountain-biking is one of the best ways to keep to attain and keep top-notch fitness for mountain climbing and hard hiking.

Interesting. I hadn't ever considered it as such.

I got a little soured on the whole MTB thing on my old, heavy 1989 Fisher (back when Gary Fisher still ran the company, the company name was just "Fisher" not "Gary Fisher"), but modern tech has brought things well along in the last 19 (has it really been that long? ) years.

I haven't got the knees for runing, but a bike, now that might be a different matter...

I agree with you Augie about mountain biking as one of the best way to keep in shape for rock climbing or harder hike. First, it would be a little easier on the knees than running. Second when ride up hill you have to force yourself constanly crank that pedals or else you have to walk the bike up versus runner can stop in middle of running hill. And third, it would be harder than running because you have to pull your total weight plus the bicycle's weight up the hill where the mechanical rolling of the wheels is no longer an advantage.

I ride my MB most in Monrovia Canyon trails.