Ragnar hits the Road in Anaheim

I nearly died at seven miles, but we kept going until we hit ten. My sister-in-law is an animal and pushed me to the end. Don't get me wrong, this is not a difficult trail by any means. It is actually pretty flat and not so challenging at all, except for the distance and possibly the heat, if you aren't ready for it.

The team met up a Yorba Regional Park, Anaheim, at 6:30 am. to run the Santa Ana River trail. Against my wishes, they fight me for an earlier time every week. Something about the heat and the humidity. But all I can think of is, it is Saturday for goodness sakes. Needless to say, they win. We all drive a distance to meet up, but this was a little closer so I didn't have to get up too early.

When you arrive, the park is already bustling on a Saturday in July with cyclist, runners, and dog walkers. When we pull in I have a chance to spark up a conversation with a lady getting ready to head out on a ride. This particular morning, she was heading out with her team for 75 miles. Eeeek! Not only was she riding 75 miles, she was making three loops to do it. I don't know about you, but I don't enjoy the hamster wheel. The same scenery, the same ride, three times in a row? I probably would have to stop at 25 or take a different route for more. On the other hand, I think the route is to the beach and back. I may be tempted to just stop at the beach for awhile and return the loop later in the day. Have lunch, enjoy the sun, relax a bit.

Good for me, I wasn't taking that route, but I did see her on my run about an hour or so later. She nearly ran me over with her bike. Of course, you could take the same run to the beach, but we weren't up for a 25-miler that day. It seems each week, the team wavers between 8-10 miles depending on where we are and who has to be where later in the day.

On this particular day, I don't think we ever decided how far we would go, we simply hit the ground running away from the beach on the Santa Ana River trail. The route is pretty easy to follow but you do have some choices along the road. As I am writing this, the city is doing some construction so there are some detours that lead you to the roadside for a few miles. They have put a barrier on the side to keep runners, walkers and cyclist safe from the traffic but the trail itself was quite busy even at 6:30 in the morning. Local high school cross country teams were running, in addition to, moms with strollers, individuals and other groups like ours.

Once you turn up and over a small hill, you veer left off the road where the trail takes you into Canyon RV park nestled in Featherly Wilderness Preserve in the heart of Santa Ana Canyon. The scenery is quite beautiful at this point. It weaves in and through trees and greenery down to the Pacific Ocean in Huntington Beach if you choose to go farther. We turned around at about five miles in to complete a ten miler for the day.

My near death experience wasn't because of the trail but because on a Saturday in July, I decided not to carry water and may have been a bit dehydrated. The sun beat down on us most of the run, until you hit the campground. If you like road runs, some may think this one to be boring but I enjoyed the fresh air in the canyon, and on another day, may have gone a little further to enjoy the scenery. It is an easy flat trail with some shade and cooler breezes but it does take a few miles to get to it when you leave from the park.