A group of ten of us gathered at 6:30 am this morning at the Westridge Fire Road in Mandeville Canyon to run the "Octopus Trail." The Octopus isn't really a single trail. Rather, it is a collection of trails stitched together, crossing East to West from Mandeville Canyon, through Sullivan, Rivas, Will Rogers and finally Temescal, then returning by more or less the same route. The 20 mile run has something like 5,200 feet of climbing and, of course, descending. Like many runs in the Santa Monica Mountains, it traverses all sorts of different micro-climates with different vegetation and different terrains.
The run took something over six hours, but that includes about two hours of stops to re-group, eat, drink and, of course, take photos. While it rained nearly the entire run, my new jacket kept me comfortable until very near the end, when the wind and rain finally penetrated the "water-proof" material.
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