Santa Rosas - Part of Art Smith and Asbestos Mtn

[KathyW]

I'm not sure if I'm putting this thread in the correct place - should Santa Rosa topics be in the section for other areas?

I read somewhere that the Art Smith Trail was a gentle trail, so I decided that it would be a good one to try to run (slow jog in my case). On Saturday I headed out to Palm Desert to give it a try. Well, it's not such a gentle trail and I had to walk up a lot of the hills - I went 3.4 miles down the trail and turned around - it took me 2 hours to do the 6.8 mile/1300 feet gain trip (3.4 mph average), so even when I was running it was pretty slow. I really liked what I saw along the trail (with the exception of that awful golf course development); so I'll be heading back to try to do more of it another time. Some pics from along the Art Smith Trail:

http://kathywing.smugmug.com/gallery/3877428

After my sorry attempt to run the Art Smith Trail I headed up 74 to do the short scramble to Asbestos Mountain - I certainly am better adapted to scrambling than running, but I'm going to keep trying to run. Some pictures of Asbestos Mountain:

http://kathywing.smugmug.com/gallery/3877556

[magikwalt]

Hi Kathy,

Great photos. I've been working on my trail running a little. Mostly on the downhill sections. It allows me to keep my HR up and cut a fair bit of time off the hike. It also creates the illusion that I'm a trail runner.