Flowers & other ramblings

I've been getting in some good runs in Point Mugu SP, a 17 miler with the gang two weekends ago (Hard's photos), a solo 23 miler this past weekend (no photos), as well as many "Ray loops" which never get old.

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The spring flowers are spectacular right now with, among many other species, poppies, yuccas, giant coreopsi (sea dahlias), and Catalina Mariposa lillies in full bloom. I am botanically challenged and know the names of the latter two only because Chris picked up a book on flowering plants of the Santa Monica Mountains. :-) The giant coreopsis is an odd plant, more akin to something in a Dr. Seuss book--a tree really--about 2-5' tall with a trunk 1-5" in diameter and many bright yellow blooms shooting off the top. It grows only in the mountains and dunes on the southern and central California coast and on the Channel Islands, which explains why I'd never seen it before last spring. When not in full bloom, the plant is rather unremarkable, but IN bloom, it's pretty spectacular. Here are some smaller ones along the trail in La Jolla Canyon which is part of the Ray loop:

Bill and Kim sent their C2M photo links, here and here. (The two photos above were taken by them.) Speaking of C2M, a few days ago Chris received a very funny email saying, WRT the bonus/boner-adjusted results:

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"Sounds like a good activity for Cub Scouts and slacker runners, but not what I would think a serious ultra runner would want."

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Heehee! Apparently he thinks Meltzer, Nye, Jones-Wilkins, Carr, Horton, Angle, Goggins, et al, are not "serious ultra runners." God forbid people should actually have a little FUN in both putting on and running these things. No, we must be SERIOUS, people! Good grief...

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Finally, my dear friends from back East, Michelle and Dave, better known by their trail names of Chickety and Neighbor (AT '05), are heading to the California-Mexico border in 10 short days to begin their northbound thru-hike of the Pacific Crest Trail!! I am very excited for them and hope to join them for a few days in late June. A sentence from a book I just finished, Dakota: a Spiritual Geography, jumped off the page, seeming particularly applicable to the quest they are about to undertake:

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"In choosing a bare-bones existence, we are enriched, and can redefine success as an internal process rather than an outward display of wealth and power."

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I couldn't agree more.