Walking into the Sun

A very early start

I could tell by the large number of cars in the Sunset Parking Area that some event was going on.  Becca and I went to the far side of the mountain and parked one-hundred yards away from the Monte Vista lot.  As soon as we got up to the trail we encountered several runners heading counterclockwise around Tortugas.  A minute later we crossed paths with another runner.  That's when I made the decision to hike some secondary trails to avoid other runners in what was obviously a running event.  We saw four or five others, but from a distance.  The only bad thing about the way we chose to go this morning was we were hiking directly into the rising sun.  That made it very difficult to see the trail at times.  After a mile-and-a-half, though, we were able to turn back toward the mountain.

Running around the mountain

East of Tortugas

The big house

Further east of the Tortoise

Striking back to the west

What's Becca staring at?

This:  a distant runner (10X zoom)

Me and my shadow (lower center)

Into the Creosote jungle

Heading back for the loop trail

The way we've just come

Almost back to the car