Return to Rocky Oaks

Dear Rocky Oaks,

You will always be my first love.

I visited you many times per week when we lived on Mulholland. You were my first regular, local trail run. I would arrive in the early morning. You were often shrouded in low lying fog with intriguing glimpses of rocky peaks. The dewey spider webs on the ground would light up in the sunrise. They covered the meadow in sparkling sequined patches.

In the beginning the pond was full and had ducks with their ducklings, but it has been empty for years now. I once saw a large, healthy bobcat crouched in the bushes before she leapt across the trail and disappeared into the oaks and low brush of Glade Trail.

After a rain it was muddy and slippery. Your trails were the testing ground for the Vibram Five Fingers KSO Trek shoes. I discovered how much easier it is to run on slick, muddy trails with these grippy minimalist shoes.

You are all about loops since your main trail in only a little over a mile long. So I would do loops, or turn around and go in the opposite direction, or take different routes to mix it up. Running the same trail in the opposite direction provided a completely new perspective and different experience with lots of surprises like new vistas. The first time I took a reverse side track I saw the vineyard house on the top of a distant hill with a helicopter landing on their personal landing pad. That is so Malibu.

Today I did the standard loop three times and an offshoot to Overlook Trail. It was early, hot, dry and majestic.