Saturday Morning Run Down Sycamore Canyon to Ranch Center Road

For those of you who have walked, run or cycled down the paved Big Sycamore Canyon Road in Pt Mugu State Park from the Rancho Sierra Vista/Satwiwa area, you may have noticed the fork in the road about a mile from the bottom of the steep hill.

Sycamore Canyon Road / Ranch Center Road juncture

Sycamore Canyon Road / Ranch Center Road junctureMost folks continue straight down Sycamore Canyon towards the beach. But if you veer right, you are headed down Ranch Center Road. I don't get up that way very often on my runs in the canyon. In fact, I can't even remember the last time I was up that way. But this past Saturday I decided to divert myself up that path.

In general, I don't see a lot of people down in Sycamore Canyon. As beautiful as it is, it is a lot of work getting down there and about five times tougher getting back out of it up the steep fire road to Newbury Park. I'd estimate easily two thirds of the folks I see down there are on bikes and the rest are hikers and runners.

But  there are significantly less people on Ranch Center Road. This past Saturday, I was surprised to see two young teenage-looking gals jogging up the trail, chatting away, having a nice run. Otherwise, I saw about 8 cyclists as I made my way up Ranch Center Road to the dilapidated, burned down Ranch area structures where Ranch Center Road meets Wood Canyon Fire Road.

Wood Canyon Fire Road is more interesting to run than Ranch Center Road as it is all dirt trail and surrounded by trees.

Wood Canyon Fire Road is more interesting to run than Ranch Center Road as it is all dirt trail and surrounded by trees. I saw two cyclists rolling up this trail as I was coming down. Quite peaceful.

Trail runners' heaven is Wood Canyon Fire Road. I could run on trails like this any day.

Several miles downhill the trail links back up to Sycamore Canyon Road, where I ran up past the Danielson Multi-Use Area, where I saw a group of campers, then back up the canyon.

Less than a mile north of the Danielson Multi-use area is this well placed porta-john.

I was out there for about 1 1/2 hours. A good, mid-summer fun run.

Lulled In By the Bulldog 25K Trail Run Again This Year

The Bulldog 50K and 25K trail races are on Saturday, August 25th this year at Malibu Creek State Park in Calabasas.  Don't know what it is about this brutally tough race, but I'm signed up for the 25K again this year. Last year it was the hottest day of the year and I didn't fare too well, feeling dehydrated most of the race. Hoping we get an overcast morning.

Today I did my longest run so far of the year, a 2 hour run mostly on the trails in Sycamore Canyon. Ran up Danielson Road, turned up the Old Boney Trail (which gives some really nice views of Boney Mountain), down Fossil Trail down to the bottom of Sycamore Canyon. From there I ran a handful of other trails and road to achieve a total time of 2 hours.

Did something I would not recommend. Swigged down a bottle of water, put a couple candy bars in a fanny pack, and took off. Didn't carry any water with me this morning as I felt I was able to drink enough down to get my through a 2 hour run. I'm not a big fan of carrying water. Started the run at 7:20 a.m. and it was nice and cool. Temps only reached about 70 degrees. Worked out fine for me. My backup plan is that I knew of 3 water fountains on my path. Didn't need to stop for them though.

But I did stop briefly to take a few quick pics of the view!

Mini Duathlon Through Sycamore Canyon

This past Saturday morning I decided to try something I always wanted to do. Drive to the beach, leave the car, run home via Sycamore Canyon, then ride my bike back to the car with my son. What a fun way of "mixing it up" a bit by doing something new.

My destination Saturday morning was PCH at Sycamore Cove State Beach in Malibu. While a straight shot down Sycamore Canyon Road from Newbury Park to the beach is 8 to 9 miles depending on where you start, getting there via Potrero Road west to Hueneme Road and south on Las Posas to PCH is about 18 miles.

Driving west on Potrero Road while deftly taking picture before navigating twisty, hilly turns.

I reached the ocean around 6:45 a.m. and soon noticed there were "no parking" signs lining up almost every inch of PCH within range of the Sycamore Canyon trailhead. Thoroughly annoying. I KNOW it wasn't this way all the time. Perhaps the state is so broke they're putting up the signs to force us to pay $12 to park in a lot.

Malibu in the morning does not suck

I thought of parking in the state park lot but it didn't open until 8 a.m. So I drove down PCH just south the trailhead and discovered a handful of spots available and nabbed one. Whew!

Most of Sycamore Canyon from the beach is slight to gradual uphill, up until the very top where there's an 800 foot ascent over 3/4 mile. The bottom half of the course is mostly dirt trail, then switches to pavement  More on this course HERE.

I love it back in Sycamore Canyon. It is rarely crowded, beautiful, peaceful scenery, you can go miles without seeing anyone, in the early morning you'll come across deer and other wildlife and....there are plenty of, ahem, porta-johns along the course. That's a nice feature to have along any course.

So 72 minutes later I was home and felt great. A bit grungy though, so I hopped in the shower and within 15 minutes was out the door with my son.

The ride down Sycamore Canyon doesn't require too much effort. Other than some initial, brief uphills into the Canyon a handful of dirt stream crossings, it is a fun, downhill ride. Make sure your brakes work!

We enjoyed the beach a bit afterwards then drove over the Oxnard via PCH to grab lunch and enjoy the rest of the day.

Sycamore Canyon is beautiful but do watch out for poison oak if you veer off the main road/trail.