This weekend the gang took to the west side of the Tahoe area, and ran into the Desolation Wilderness Area's moonscape surrounding Lake Aloha. We started from Echo Lake, which gave us an elevation advantage over starting at Fallen Leaf Lake - an advantage I heartily agreed with!
Even with the advantage of the higher starting elevation, the trail was a rough go. Rockodiles waited along nearly the entire stretch. They aren't so much a problem on the way up, since speed and gravity aren't so critical an element - especially at my speed - but on the way down, they would prove to be problematic.
We started early and it was oddly dark and warm: overnight clouds had moved in and actually dropped a Nevada downpour: getting the ground exactly evenly wet, and no more. But with the clouds, the typically bright predawn was not happening. At the park and ride, we all met up, and had a few newbies-to-us joining the regular crew: Lindy, Melissa and Carol. We checked their resumés for sense of humor, and seeing it all was in order, we piled into a couple of cars and headed to Echo Lake Marina to start.

I didn't have much opportunity to take a lot of pictures on the way up, as I was busy placing my feet so I didn't roll an ankle, breathing, and trying to catch Lindy - the Desert Bighorn. She claimed to be a Dromedary, because she didn't drink much when running, but I demurred. First I believed her to be a Bactrian because of the double bumps, but then, after trying to keep up on the climb, I gave up on the innuendo nickname and dubbed her the Desert Bighorn because she doesn't drink, and climbs like a goat! That's her there on the right, and about the last time I saw her on the climb.
Speaking of climb, it was a steady, rocky grind that deceptively resulted in 3000' of gain over the course of the 13 mile run, nearly all of it in the first half. 
We spent a longer-than-normal time at the top admiring the view, and generally puttering around the lake. I think the inactivity was detrimental to my overall performance. I was hurting like the end of a run for the decent. What with the rockodiles waiting to grab, twist and generally mangle the unwary runner, the added effect of pains in the legs made for a slow descent for me. I guess I tried to adhere to the motto "get up quick, go down slow." I liked to think of myself as a fixed-gear: one speed for ascents and descents!
We did have a couple of crashes on the way down, though. Gino, sometimes trail dog, sometimes trail pig, took out Melissa with his patented "pass on the left, get perpendicular to the trail and stop" technique. She ended up with a scraped hand and leg. Shannon was the "winner" of the takes-a-spill award. I didn't see it (she runs far to fast for me to see her on a downhill!), but I did see the goose egg on her forehead when I finally DFLed it to the parking lot.
Enjoy the photos! more on the home page slide show.

The weekend run was along the famous Flume trail that leads from the Marlette Lake Dam to the junction of the Tunnel Creek and Red House Loop Trails. Surprisingly, a couple of people I run with regularly had never had the exquisite pleasure of running the trail. That needed to be addressed!
We drove a couple of cars to the end of the run at the Ponderosa, then piled into a single car to shlep back to Spooner Summit to where we were going to start the run. The weather was beautiful, and we started out.
The miles rolled by easily, and we did the 6 or so up to Marlette Lake. The trail was beautiful in the morning light.

Of course, we had to take a timeout at the lake itself for a photo, some nourishment and general fooling around.

We then took off on the Flume. Probably due to the early hour, we didn't encounter too many bikes. It's been my experience that mountain cyclists tend to sleep in longer than runners. Probably that speedy downhill they can get: the finish around noon desire can be accommodated with a later start. We trucked along, singing a song (at least I did. For some reason the song "Time" by Pink Floyd was in my head the entire run. Maybe the line "You run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking." might have had something to do with it. At least I wasn't singing out loud (too loudly or too often), or mumbling "Your lips move, but I can't hear what you're saying." from "Comfortably Numb."
I was feeling really well and strong on the climb to Marlette, but the start of the Flume, my lower left leg decided to alert me to burning pain. Wow. Pretty sure it is a small obscure muscle down at the ankle-calf interface. My guess is that it got jealous of all the attention the major calf muscles had been getting over the last year with the cramping and whatnot, so it decided to yell. Loudly. Still tender to the touch a day later, and I don't know what happened. At any rate, after a mile or so, it seemed to loosen up and disappear down below the pain threshold again. Things got so good toward the end of the Flume, I picked up my pace to a sub 5 minute mile. OK, maybe not a sub 5, but it felt fast and really fun. The run overall topped out at 14.4 on Abbey's Garmin, since I didn't have mine. I doubled back for a 1/2 mile or so tracking down Ann, who joined the Stupid Runner Club (I'm President Emeritus). Her crimes? Running With A Known Injury, combined with Running Farther Than You Should Have Anyway Because You Are Adding Miles Too Fast.
We finished the run together: President Emeritus and newest club member. Kind of fitting. 

Most of the gang I usually run with took the weekend easy with some little run called the Tahoe Rim Trail 50K. I, on the other hand, did it rough with a couple of 50-ish furlong runs on Friday and Saturday, and a longer run on Sunday of 220.2 arpents on Sunday. Yep, I can run big number distances too!

Friday was a solo run in Ash Canyon in the afternoon, the cause of the route being named FRAAC 10k. Those of you who were too old to play with Transformers when they came out, might remember the standard FAC at local drinkeries. It was big in Colorado at least. It's a nice, slight alteration on the Winter Trail Race route, and I'm keeping it in mind for a future race. O_O 

The heat was hot and the ground was dry and the air was full of sound. Mostly wind. Anyone else ready for the afternoon zephyrs (read: gales) to cease and desist? Boy howdy, I am. Pretty uneventful run actually, peaceful, even.

Saturday I headed for Centennial for a 50Fr to honor those doing the 50K or 50M runs on the TRT. Since I am not in that league, I figured I'd do a similar number, if not similar units. Had three runners join me: regular Ann, intermittent Melissa and newbie (to me) Courtney. Ann hadn't been to Centennial before (dunno how, we run there all the time!) and I was spot on with my directions, such that arrows from the archery range were dropping around as she went the wrong way. My Bad, Ann. I said to bear right, but it never occurred to me to mention to stay on trail, and not go on the dirt road! We tried to yell to get her attention, but she was powering up the hill, not to be deterred, looking strong. She must have forgiven me, though, since she showed up again Sunday. :-)
Melissa, Courtney and I continued on, doing the Mound House loop. I offered to let either lead, but they were happy to follow chatting it up as I gasped for breath. Courtney broke off at about the 2.5 mile mark to head back to build trails with TAMBA (Tampa? LOL) at the lake, and Melissa and I continued on - she powerfully, me in my usual mode.
We finished the Devil Run at 6.66 miles, or 53 furlongs, before the heat was too much. And we didn't even see a single snake.

Sunday was a laid back run day, with an equal number of canines as humans. Ann brought Sierra and Madison and Risa brought Max. They all were appreciative of the route heading to Ash Creek! Risa and Max split off to make a 4 mile or so distance, and I think Ann and her monsters doubled back to make a 5-ish. I ended up with about 8 miles over a long time. Chatting philosophy with Mike and Jan on their bikes at the saddle between Timberline and Ash Canyons demanded a lot of time!

Good weekend. See you on the trails.