A view down Tamalpais Valley from the very top of Tamalpais Avenue, which is an extremely narrow, winding, little road.
Throckmorton street in old downtown Mill Valley. Starting line of the Dipsea. A little bit less crowded than the morning of the race.
Old Mill Park, just a couple blocks outside of downtown Mill Valley.
First flight of the Dipsea stairs, currently being renovated and closed about halfway up. Brings back memories. A little different than when there are 1,500…
Temporary detour while the first flight is closed.
A look down from the top of the first flight, closed for renovation.
The second flight of stairs, not yet renovated.
The final flight of stairs, renovated in 2007. I got mildly lost a couple times trying to follow the "trail" out of town. It's a lot tougher to find when it's…
The 676th step, dedicted to Jack Kirk the Dipsea Demon who finished the race in 58 consecutive years, the last time being when he was 86 years old.
Plenty of water still in mid-August.
The "Steep Ravine" portion of the trail just outside of town was closed. I'm normally a law abiding citizen, but I'm sorry, if I see a sign like this it may as…
The closed portion of the trail was mildly overgrown and had some freshly fallen trees. Perfect conditions.
Pretty cool.
The Dipsea trailhead sign at the Muir Woods entrance.
Entering Muir Woods. Green, green, green. And it's late summer.
Muir Woods. If you saw the recent Planet of the Apes movie, you'll know that there are hundreds of hyper-intelligent chimpanzees living in this forest. And no…
A big deer posing for the camera. Definitely don't get to see this on race day.
The area known as the "rain forest". The fog is so thick for much of the year that it actually rains under the canopy from the heavy moisture in the trees. I…
Turn the volume up and you can hear the "rain" in the rainforest, which is really the trees heavily dripping from the persistent, dense fog.
This is why I run trails.