Exploring the SD100 course

Yesterday my friend Greg picked me up in Pasadena at 5am and we drove down to take an exploratory run on the SD100 course.  Our plan was to start at Pioneer Mail trailhead, to run down into Noble Canyon, up the Noble Canyon Trail to Penney Pines, cross the Sunrise Hwy to return to Pioneer Mail on the PCT, making a 20 mile loop.  We then planned  to tack on some extra miles with an out and back north on the PCT from Pioneer Mail.

We'd caught some light rain driving down and arrived at Pioneer Mail trailhead shortly after 8am to find blustery, cold conditions with fog and low clouds threatening rain.  Donning warm clothes, I packed a shell and we got started  around 8:30am.

We headed west from the Sunrise Hwy down the Pine Mountain Trail to Pine Creek Road and on to Deer Creek.  Scotty's turn-by-turn directions were excellent;  still we missed the Noble Canyon trail turnoff, but we got ourselves sorted out using Tim's gpx track, which I'd loaded onto my iPhone with the USGS topos using GaiaGPS.  By the time we got to the Noble Canyon trailhead the clouds had burned off and the day was crisp, clear and blustery. We shed our cold weather clothes and cruised up the Noble Canyon trail.

The views were amazing:

View east towards Penney Pines from Noble Canyon

We reached Penney Pines and watered down at the spigot/artesian well there, then crossed the Sunrise Hwy and got onto the PCT.  A few hundred yards in,  the view of the Anza Borrega opened up  and I was astonished:

On the PCT

Fantastic running on the PCT....All told we covered 30 miles.  The course was stunning; the conditions were perfect.  A memorable day.  The trail itself is very  technical single track with many sections with loose stones -  its clear that the SD100 is a challenging course that demands one's full attention.