Kate Bergeron // Mini Epic

Luckily the second day of the open window was ideal from a weather point of view. I met up in the Peet’s and REI parking lot in Saratoga with some colleagues and of course had a Wahoo! fail right in the parking lot, so had to start my route via Strava on my iPhone. It made for a fun day of checking and a little bit of “battery anxiety” as I got further along.

The ride through Campbell and Los Gatos was pretty uneventful. Other than the traffic on Quito Road and Route 9 (which was expected) and almost choosing the wrong way to get to Black Road, it was nice to roll out with the group and cruise through town.

All smiles as we head up the JNT and into my “back yard”. And it was nice to see some more water in the pond as we went around. There wasn’t too much traffic on the trail since we arrived relatively early in the day.

And I took a quick pic from the top of the trail out over the valley - beautiful morning!

Anand helped us with a quick water stop at the top of JNT and then we were off along the Saratoga ridge line toward the Gap.

Some lunch at Turtle Rock (yay for packing my sandwich), removed some of the extra “cold weather” clothes and enjoyed the break. Feeling pretty good at this point.

And a beautiful view along the ridge too.

I ran into this gate and dismounted and decided to run the trail instead. After about half a mile, I realized that someone must have closed the gate because the trail was hard pack and had no mud at all. Who knew?

Still happy passing through Skyline Ridge OSP.

And on to Black Mountain...

Where I was completely pooped at the top, but at this point knew it was almost all downhill, yay!

I missed the celebratory pic in the Peet’s parking lot, but can ensure you that I did finish and ran right inside to get a cold drink and a cinnamon bun to get some calories. My legs were pretty tired at that point! (And thankfully held off too much cramping)

But the route was awesome and the day was great too. Thank you for organizing and I will definitely give it a go again!