Sat 3/10 - double, 2 hours total

White Tank trails. Up Ford Canyon to Mesquite Canyon, back on Waddell. At times sublime, at times ridiculous, but always scenic. Unsure as to what exactly the course layout is for tomorrow's race, eventually it became clear I was running part of it along the Mesquite Canyon trail. The ascent up Ford Canyon took me up one of the eponymous tanks, with the granite scoured of its weathering rind by annual flash floods.

 trail is in lower left corner

 trail = streambed

 standing atop abandoned dam

Finally the trail left the streambed and climbed through higher desert country, more grass less cactus:

 a dry wash runs through it

The Mesquite Canyon trail was quite impressive, long sweeping arcs hugging the edge of the drainage. The four shots show a length of the trail, from right to left:

This is most definitely not like the trails back home. The descent was smooth and gradual at first, got a little obnoxious further down as it became steeper with tight switchbacks. Final 15 minutes a slog along the bajada, where the trail curves back and forth pointlessly.

PM - 10 minutes,  plus drills and strides. The length may be pushing it as I jogged a few hundred meters down the road, did the drills, and jogged back to stretch. Quads not as destroyed as perhaps they should be after all the descending this morning.