Ice Lake to Falcon Trail and Back

May 16, 2010


Ice Lake Trailhead
Falcon Trail
23.08 miles
5 hours
13:01 min/mile


After yesterday's run, Holly and Dave told me how I could run from Ice Lake off the Santa Fe Trail and catch the Falcon Trail on USAFA. Just follow the dirt road through the horse gate and you'll be fine. You'll see the water treatment plant and that's where you'll catch the Falcon Trail. No, there aren't a lot of other trails, you'll be fine! In the immortal words of a George Strait song, "Famous last words of a fool ..."

Okay, to be honest, I only took the wrong trail once on the way out. However, I'm ahead of myself.



I wanted to spend some time this morning with my family so I waited to head out for my run until Rick and Jess went to church. I'm glad I did this because if I didn't, I wouldn't have seen some guy on a bike ride up to my car at Ice Lake. Who is this? I thought to myself when I finally realized it was Chris! Chris was out with a group on his mountain bike, saw me and stopped to say hi! I swear, no matter where he goes, he always meets someone he knows - today it was me.

After talking to Chris for a bit, I geared up and began my long run. I headed out of the parking lot and quickly found the gate Dave and Holly told me about and the road. Not too far up the road, I see a couple of branches off of it and decide if I stay to the left each time, I, at least, will know how to come back. This tactic works very well for me and I continue up the dirt road. The elevation gain is about 600' and is pretty steady for the first 4 miles. A lot of this is out in the open and the scenery is beautiful. I have a gorgeous view of Mt. Blodgett ahead of me and the pine trees smell great.



My tactic of taking the left each time pays off until I run right to the water treatment plant and have no where else to go. I look down to my right and there is another road that leads right to my favorite trail, the Falcon Trail. Holly and Dave gave me a great run I think to myself as I turn around.



I retrace my steps and make my way down the side of the hill and pop out onto the Falcon Trail and begin that loop. This trail is marked as a 13 mile loop; however, everytime I've run it, my garmin pegs around 12.5 to 12.8 miles. I quickly look at my garmin and see I've already run 6 miles. Higher math is still achievable so I add the 13 for the loop and the 6 back and am okay with the 25 miles scheduled for today - that was just about what Dave and Holly said it would be total.



I've brought enough water - I'm carrying both a hand held bottle and my camelback. It's a warm, sunny day and I'm glad I decided to hit the Falcon and continue on it in a clockwise manner. This means, I'll pass by the gas station with water fountain in about 8 more miles and be able to refill all then.

I wish I brought a little more food with me though. I have a small bag of almonds, some animal crackers and my gels. I wish I had a fruit leather and granola bar with me because I am beginning to feel hungry as I trudge up the Falcon trail below Eagle Peak. I pull out the almonds and eat almost all of them and that helps.



I've been taking my gel blasts every 30 minutes and an electrolyte capsule every hour. This helps tremendously and I'm glad my stomach is being nice to me. I firmly believe I felt sick during the ultra a couple of weeks ago because of the potato chips and the associated grease.

The trail is packed with mountain bikers today. I cannot believe how many are out and continually am moving off the trail for them. At one point, I slow down as a runner and mountain biker come toward me. As I slow, I spy a fox off to the left side of the trail. She isn't moving and I point to her as the runner and biker approach. The biker moves past us; however, the runner stops and looks with me. Much to our surprise, between the fox and us, in an old, rusted water pipe, four little fox kits poke their head out and look around. No wonder the fox held her ground. The runner's dog takes off after the fox when she spies him and takes off away from her den. Mother fox doing what she can to protect her babies.



I continue up my trail; however, I hear the runner call his dog back and look over my shoulder to see the dog bounding back toward his owner. Thank goodness he obeyed. What a treat for me! If I were not running today, out on the trail, I would not have seen the fox kits.

Past the cadet area and around the golf course, I pull out my animal crackers and eat a handful of those. More bikers and a few runners along this stretch. I am pretty proud of myself as I pass a runner alongside the golf course. He's not carrying water so it must be a short run. I want to casually mention that I've already run 14+ miles today as I pass; but I don't.

Almost at the gas station; about 16 miles into the run or so, it begins to sprinkle a bit. Not enough to worry about; however, I am happy to see the gas station, just in case it begins to pour and I need to call Rick to come and get me. I stop and refill my camelback and water bottle, splash cold water on my face and reapply sunscreen. I also pull on my arm warmers since the rain has brought the temperatures down a bit. The sprinkles subside and I'm good to go.

Refilled, I hit the trail again and run down the last 2 or so miles of the Falcon to catch the horse trails again to Ice Lake. Unfortunately for me, I've gotten a little cocky. I noticed that someone marked the trail with red ribbons and have kept my eye on those all afternoon. I take a trail off the Falcon about a tenth before the one I came in one, following the red ribbons. I am thinking to myself that this must be a really well-liked way to get 25 miles in since someone has taken the time to do this and once again, silently thank Dave and Holly for the suggestion.



Little did I know that the red ribbons were not markers for runners ... they were markers for horseback riders! I follow the red ribbons all the way to the horse stables! Now, I know I did not run through the horse stables on the way out. I quickly look around and see Mt. Blodgett behind me and to my right. On the way out, it was almost always in front of me. This means that the ridge to my right is where I need to be so I back track on the road and hope to find the correct road up. It is not heading that way, so I take a single track trail that is gradually leading me in the right direction. After a while, this trail turns toward Mt. Blodgett. Nope. I don't want to run that way, I need to get up on the ridge. So I begin my first bushwhacking series of the afternoon through the brush up the ridge, following a deer track when I can.

I finally crest the ridge and look around, find a trail and follow it in the general direction I need to go. Wait a minute, I don't remember that train car on the way back! I've gone too far to the south this time. I need to be somewhere in the middle between where I am and the horse stables so I bushwhack back to another road I see a horse on and hope it's the one I need.

Once on the trail, I am looking for my own footprints to see if this is the road I need. Nothing is looking familiar until I spy an old leg wrap I noticed on the way out. Whew! I made it and now look at my garmin. I've cut about 2 miles off of the return trip by bushwhacking and running to the stables; however, by the time I see my car and check the time, I'm happy with 23 miles I ran and will call it a day.



A Great run, and despite getting lost a couple of times, one I will do again!