Instead of heading back up, we cross country’d it and ran in the dry canal and finally to the access road that climbs back over to the Crooked River. It was a nice adventure and we finally made it back to the mouth of Sherwood Canyon. I was late getting home (over an hour later than I told my family). But, it was a fun, social running day. Legs felt pretty good considering a 50k last weekend.
Side Note: I did find a horse trail near the opening of the canyon that Cole’s Trail empties out of on the west end that appears to climb and gain the high ridge above Cole’s, which is the ridge that separates Cole’s Trail from Sherwood Canyon to the south. I’m going to go explore it this week on a mid-week run and see if I can’t link up the that part of Cole’s with Sherwood Canyon via the climb over. That would add at least 1200-1400 feet of climbing to our normal hard loop. Giddyup.