Matt Davis trail

Today was finally a break in the rain and therefore a beautiful day for the Sunday 'long' run. I have a few places in Marin that serve as a good starting point for the long run (though they should all end at In N-Out). Today was time to head back to the Mountain Home Inn, just below the east peak of Mt Tam. The Matt Davis trail starts out here and heads towards Stinson Beach. I was shooting to run for about 2 hrs 45 minutes and so I had to get creative with the route. Check out my 'napkin-map' above that was used by my wife and friend to ensure we would all end up at the same place. Below is a summary of some of the trails encountered, the good, the bad and the revolting.



Start out on Matt Davis towards Bootjack camp:

• rocky and root covered beneath the trees
• water stop at Bootjack as well as bathrooms, woohoo
• not any severe climbs, just some ups and downs

Continue past Bootjack and past Pantoll:

• Matt Davis is more of the same, nice rolling hills
• mostly tree covered single track

A 'y' in the trail forces you to choose between Matt Davis down to Stinson or the Coastal trail:

• Coastal is the way to go, unless you want to hit up Stinson for a beer
• out of the trees now with beautiful views of Stinson Beach below
• a few climbs, but nothing too dramatic
• careful these trails are quite narrow and getting caught up in the view could send you tumbling (Moira)

Continue past Willow Camp for only 1-1/2 miles for a good turn around point at McKenna Gulch.

Turn at the Willow Camp intersection and head up a steep hill towards the road above. This is a must-walk for my calves. I never claimed to be Kilian Jornet (no link, just look him up foo').

After a short downhill on Laurel Dell I connect to Cataract trail:

• this is a beautiful single track that follows a spring
• can be crowded as evidenced today, sorry but I hate the stick walkers
• very technical with steps, rocks and logs

Reach the parking lot for the Mountain Theater and head towards the Old Mine trail:

• some steep downhill switchbacks
• amazing vistas of San Francisco on a clear day

Now arriving back at Pantoll there are a few options to get back to the Mountain Home Inn. Could just follow the Matt Davis back or cross the Panoramic Highway with numerous options. I went with the numerous options and really tested myself. Somehow I ended up on the Lost Trail which starts out at a stream down in the Muir Woods valley. This trail is brutal. It was a Dipseaesque stair climb for about 3/4 mile. After having run for about 2-1/2 hours my legs were not happy with this selection. The Lost Trail should really remain lost, for everyone's benefit.

I finally ended up back at the Mountain Home Inn. My wife and friend Moira were waiting back at the car for me. They did much of the same route and ran about 12 miles. My wife ran about the furthest she has ever run and climbed about 3000 feet in the process. Pretty amazing considering she had not run for more than an hour until the past year. Of course next time maybe I'll tell her she's gonna be running 12 miles beforehand.

I'll try to give a better review of the trails from Pantoll down into Muir Woods but right now the memory is too painful. Got my compression socks on and not looking forward to getting outta bed tomorrow. Wait, am I a grandma now?

Here's a map of my run: Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Matt Davis