The female Dawn Jogger made her way up to the Dish this morning from Piers Lane while the cows slept in. Or she was, as they say, up before the cows. Members of both the upper and lower herd remained in repose, waiting for sun up to start their morning nibble. Alas, evidence is lacking as it was too dark for her trusty Lumix to get a shot. Settled for a red dawn, although there really are cattle in the shot as well…
The Dawn Jogger was a pinch hitter of sorts this morning joining friend Jeannie, who usually walks the Dish on Tuesday mornings with another friend who is out of town. Entering from the Stanford Ave. gate, they set off right at 6:30 in did the route in just a little over an hour. Good, brisk walk on a morning that was less chilly…
Balmy afternoon temperatures don’t mean it’s warm at dawn. The clear skies mean cool temps, down right chilly on the flatlands but warmer Dish top. The female Dawn Jogger continues to enjoy the low winter light, making for pretty silhouettes of the leafless trees set off by a dash of pink. And she can’t resist getting acquainted with the new herd that’s grazing on the lower Dish land near Piers Lane. How now brown cow…
The Dawn Jogger doesn’t need to go far to be in the Old West. After doing an early morning photo shoot for InMenlo at the San Mateo County Sheriffs Mounted Patrol barns, she took off for a four-plus mile jog around Woodside. It was a gorgeous clear morning and the paths were filled with other joggers and walkers and the streets bustling with cyclists. On the route for the landmark Woodside Store – vintage 1854 – right out of a western movie set. She needs to do more Woodside trail running…
Once the heavy fog of earlier in the week abated, the Dawn Jogger has had a big full moon with her on her morning outings. Today it was still relatively high in the sky as she made her way across the two fairways on her way to an up and over Dish run. Near the top, it still hovered well above the western horizon.
Just after heading past the Dish itself, now headed down towards Piers Lane, she came upon what she thought of us two figures, a man seated in the ground – an unusual site for the Dish area – who was being watched over by one of the herd. What were they thinking…
The Dawn Jogger was sitting in Ann’s coffee shop in downtown Menlo Park this morning at 6:30 am. In fact, she and her InMenlo interviewee opened the place. That meant she needed to get creative in order to get in the equivalent of her usual three-plus Lake Lagunita sunrise run. She came home and mapped a walking route that took her up Valparaiso to the top of Sharon Park, that then wound up and down Trinity Dr. before heading back down and home. Visibility was great – Mt. Diablo was clear in the distance – and the temperature continued balmy. The San Francisco Bay Area is a pretty good place to be stuck in the middle of winter…
As the Dawn Jogger was heading down Piers Lane and up the first Dish hill, the big full moon was setting in the west (yes, west) behind here. It was as spectacular pre-dawn sight but one that her trusty Lumix wasn’t capable of capturing. That is how her long Wednesday Dish run went. Pretty vistas everywhere but captured more accurately by the eye than the camera. She continues to admire the leafless oaks set against the morning light. This tree was topped by a loud crow…
Only last night the Dawn Jogger was out with a group of friends who expressed concern that she jogs alone at dawn, alone being the operative word. She tried to explain that she’s rarely alone; there are fellow morning exercisers as well as the golf course maintenance crew and others who tend the Stanford campus. Plus, while she sees her fair share of dawn creatures – raccoons, coyotes, desert hares, hawks, owls – the new concern about mountain lions, she feels is overrated. Or so she said.
As usual this morning she rose before sun up and headed out across the first and second fairway of the golf course on her way to do a Lake Lagunita loop. The light was still dim when she spotted the large sign warning that mountain lion tracks had been found in the area where she was – a field adjacent to the Stanford driving range that runs parallel to Junipero Serra, which happens to be quite close to student housing. As she needed to pass through a bit of foliage before getting to the lake bed, she kept her eyes and ears peeled. After circling the lake, she went back by the sign in the hopes of spotting the tracks in better light. No luck.
That a mountain lion had made it’s way across Junipero Serra really wasn’t that surprising given the nearby open space. But do the students know that there’s a new kind of cat on campus…
The Dawn Jogger has run the Dish on many a foggy morning but she doesn’t remember it so dense that she could only see a faint outline of the big antenna itself when she was only yards away. But so it was this morning. Other news: Has the herd been moved down towards Piers Lane or is it another herd? She couldn’t be sure…
It was foggy and damp when the Dawn Jogger set out for a run on the suburban streets of Menlo Park today, a route she hadn’t taken since being East. She figured there would be some new sights – another home leveled for new construction or some such thing – but instead saw old sights, still up Christmas decorations. (Isn’t it mid-January). The best spotting was an extremely good looking cat who poised serenely in some foliage. Probably would have given an autograph if asked…
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Dawn Jogger 2011 