Race’s Trails Paved by History--and Danger

Runners competing in one of the Winter Trail Run Series races in these Cleveland National Forest mountains aren’t exactly trailblazers. They’re just following orange tape and flour . . . and in the footsteps of the Native Americans who beat out these passages hundreds of years ago.

“There’s plenty of trails,” race director Baz Hawley said. “The Indians created them and we sort of recreate the history of the area every time we run them.”

And competitors sometimes run into the same dangers their predecessors faced.

“At mile 48 of the 50-miler, I ran right past this beautiful mountain lion,” said Nancy Nunn of Studio City. “All of a sudden, I wasn’t tired anymore. I think my pace for those last two miles was pretty good.”

Bears, bobcats and mountain lions are seldom a real danger, however. Rattlesnakes are. A snake bite miles from the nearest vehicle can be a real problem. But the mystique of the mountain trail seems to overpower the fear of what might happen as it does the pain of what surely will happen when a person runs so many miles.

“You’re exploring areas you’d never be exposed to otherwise,” said Scott McKenzie, 42, a college professor from Orange. “A lot of us who train out there, it’s an enduring and fairly ambitious group that runs the longer races, we all have this interest in seeing how far we can push ourselves.

“We’ve seen the mountain lions and the rainy days and lived through it. At least there aren’t any cars trying to run over you.”