POTLUCK AT THE BEACH POST RUN
Please bring a snack or drink to share. Bring a towel or a beach chair. It’s going to be a perfect hot autumn morning.

Figure eight loop with optional out & back: 11.5 miles with +3,200 ft elevation gain

Leo Carillo State Park is part of the Santa Monica Mountains, it’s a hidden heaven for big adventures and explosive wildflowers during the spring.
This club run is a relative short run all on single track (8miles with a total elevation gain of 2,200ft. and amazing ocean views) with the option to add more miles in an out & back into Nicolas Canyon. (Very pretty!!!)
The start of this run is at a short distance beyond the official State Park entrance on the right side.
The first couple miles are steep climbing up the “Nicolas Flat Trail”. In the short distance of 2,5miles we will have climbed 1,700ft., don’t be afraid to hike the steep sections! But after that we’ll enter the beautiful “Nicolas Flat Meadows”. We will loop around this very special place with it’s Nicolas Pond and newly rebuild bridge. A short distance after the bridge you’ll have the option to go right for an out & back trail, I totally recommend you taking it as it’s giving you amazing views. After we come back from that, we make our way towards the parking lot at the end of Decker School rd, there we go left and work our way around via the “Ridgeline Trail” that brings us back on the “Nicolas Flat Trail”. For the final 1 mile descend we take the fun “Willow Creek Trail”.
The course will be marked as the 8 mile loop but will add an optional arrow for the out & back into the beautiful Nicolas Canyon with amazing meadows and ocean vistas where you can run out for two miles max so that will give you an extra 3-4 miles if desired.

NO WATER so bring plenty and some calories if you plan to run more miles. You’ll get a great workout here on beautiful trails without the crowds!

Parking without fee along the PCH across the official Leo Carillo State Park entrance, obey parking signals. Along the PCH are stairs that bring us right down on the beach. Bring a towel, a sandwich and some drinks. Soak the sore legs in the cold ocean for a little bit and then go warm up in the sand, have a relaxing pic-nic on the beach while socializing with the group. Leo Carillo is one of the coolest beaches we have, with low tide it’s a great tide-pool spot also!