California running.

Staying a few days in a campsite outside Escondido, California--30 miles northeast of San Diego--I had thought a trail run would be fun.

Though we were in a rural area up a nearby drainage basin, the drought means there's been no actual drainage for years now. It was crispy dry, not just there but in the entire southern California area.

Flood control in Escondido, with bicycle path.

The larger obstacle to a trail run in the area is that there are no real trails, at least that I could locate.
The mountain terrain is abrupt--steep, rocky grades escalate immediately from flatlands. Nobody hikes the mountains. Nobody.

And where we were staying, the only thing remotely resembling common space is street and highway. I found one city park--a five-acre arboretum, surrounded by freeway and parkway. For a five-mile run, less than desirable.

So I took off through the neighborhoods surrounding the gym. I enjoy seeing how people live in their spaces. One observation: a good measure of a family's economic well-being is where there home is along the transition spectrum, from green lawns to xeriscape. In Escondido there are a lot of bare dirt yards.

Flood control in Boulder, with bicycle path.