Santa Rosa Plateau trail running and WTF!

Drove out to Santa Rosa Plateau this morning and ran a nice 11.5 mile course. Started at the Visitors Center ($2 honor system day use fee) and headed down Vista Grande trail to Waterline road and up to Monument Rd and saw quite a few coyote along the way. From here I headed down Punta Mesa trail, past the Adobes and headed left up Vernal Pool trail towards the Vernal Pools.

About half way to the pools, I came around a corner and see 2 people just off the trail - a guy (fully clothed with his back to me) with his arms wrapped down and around a woman (clothed) who was on her knees and was facing away from him. I just thought WTF did I just stumble upon! The first thing I saw was him pulling up with his arms and back and it looked like he was choking her! I ran up and asked what's going on and he said she was choking on some food. A closer look around, I realized they were on a blanket and there was a half eaten sandwich on the ground. Strangely, he was trying to do the Heimlich on here but at the same time he was asking her if she was OK (and she was able to respond) - really, you shouldn't be doing the Heimlich on someone who can respond to questions. The guy seemed almost annoyed that I was there when I offered to help so I just headed down the trail.
I ran past the Vernal Pools and down Los Santos trail, past the Overlook area and down to the Hidden Valley trailhead, going back up Coyote trail. At the junction with Trans-Preserve trail, I took Oak Tree trail to Tenaja Truck trail and then back to the Visitors Center on Waterline Rd.

Comments

[Mike from Murrieta]

Stumbled across your blog when googling "santa rosa plateau running." Thanks for the map. I've been wanting to run the plateau for sometime now and just wasnt to comfortable making the run without any reference as the where the hell I should go. So thanks, maybe I'll give it a shot this Sunday.