A message from the Race Director

Socalultrarunning is so thrilled to take runners on a course beside the trails guided by Chumash Indians. These mountains and valleys are so rich in history you can feel it in the dirt. When you run beside the El Camino Real and Juan Bautista de Anza trails you can imagine what it was like to wander by foot for hundreds of miles, discovering new lands. We have chosen the Four Horsemen to be this race's logo and have created symbolic finishing medals each year to capture the history of the Conejo Valley. We hope you enjoy this special race ~ "Trail of the Ancients" as much as we do. See you on April 20!!!

http://articles.latimes.com/2004/sep/19/local/me-then19

http://www.nps.gov/nhl/find/eligible/saddlerock.htm

http://deathvalleyjim.com/2015/02/04/cave-four-horsemen/

For more history of "the Cave of the Four Horsemen" and the Chumash Indians, please click the links below:

Cave of the Four Horsemen

In the early afternoon of Thursday, the 22nd of February 1776 this spot filled with the sound of Spanish and the soft rumble of hoofbeats as the Anza expedition flowed down the hill towards " a valley with little water and plentiful live oaks" where they spent the night. They were following the path used by Don Gaspar de Portola six years before who was guided by the Chumash along their ancient trails. Chumash used pictograph designs like these to create elaborate rock paintings throughout their territory. The horsemen are rare and found at only one location in the Santa Monica Mountains.