Appalachian Trail in Bushkill

I've been meaning to check out some of the close sections of the Appalachian Trail for my runs.  Since this is supposed to be short mileage week, I decided to head to a section in Bushkill Township.  I hiked this spur trail (Kateleen Trail) with my dad a couple years ago and figured that it might be worth running.  It was getting dark that day, so we didn't check out too much of the AT itself.  We just walked by a shelter.

I don't go up that way often, so I didn't quite know how to get to the trailhead.  I had to go off of a combination of memory and reviewing a map an hour earlier.  Plus, I took a different road to get there.  At first, I ended up on the wrong road, but I did find the Moore Township Appalachia Park.  I had been wondering about that place.  It has some trails, but they appear to be small.  I might check it out in the future anyway.  It was definitely remote.

Eventually, I found the small parking lot I was looking for.  It is off of Old Mine Road.  As I passed the lot, a cop was parked in there.  By the time I came back, he was gone.

I knew this would be a tough run because I'd be going almost straight up from the bottom of the mountain.  There are no switchbacks, like the Wind Gap section has.  I probably should've warmed up on the road first.  Maybe I'll do that in the future.

It was a decent weather day.  It was a little warmer than yesterday, but overall not too bad.  I knew I'd sweat a bit today though.  I had on a shirt, although I didn't wear orange.  I think this is a hunting area.  I'll have to be more cautious in the future.

Going right uphill was definitely difficult, although it wasn't as steep at the bottom.  The big issue was that this trail was full of loose rocks.  My feet couldn't get any grip and I had to work a lot harder. 

I knew even making it up the 3/4 mile to the top would be tough.  I figured that I would have to walk.  That happened at less than 1/2 mile into the run.  I walked for about a tenth of a mile and ran again for another tenth.  One section is really steep and has these high steps.  I'm not sure I could even run up them.

It seemed to flatten out a bit toward the top.  Still, this was a tough 3/4 mile.  Hopefully in the future I can run all the way up and just recovery when I get there.  My left calf was fairly sore on the climb.

At the top, I came to a wide powerline.  It is flat on the mountaintop, so I actually didn't have a view.  I ran across and began going on the Appalachian Trail.  This part immediately sucked.  As I feared, it was super rocky.  The rocks would not have been too bad, expect they all seemed to point straight up.  I had to be very careful or I could really hurt my foot.  This was a super slow go.  It is good technical practice, but I would really worry about tripping if I was very tired.

I didn't go very far before turning around.  I figured I'd run along the powerline and see if I could get any views.  That was a good choice.  I ran to the north first.  This area was wide open and not too rocky.  It had a gentle climb to it.  When I got to the top, I had a spectacular view of the mountains all around.  Unfortunately, I realized part way up the mountain that I forgot my GoPro.  Next time, I'll have to bring it with me.

I ran back and headed the other direction.  It was kind of hot in this exposed area.  This direction wasn't quite as easy to run.  There was some high grass along the trail and some rocks.  I ran on it for a bit, but it did seem like an area where rattlesnakes could potentially hangout.  I didn't want to chance it all alone on the mountain, so I turned around.  Maybe when it is colder, I'll run that direction and check out the view.

I was now around 2 miles into the run.  It was a slow 2 miles though.  I figured that I might as well head back down.  Going downhill was fun, although I had to be cautious with all the rocks.  The steps part was quite tricky.  I passed a couple guys that were hiking near the top.  They did look a little shady, but I didn't worry about it.

When I got to the bottom, I was around 3 miles into the run.  I still had some time to kill before I went to a cross country meet.  Therefore, I decided to run on Old Mine Road.  I did that for about half a mile and turned around.  I finished up near my car, with 4 miles in the books.

They were a challenging 4 miles, but it was fun.  I'll definitely run here again since it is close.  Maybe I'll do hill repeats here.  I'd like to run the whole hill in the future.

I biked in the evening again and finally bought a much needed bike light.  Tomorrow, I'm hoping to run again somewhere.  I'd like to bike some more too.  It might be my last workout day of the week, before I go camping.  It has been a productive week so far.

4 miles - 44:53 (11:13 pace)