Yesterday was a nice day off. After 45 miles over the weekend, I was feeling recovered by today. I decided that I would do some climbing. I had no idea on the mileage, I just wanted to get vertical.
Last year, I had gone to the Katellen Trail. It is a trail from the bottom of the mountain to the Appalachian Trail. It goes near a camping area and is commonly used for hikers to get water from the springs.
I ran up it once last year and then back down. It's about 750 feet of climbing in 3/4 of a mile. That's definitely tough and what I needed to do. When I looked at AT maps before, I saw what looked like a trail down the other side of the mountain. I talked to Janine, who finished the ES100 and lives in Wind Gap, and she had suggested this route. Since it was already in my head, I figured that I'd give it a try.
It was humid and in the 80s when I arrived. It always takes me some time to find the small parking lot. Not surprisingly, I was soaked by the end of the run and I ran shirtless, as usual.
I didn't want to begin with climbing, so I did a short out and back on the road. That gave me a nice and easy mile warmup. There are a few houses there. I grabbed as much shade as I could get.
It was then on to the trail. It's pretty easy in the beginning with only a gradual slope. Since I discovered to take smaller strides to go up long climbs, that has helped a lot. I try to keep my breathing light.
What does make this trail challenging, isn't just the elevation, but the terrain. It's made up of tons of loose rocks that just slide under your feet. It is a lot like Trexler in that regard. When it isn't loose rock, it seems like solid, pointy rocks. It's a bit hard on your feet.
I managed to make it a little over a third of a mile up the climb. Then, there is a section where it gets very steep and they built steps into the trail. It was hard to climb up those and I got very winded, so I walked a bit.
The trail wasn't nearly as steep after that section. I thought it might stay steep, so that was why I began walking. Had I been more familiar with the trail, I probably would've run the whole thing.
Near the top, I saw a hiker. He asked if there was water and I said there was, but I wasn't sure how to get to it. I was now running and feeling pretty good. Before I knew it, I was at the top.
At the top, the AT passes through a powerline cut through. I might explore this more when the brush dies off. Now, it is too build up. It's also rocky and sunny. I would think it is a prime rattlesnake area.
I was back into the woods and very briefly came to a road. At first, I thought the road/trail I was looking for was farther down, but I figured this must be it. I turned back and began the descend down it.
This is a wide doubletrack trail. It also has a lot of loose rocks and sharp rocks. It is better than the actual AT though, by far. It was nice to be going downhill.
The uphill mile had been run at 13:20. Now, I was cruising downhill. One thing that sucked is there were a lot of spider webs, even for a wide trail. I'd guess that there probably aren't more than 5 people that actually use the thing in a week, if not a month.
There was a gate that I went around. Later on, I saw that a path went around it. Instead, I ducked under it. Mile 3, the first downhill, was 9:54.
This trail was a couple long switchbacks. It was so much more gradual than the Katellen Trail. I guess that's so trucks can get up to the powerline. Still, it seemed to go down and down and down. It was lasting forever.
I did notice that some sections were flat, before dropping again. I figured this would be great on the way back. However, I was wondering how I would be able to climb for this long on the way back.
At one point, I could sort of see through the trees. I could tell I was still very high. I was wondering how I was still so high, since I had dropped down so much already, it seemed.
It was basically two miles down to the bottom. I finally, I came out to a clearing. There were fields around. I wasn't sure where to go. I went one direction, but it was uphill. I didn't want to climb, until I began heading back. I went the other way. It was a dead end into a farmer's field. I didn't want to mess around in the hot sun. It was pounding on me and I wasn't enjoying it.
Therefore, I just decided to head back. The second downhill mile was a 10:18. Now, it was time for the long uphill climb. It wasn't so bad when I started off.
At one point, it got quite steep and I thought I'd have to walk. Then, I could see the end of the steep part. I was breathing heavy, but I battled up it. I was going slowly, but climbing. Even after the steep part, it still climbed. It was a more gradual ascent, so I recovered a bit.
I was so grateful for the switchbacks and flat parts among this climb. I just continued along. I was thrilled to climb a mile. That was a solid 11:27.
I just kept going and figured that I would walk whenever I had to. At least now, I wouldn't be doing mostly walking, which is what I had expected when I was at the bottom.
The rest of this uphill seemed to be perfect. I took it easy and never struggled much. My breathing got slightly labored every now and then, but that was about it. This uphill mile was a 10:30.
Somehow, I missed the turn off for the AT. I ended up coming back to the powerline cut through. I then headed over to where I thought the AT was to head back down the Katellen Trail. However, I somehow took the wrong route.
The powerline cut through isn't completely overgrown, but there is a lot of tall grass. I ended up with all kinds of grass seeds on me at the end. I was more worried about bumping into a rattlesnake though. I was surprised that I never found one.
There is no view where the AT cuts through, so once I started to see a view, I knew I went the wrong way on the cut through. I headed back down the other way and eventually linked up with the trail.
The final mile was downhill on the Katellen Trail. However, this trail is so steep and has so much loose stone that I couldn't just let it rip. I had to run cautious down it, especially since I was tired. Maybe in the future, I'll get used to it and know how to go faster. The last mile was a 10:56.
I figured that there was no point in a cool down road mile. I had been going easy by coming down the mountain. This was a solid run and gave me some good vertical. However, I thought it would be harder than it was. The gradual section on the other side of the mountain was definitely easy. I guess it is because I'm so fit right now. Maybe in the future, I need to run this harder. Today was a first trial though. I'll also likely just do Katellen Trail repeats.
Tomorrow, I'm not sure what I'm doing. Maybe I'll get back to a little road running. I am loving trails so much right now, but I have to mix it up some. It's going to be hot again, so a lack of elevation could be a great thing. The Pagoda Pacers are having a group run tomorrow too. Perhaps I can make it to that.
7 miles - 1:15:54 (10:51 pace)
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