I was debating for awhile whether or not I wanted to make the 45 minute drive out there today. It's not far, but it isn't close either. On a weekday late afternoon, that can be tough. I didn't have anywhere else that I actually wanted to run at though, so off I went.
It was quite cool today, as we are headed for fall. I wore a singlet. It was soaked by the end anyway, as were my shorts. I took the shirt off late in the run and probably should've just went without it. It isn't completely cool out just yet.I really, really disliked the start. It was a wide gravel road. Not only that, but it was climbing gradually. I wanted to climb for sure, but I wanted to do it on the trail. I actually ran through the grass next to the road, in this part.
It was about half a mile until the gravel finally ended. I then headed right on to the AT. It looked like there were several trail options in this area, including an awful climb up on the gravel.
The AT was actually great. I was quite worried going into it. With the AT in Pennsylvania, you never know what to expect. Rocks are typically plentiful and sometimes to the point where it is almost not runnable. That's not to say there were no rocks, there were still a lot, but not many by AT standards.
Not only were the rocks not too bad, but the gradient of the trail was great too. It was going up and up and up, but gradually. I was breathing a little heavy, but overall not bad.
It seemed like it went on forever, as I continued to climb. At one point, I heard a strange sound on the trail and something black went from off the trail into the bushes. I don't think it was a rattlesnake or another snake, but I can't be 100% sure, since I never actually saw it.
Shortly after this encounter, I came to a more rocky section. Still, it was quite runnable. On this section, I passed two cute young ladies who were hiking down.
I continued on and it began to get more rocky. I knew I must be close to Pulpit Rock. However, it was still runnable. I had to go at it at a much slower rate though.
Finally, the trail became a real rock scramble, about 2 miles into the run. It was steep, super rocky and hard to even find the trail at times. I had to start hiking.
I hiked briefly and then began a slow run up the rocks, on a slightly less rocky section. I came around a tree and stopped dead in my tracks. There was a huge black snake right in the middle of the trail. It wasn't moving.
I wasn't too close, so I watched it. It then slowly moved across the trail and climbed some rocks. I noticed it didn't have a rattle, so it wasn't a rattlesnake. I think it was probably a rat snake.
I wasn't too bothered by the snake, but I didn't need to encounter any more of them. Plus, I was hiking too much now, with the trail so rocky. I wanted to run. Even though I was probably very close to Pulpit Rock, I turned around. I'll go back and check out the views when snake season is over in a month or two.
Climbing had been a bit of a struggle. Now, it was nice to cruise downhill and recover. I moved pretty well as I headed back. Near the bottom of the trail, I came up behind the young ladies. I yelled to them while I was far off, so I didn't scare them. However, they were still startled on this peaceful trail. At least I was there during the week, so it wasn't crowded.
I knew that it would only be over 4 miles if I headed back to my car. I was in no hurry to stop, so I decided to head out in the other direction on the AT. This was a nice and flat singletrack. The other side was much wider and clearly used more often. This was slightly overgrown. I thought it would ascend, but it didn't for the short distance that I was on it.
I didn't go out too far and then I turned around. I wanted more mileage and climbing, so I decided to go back the other way on the AT. Then, after a short distance, I took another singletrack to the AT shelter. That was nice and climbed a bit.
It wasn't long and I was back at the gravel road, but higher up. This part was super steep. Even though I didn't like the uphill on gravel, I began ascending. I went up for a bit and I think I was actually near the top. I was breathing heavy and my legs began to burn. It was just too much, so I went back down the hill.I saw a red trail off to the side as I was descending. I ran on that very briefly, but it was just too steep and rocky. I was getting hot and tired by this point.
I decided to head back on the AT. I continued to climb, but it was much slower now. I began stumbling over rocks. However, the trail wasn't too challenging, so I kept going. Finally, after a few hundred feet of elevation change, I headed back down the mountain. I was almost at 7 miles by this point.
It was fun going downhill. I stopped for a photo. I came out to the gravel road and there was another cute young lady. A guy had his dog playing in the water next to the trail. I cruised downhill.
I was now nearly at 8 miles and 1 hour and 30 minutes of running. I wanted to get over both of those. When I got to 1 hour and 27 minutes, I decided to turn around and climb the gravel road again. I did that for 3 minutes and then came back down the trail. It ended up working out great as I was slightly over 8.5 miles at that point. I finished up right before the end of the trail.
This was an excellent run. My quads were getting beat by the end. They were really feeling it. I was hoping to be over 1,000 feet of elevation gain and figuring around 1,200 feet. I was stunned to see that it was over 1,750 feet. The climbs were plentiful, but so gradual that it surprised me. I loved this area and there were a lot more trails. I'll definitely be back and have to explore more.
Tomorrow, Aaron set up a group run at Bear Creek. I'm hoping to make that and do 2 or 3 loops. The weather might suck at some point tomorrow, so I'll have to check on that first. Otherwise, I may need to go elsewhere.
8.55 miles - 1:33:23 (10:55 pace)
No comments:
Post a Comment