Yesterday was incredibly hot and humid and today was even worse. Only a complete dummy would decide to climb a mountain again. So, that's exactly what I did.
I waited until late in the afternoon and ran shirtless. I was very hot afterward, even with a short run. I was hoping for 5 or 6 miles, but the main goal was just to be able to climb. I headed to Wind Gap to run the AT. This will become a staple run for me eventually.
A few weeks back, I started there and ascended the trail northbound. That was tough and almost seemed straight up. It was very rocky too. This time, I decided to head southbound. I haven't run or hiked there in awhile, but I thought it was easier. I was only sort of correct.
It started with some road running. It was a short segment, but I had to cross the busy road and then run under the Route 33 Bridge. The start of the trail was quite steep steps. I walked those, but that didn't last long. The trail got better.
I just tried to take it easy and climb. This isn't a straight up climb. It is a series of switchbacks. It's not super rocky, but there are plenty of rocks and many of them are loose. It's a little challenging, but very runnable.
The switchbacks seemed to go on and on. The legs seemed kind of tired and my breathing got slightly labored. Still, I was determined to keep going. Finally, I did manage to get to the top.
I thought things would get easier at this point, but they sure didn't. I was on the ridge, but the trail went down a bit and then climbed again. There were some very huge rocks. This was way harder than the climb was.
The trail was slightly overgrown too. I was very surprised by that because I figured that a lot of thru hikers would've recently come through. It was hard to see the trail at times and it also seemed like the perfect place for a rattlesnake. At least I never saw one.
Going uphill, I tripped and fell. Falling on trails is very rare to me. At least this time it was on super technical trails. The first two times were easy runs and the last time was on a rocky section, but more so because I was pushing the pace.
At least this fall was uphill and I wasn't cut up for once. The trail wasn't getting any better and I was exhausted and dirty at this point. Therefore, I ended up walking for a bit. Finally, I got tired of the rocky and rough climbs. I turned around, not even a mile into the run. At least I had climbed pretty high up.
I had to be careful going down. It was slow descending through this rocky part. Then, I had a short uphill and finally, it was back on the switchbacks.
The switchbacks were a lot of fun going downhill. I cruised along on my tired legs. It wasn't long and I was back to the road. I was less than 2 miles into the run though.
I decided to do some more climbing. I headed to the other side of the gap. I figured that I would ascend there for as long as I could manage. Again, I had steep steps to start. I walked these briefly and was breathing heavily.
I then was able to recover and run again. I slowly made my way up the mountain. I managed about a quarter mile, before it became too much. I turned around and headed down. When I got to my car, it was 2.25 miles.
I figured that maybe I could try some road running and at least get 3 miles done. I ran downhill toward Wind Gap. I went to 2.62 miles, before coming back. The downhill wasn't bad.
I thought going uphill on roads might be easier, but it wasn't. In fact, it was super tough. It was overheating like crazy and it took a lot of work. I battled up the hill and finally made it to mile 3, near my car.
I was glad to climb again and also glad when this run was finally over. I wish I could've got more miles in, but I will be able to do that whenever it finally gets cooler. That can't come soon enough.
I wanted to run again at night. I was going to do a loop around Trexler. However, storms looked like they could move through and it rained some. I couldn't take a chance of running there at night, so I called it a day.
I definitely need a lot of miles tomorrow. It will still be hot, but maybe I'll handle it better. It won't be quite as bad tomorrow at least. I'd love to get 15 miles done. I want to travel, but to do that much, I might need to run somewhere easy. We shall see what I decide.
3 miles - 37:08 (12:23 pace)
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