Exploring More of the AT @ 191

It seems like I most often don't work on Fridays.  That was the case today.  I thought of going to Bear Mountain in New York.  However, if I did go there, I would've been hitting Friday evening rush hour traffic on the way back.  I wasn't up for that.

I decided to stay local.  I also got some good climbing in over the last few days, so I didn't need to do that.  I headed to the AT at Route 191.  The trail starts there near the top of the mountain.

Dressing was a little tricky.  It was above freezing, but below 40 degrees and there wasn't much wind.  I probably could've run in shorts again, but I wore tights and a light weight long sleeve shirt.  That worked good and I took my headband and gloves on and off.

The real attire question was what shoes to wear.  The trail didn't look bad, as I was planning to start by going southbound.  However, I knew how snowy the trail was in nearby Wind Gap yesterday.  I asked two hikers who were coming back to the car.  They said it was good until Wolf Rocks.  I was hoping to bypass that section anyway.  I decided to go out with trail shoes.  It was snowy and a little slippery at times, but overall it worked good.

The beginning is a lot of easy running.  The only issue was some gradual uphill.  After pushing my legs yesterday, that was a little bit of a challenge.  However, I was fine with the climbs later on.  Once I warmed up, I was good.

Around 1.5 miles.  I came to the Wolf Rocks bypass.  It is blazed in a faint blue.  I took it because I didn't want to run over the giant rocks.  This trail worked out great.  It was a wide woods road for a bit.

After some time, the trail turned and became a singletrack.  I followed it.  The blazes were a little hard to see.  For the most part, there was more snow along the trail than in the woods.  This singletrack had some more rocks than the woods road, but it wasn't too bad.  Eventually, I came to the AT connection.

I was going to run on the AT for a bit, but I didn't get very far.  This section of the AT is supper rocky.  Combined with the snow and ice, I thought it would be a good idea to turn around early, near 2.5 miles.  I had been hoping to do 7 miles total.

I turned around and headed back on the blue trail.  I recalled earlier that although the trail turned at the woods road, the woods road didn't end.  At that intersection, I turned on to the unmarked woods road.  I like to explore and needed more distance anyway.

This was an outstanding decision.  Early on, I came to a spring that hikers fill from.  What made it awesome was that the trail went over it and it was frozen.  It was small frozen waterfalls.  That was neat and I took a bunch of photos.

I just love when a mountain stream cuts a valley through the side of a mountain.  That's so cool and one of my favorite natural features.  I just wish there was a trail running down along it.

I continued on the woods road.  It got narrower as I went along.  It wasn't too overgrown, so someone must use this part.  It was heading toward the Appalachian Trail, so I'd imagine that they connected.  However, I couldn't keep going.  After .7 miles in this direction, I turned around.

It was fun running back too.  My exploring was slowing me down.  That continued because I saw an area without much canopy and what looked like some potential views off of the mountain.  I ran/hiked down a bit, but never did find a clearing.  This area almost looked like people might've been there at one time.

I got back on the woods road and it then turned into the blue trail.  It wasn't too long and I was back to the AT.  There was a powerline clearing and I went to take some photos there.  I had to avoid some sticker bushes.

Most of the end of the run was downhill.  However, I needed a little more distance and wanted some elevation gain, so I ran uphill at the end.  I added about a tenth of a mile and was done with 7 miles.

I thought this would be an easy and ordinary run.  However, it was fun finding some different unmarked trails and exploring.  I wish there were actually more trails that connected to the AT.  Now at least I know I can run some different trails up there.  Maybe I can run farther on the unmarked trail next time.

I have no idea where or when I'm running tomorrow.  It is supposed to snow overnight.  I might have to break out the snowshoes for the first time this year.  I have been looking forward to a fun and challenging snowshoe run.  That would be great.


7 miles - 1:22:37 (11:48 pace) 652 feet of elevation gain