I decided to head out to Mt. Tammany. With all the winter weather, I wasn't too hopeful of the trail conditions being good. They were even worse than I anticipated.There was snow last night followed by ice. However, it was nearly 40 degrees when I started. The snow was melting. It was slushy on roads and parking lots. I wore shorts, my new shell jacket and a short sleeve shirt under it. I also had on compression calf sleeves. The attire was pretty good.
When I got to the trailhead, I was disappointed to see that there were no footprints. I at least thought I'd sort of be able to see the trail, but it was slightly hard to follow. I'm glad I know this route quite well. I ran up the first short hill and some of the flat part.
I then got to the first steep section. I found out quickly how difficult this run would be. With the soft and wet snow, I couldn't get much grip on the steep parts. At times, I had to turn my feet sideways. There was little traction.
My back was hurting and my calves got tight early on. It was so much work to even hike up this stuff. There were some deer prints, but they were of no use. I was just happy to get done with the first steep part.
The problem was that it was hard to even run the slight uphill sections. It was too much work. I was reduced to nearly hiking the entire way up. That made it slow. At times, I would get slightly off the original trail and wind up sinking in deep.
I took photos at the first overlook. That was pretty, as always. I was thrilled when I got to the steep and rocky section. I was wondering if I could get up this part. It wasn't easy, but also not as bad as I thought.
At one point, I started to see some human tracks. They disappeared off the Red Dot Trail. I was happy to see them though, since I hoped that they had used the Blue Trail to get up there. People usually don't use that way, so that would be excellent news.I followed the tracks. I had to make sure they were the right way. I was still moving slowly and hiking. At least I was making progress and nearly over
1,000 feet of gain. This was so frustrating though. The only worse conditions were the day where it was a complete sheet of ice.
Eventually, I got to the top. This was the 9th time that I made it up there this year. I'm behind my goal of 100 summits for the year. I'll catch up when the snow melts. Now, it was on to the Blue Trail.
The Blue Trail had footprints, so I was happy about that. However, the ridge had super snowdrifts, so I had to hike in them and couldn't run. I couldn't wait to get to the descent.
I was hoping downhill running might be better. It wasn't much better. The only plus was that I was able to run the whole time. However, every few steps, a foot would sink in a couple inches. That was so frustrating and I kept cursing.
I was grateful that someone made tracks. I tried to watch for where they sunk in and that helped, but I still fell into deep spots from time to time. Snow kept getting in the top of my shoe, around my ankles. It was making my feet chilly. Even if I wanted to do another loop, my feet were getting too cold.
The section at the bottom by the waterfall was pretty. I do love the scenery along the AT, through the hollow there. It is super pretty in winter. The AT seemed more runnable for some reason.Before long, I was back at the parking lot and my car. I was glad I got out there, even though this was a frustrating run. It was so slow and took well over an hour. At least I did something.
Of course we are supposed to get dumped on with more snow tonight. It should be a few more inches, so today's work has been useless. I probably won't run tomorrow. At least warmer weather is on the way this weekend and into next week. I love winter running, but this new snow every week is tiring me out.
3.6 miles - 1:05:24 (18:09 pace) 1251 feet of elevation gain
9th Mt. Tammany summit of 2015
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