I got out kind of later than anticipated yesterday
afternoon, so I didn’t run. With no
track activity today, of course I had to run.
Rather than go to Eagle Creek Park again, I decided to explore. Indiana University is about an hour south of Indianapolis. I decided to check out their campus and run
some trails around there.
I didn’t have this too planned out. I looked briefly at the nearby Morgan-Monroe
State Forest. I didn’t have a map with
me though. I really wanted to go to the
Hoosier National Forest, south of Bloomington, but I had no clue where to go
there. I’d never even looked at a
map. Rather than waste time searching
for that, I went to the Morgan-Monroe State Forest. That turned out to be an excellent decision.
The Morgan-Monroe State Forest was on the way back to
Indianapolis too. I also saw the sign
for it coming in. I drove there and it
was several miles in until the trailheads and the offices. I saw a great parking area with a sign for a
10 mile loop. That seemed like a good
idea; however, I figured I should pick up a State Forest map at the office
first. I did that and then helpful lady
showed me the trail I drove past earlier and another trail that was about 10
miles and another loop. I opted for the
first loop that I saw.
This was called the Low Gap Trail. The parking area was crowded, but I managed
to grab a parking spot of someone who was leaving. I figured that with a few cars, there would
be people hiking in case I happened to get lost. Luckily, the trail was very well marked and
that didn’t happen.
I needed Tailwind since this was a long run and it is nearly
summertime. Normal folks would’ve called
this a nice day for a run. For me and my
body, it was still too hot. I probably
would’ve been going carrying a handheld, but wearing a vest was hot. It was needed though. I was soaked and nearly chafing by the end of
the run. It wasn’t as bad the middle of
summer, but it made me struggle a bit.
I started off the loop following the signs. I ran it in a counterclockwise
direction. It started off with some fun
singletrack and I was impressed. I
thought it would be a fun run. Then, I
wasn’t sure as shortly after that, I hit a stone covered woods road. About the only parts of the trail with any
rocks were man made ones on the woods roads.
Thankfully, this section didn’t last. I was back on singletrack a short while
later. This was beautiful flowing
singletrack through the forest throughout most of the run. The early part of it dropped a lot down to a
relatively dry riverbed. It was nice to
not have to run through here in the wet season, as the trail sometimes appeared
to be the creek. The scenery was very
pretty.
I ran along the bottom for a little while, and then there
was a climb. It wasn’t bad though. All the climbs here were made much easier by
a lot of switchbacks. Basically, the
entire route was runnable, but I did hike a couple times, to be safe. There was also an interesting rock overhang
in this section.
I cruised along, making good times. I did take quite a few photos, so that slowed
me. There was a pond that the trail
wrapped around at one point. Then, the
trail had an intersection with a shorter loop.
The long way headed into the “backcountry.” It really wasn’t much “backcountry” and this section
was even fairly crowded. I came across
quite a few hikers, including some people with overnight packs. Later on, I saw some people camping too.
This singletrack was fun and fast. There was way more elevation change than I
expected, so I was very impressed. It
reminded me kind of like a mini version of my WV race. It was flat running on the ridge or creek at
the bottom for a lot of time and then there were several decent ascents and
descents too.
About halfway through, there was a road crossing and a big
parking area. This was packed. They called this the “Backcountry” parking
area. When yappy little princess dogs
can hike it, it isn’t really very “backcountry.”
It was flat and smooth along the creek, but quickly climbed
as I headed toward mile 6. I was feeling
the heat a bit now. The climb forced me
to hike in spots to be safe. Had I known
what I was up ahead on this route, I would’ve probably pushed through each
climb.
I wasn’t crazy about the fast downhill parts. I knew I started at the top, so even if I
flew downhill, I’d be coming back to the top eventually. That happened as I ran down to the
creek. There were a bunch of boy scouts
in the one small creek. There was nice
and flat running for a bit.
Then, around mile 6.5, I started a gradual ascent. I had to hike this and be careful. I was doing well though, with the Tailwind
preventing me from crashing. I was just
a little hot. Any chance of running
under a 10 minute per mile pace was dashed when I had to hike the hill here.
The trail eventually came out to another woods road. With a lot of up and down, I kind of needed
that. It would be fast, even if it
wasn’t fun. I crossed the paved road
again, as I was heading back. After that
was the worst section of the run. It was
medium sized stones that were very annoying to run on. I ran on the side of the trail in the small
section of dirt wherever I could.
The road split after some time. I took the wrong way and came to private
property. Luckily, I could bushwhack a
short distance to the correct trail. I
came to a parking area at one point and realized it was the other parking area
I saw before. I still had just over a
mile to go.
Now, I was having more fun as I was back on to rolling
singletrack at the top of the ridge.
Even though I enjoyed it, I was happy to be nearly done. It was frustrating when I saw another parking
area that wasn’t where I started. The
map said it was 10 miles, but the sign at the start did say 10.2 miles. That was more accurate.
I passed some hikers with dogs, just before finishing. I had over 10 miles and a solid and
productive day. There weren’t any
standout features on this run, but it was definitely some fun and beautiful
singletrack. There was way more
elevation gain than I anticipated. Who
knew that Indiana had hills?
I’ll likely
be back here next year to run. It was a
good workout, in addition to being fun.
I was a bit wiped out at the end.Tomorrow is the race, so I definitely won’t be running
then. We’ll be traveling Monday and I’ll
be exhausted. However, I’m hoping to run
somewhere in the evening. We’ll be home,
so it will be local. I look forward to
it, although I have had fun out here.
10.24 miles - 1:45:23 (10:17 pace) 940 feet of elevation gain
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