Back to Susquehanna State Park

I was supposed to crew for Destrie at the Mason-Dixon 100K.  However, she had some issues and was on antibiotics.  She didn't want to chance it and run, so I ended up camping on my own near the start.

I was camping at Susquehanna State Park in Maryland.  There is nice singletrack there, but I just don't enjoy the rolling hills much.  Part of it was due to running two loops around the place and through mud in the HAT 50K.  Today, I was only planning on about 4 or 5 miles.

I went out without a shirt for the evening run.  Of course, it was still humid and muggy.  The trails were slightly overgrown in spots and that mud followed me around again.

I began by running from the campground.  The trail connects directly from the loop, near my campsite.  Since I've run here three times before, I knew where to go.  I followed the green blazed trail. 

I was happy to get to the weird tree that I know.  The singletrack was nice and actually somewhat fun.  I ran the entire first mile.  Then, I didn't feel like pushing it, so I hiked one steep hill.  I kind of enjoyed this trail system much more now that I was just cruising along.

I ran on to the Ridge Trail for a bit.  That wasn't as bad as I remembered either.  With the humidity, my breathing was labored a bit.  Still, I was surviving.  I didn't want to go out too far though.

Around mile 2.25, I saw a sign for the Farm Road Trail.  It looked like the trail cut across, so I figured I'd run it.  I was surprised to come to an abandoned farm early on.  I'd never run this part before.  It wasn't long though and I was back to a known section.

I followed this trail along.  It went through an open grass field that was quite neat, with the setting sun.  Then,

it was back in the woods.  I got back to the campground connector trail around mile 3.

That wasn't enough so I took another section of the green trail.  This was an easier part of the loop.  It was gradual downhill and a wide woods road.  I ran it to 3.45 miles and turned around and headed back. 

I slowly went up the gradual hill.  I then got back to the campground and ran around the loop and back to my campsite.  I accomplished exactly what I wanted to on this evening.

Destrie came by later in the evening.  We hung out for a bit and went to a movie.  At least that gave me something to do for the night.

4.15 miles - 47:36 (11:28 pace) 400 feet of elevation gain