Deerpath Sanctuary and Turkey Hill Preserve

I needed an easier run today.  I felt like trying something new too though.  I decided to head over to Jersey and run another section of the Highlands Trail.  I knew I could at least get miles, since the Highlands trail is very long.

I headed out in the afternoon, as storms were coming in the evening.  It was still humid as hell, but it felt better than the last two days.  However, I was still soaked from head to toe by the end.  I can't even imagine how much worse it would be if I wore a shirt.

I went to the Deerpath Sanctuary and Turkey Hill Preserve.  I actually wanted to start at Jugtown Mountain Preserve, but wasn't quite sure where to jump on the trail.  Even where I was at, I had to park on a stone pull off next to the road.  The trail was a short distance to the right.

It started with some nice singletrack and a good climb.  It was runnable though.  I did run for quite some time, even though I was breathing heavily.  I didn't have much of a chance to warmup.

This trail was decent, but nothing special.  It was mostly a grassy trail through the woods.  I'm not sure it is used too often.  At least they kept the grass reasonably cut.  That was my biggest worry coming into the run.

I was glad when the trail finally started to descend.  It came out to a cool springhouse.  I was then on Turkey Hill Road.  I was disappointed that I had only gone about 3/4 of a mile on trail.

One of the issues with the Highlands Trail is that it goes on a lot of road.  The good thing with this road is at least it was going uphill.  It was a long and gradual climb.  My legs felt much better ascending than they did yesterday, so I kept going.

I was probably on this road over a mile before it flattened out.  I ran on it until about mile 2.  Then, I saw another road that appeared to have a view.  This went downhill a little.  I followed it to a "No Outlet" sign. 

I turned around at 2.2 miles and headed on back.  I already had quite a bit of climbing in the bag.  I was now descending down the road.  Near the bottom, I felt the urge to go to the bathroom.  I decided to walk downhill for a bit.

I then got back on the trail and ran some more.  At the powerline junction, I took a right to climb.  This was okay, but not the steep climb I was looking for.  It was gradual.  I turned around within half a mile.

I headed back downhill on the powerline.  I continued on it all the way to the bottom.  I had some more bathroom issues, so I hiked a little more.  Luckily, I had no real problems with that.  It was starting get hot on this exposed section.

I turned around and went back up when I was near Route 78.  I went back on the original Springhouse Trail.  I was nearly to mile 6 when I got close to my car.  I was curious where the other trail went, so I followed it.  A short time later, it came out to the powerline.  I headed back to the car and finished up with over 6 miles.

This run did allow my legs to recover.  I wasn't expecting a great run on this new section, so I won't complain.  It certainly wasn't worth the drive out there to run, especially with such little actual trail mileage.

Tomorrow, I'm not sure what I'll do.  Maybe I'll take it easy again.  Maybe I'll crank it up and do more repeats.  It depends how I feel.

6.09 miles - 1:06:57 (10:59 pace) 676 feet of elevation gain