Leaf Covered Gorge Run

Today was a nice fall day.  I wanted to run some trails.  I decided to head to the Gorge over in New Jersey.  It's not too far and the scenery is great.

I wore shorts and short sleeve shirt.  That attire was good.  It was slightly chilly, but overall not bad.  I'd take this weather all the time.

Last time here, it was pouring rain.  Today was much nicer.  I went on the "up" trail first this time.  Last time, I came back that way after starting "down."  I was thinking that this first part would be near the top, but actually I was quite wrong.  I had to climb pretty early.

This early part was characteristic of what the run would be.  All the leaves are down now.  It made running up the steep parts almost pointless.  Instead, I hiked.  That was frustratingly slow.

Once up a lot of the way, I ran a little.  The trail was tricky, as there were some rocks.  Not being able to quite see them, caused me to run less or at least slower.  I kept moving forward though.

I got to the actual gorge itself.  Last time, I ran on the trails at both the top and the bottom.  This time, I ran down the blue blazed trail to the bottom.  This was a pipeline.  It was smooth and easy to run down, although leaf covered.  I was hoping the trail would go along the flowing water.  Instead, it was above it a bit.

Apparently, there is a trail on the other side that goes at least partway up.  I'll look for it more next time.  At the bottom, I went out more.  This was mostly runnable, to the white blazed trail.

I do like the white trail, as it is a switchback up the mountain.  Still, it is quite steep.  In good conditions, it is probably a runnable ascent.  With all the leaves today, I didn't even try.  I just hiked and hiked.  At spots, I ran briefly.

At the top, I started to go out the other way.  However, I realized that this would be a waste.  It was too leaf covered along the narrow ridge and hard to run.  I turned and headed back.

I was just over 2 miles now and realized this would be a short run.  There was no point in trying to run too much of this somewhat dangerous ridge.  Instead, I ended up hiking a lot of the way back.  I stopped briefly at the gorge.

There are some cool rocks along the trail.  Some of the downhills were steep.  With the leaves, I elected to carefully hike down those.  It wasn't long until I was at my car.

It was less mileage than I wanted.  At least I got out there and ran some.  I could've done more today, but what I did is better than nothing.  If only I could be motivated to run every day.

Tomorrow, maybe I'll run again.  Who really knows.  I'm just taking this day by day now.  I should run some with people in the near future.

3.57 miles - 57:41 (16:10 pace) 710 feet of elevation gain