More New Sections of South Mountain (Lehigh)

I slacked off again and didn't make it out yesterday.  I had to run somewhere today.  Since I had to work, I stayed more local.  I went to South Mountain (Lehigh) again.  I wanted to try to find some new sections there.  It worked out pretty well.

It was warm in the afternoon, but getting windy and cold at night.  I started at 5:15 PM and had about 45 minutes of daylight.  I brought the headlamp to run some through the darkness.  I wore a lightweight long sleeve shirt with the fleece vest.  I also had on tights.  As usual, I had on a headband and gloves.  Those went off and on.

I started from the top and headed downhill.  I wanted to go all the way to the bottom and come part way back up.  This was easier to follow in the daylight at the beginning.  I came back up and then crossed the road.

Normally after the road crossing, I follow the trail to the top.  I knew there were some other trails and I opted to take them.  I wanted to go down this side of the mountain.  I had never been there.  It was fun and fairly well used so far.

At one point, I sort of lost the trail and wanted to go down farther too.  I ended up sort of bushwhacking.  There wasn't a lot of brush though.  I found some spots with little snow under pine trees and a lot of poop.  I assumed that's where deer hangout.  I later followed 6 of them together.  I saw 2 others earlier too.

Eventually, I went back and found the trail.  I was able to find the way down to the road.  I then saw some markings on the trees.  I followed those for a bit.  This new section was a lot of fun.  It went in and out, up and down.

Then, there was a lot of climbing back up.  Just what I had hoped for.  It was going slowly though.  I chose to go straight up rather than keep following the flags.  One part was cool because it was like a tunnel of branches to run under.  I bet it is neat in the summer.  Then, I ran on a ridge through some pines.

This whole part was very slow.  I was mostly hiking up the hill.  Hopefully I can run it in the summer.  The mountain bikers have done a great job with these trails.  Near the top, I decided to switch the headlamp on.

At the top, I saw a water tower of some sort.  I went away from it at first, but it was going downhill.  I then headed toward it.  I was on the disc golf course.  I sort of knew where I was, but not exactly how to get to where I wanted.

I found a powerline by the water tower.  I know a few go through the area I was looking for.  I followed it down and it came out right on the trail that I normally take.  I then followed that for a bit.

I crossed the one road that I normally do, but no one had gone through there at that point.  I decided that I would just follow the more worn trail, so I crossed back over the road.

Running along this ridge was uneven and tough.  It was hard to get my footing, but it was kind of flat.  I could at least run most of it.  I followed this out and knew where I was.

The only issue was that it was dark and I was running this in the opposite direction as I usually do.  I went down one hill and made a right.  I then realized that I needed to make a left.  I did that and crossed back over the road.

I had one final climb to the top.  This was the area that I went down to start.  Before long, I was on the road and headed to my car.  This was a slower run than I had hoped, but I still ran for almost an hour and a half.  I climbed over 1,000 feet and found a great new part of trail.

When the snow melts, I'm going to put together a longer loop here.  I think I can do close to 10 miles and nearly 2,000 feet of elevation gain.  It should be a blast.

I'm going to run again tomorrow.  I'm not sure where at, but I'd like to get to the Delaware Water Gap.  It would be nice to double loop it in the snow.  Triple loops would be tough, unless I got there very early.  I'm hoping for a good day regardless.

5.31 miles - 1:22:58 (15:38 pace) 1137 feet of elevation gain

Exploring South Mountain (Lehigh) in the Dark

I took off yesterday, which was perfect, since it was icy.  I had to get back at it today.  I didn't actually get out during the day, so I headed there after dark.

I decided to run at South Mountain (Lehigh).  With snow on the ground, I thought I'd just do some climbing repeats.  However, it didn't quite work out as planned.  It was still a fun night trail run though.

It was in the 20s when I started.  It was windy at the top, but warm down below.  I wore tights, a fleece vest and lightweight long sleeve shirt.  I had gloves, but they were off early.  I kept my headband on.

I started off from the top of the mountain.  It was fun going downhill.  It wasn't as steep or as tough as I thought it would be.  I was careful, but able to run it.  There were a few footprints and a lot of deer prints.  It was tough to tell which were which at times.

Running over the mountain bike trails was tough.  They have a bunch of small bumps to go over.  They were all snow covered, so it was tough to tell how deep the snow was there.  I had to be careful, but I had no issues.

The trails are fun as they do curve all over the place.  I felt almost like I was switchbacking at times.  At one point, the trail seemed to disappear.  I bushwhacked a bit to get back on it.  Then, I somehow missed the turn to go back up.  The mountain bikers also put a fake skull and spine there, hanging from a tree.  It's probably funny in the daylight, but less so at night.

I continued on and actually came out at the very bottom.  That was cool because I've always seen the little parking lot there and I've used it to run up the road.  I never knew how to get there from the top on the trails though.

I tried to head back up.  Again, I had no luck finding the trail straight up.  I ended up in the same area yet again.  I was near a powerline cut that I knew at one point.  There was a big log and some animals prints.  I decided to climb the log.  What I didn't realize is that there were many giant logs and branches.  I was amazed that I made it over them without falling or hurting myself in some way.

I then ran up the powerline cut.  This was a fun little climb.  I knew the trail was somewhere near the top.  They are doing a lot of construction in the area.  I ran on a new powerline road for some time.  I was just wrapping around the mountain.  I was hoping to find the trail and climb up the other side.  Eventually, I just turned around.

I couldn't figure out how to continue up the powerline.  Finally, I followed some footprints up the steep grade.  It was too steep and snow covered to run, so I hiked.  Eventually, I came to a road part I knew.  The trail passed through there.

I ran back toward the mountain top.  There were a few tracks, but not much.  The snow is actually soft and has a lot of grip.  However, it is still hard to run uphill when it hasn't been well traveled on.

Eventually, I came to the last steep climbing part.  I was over 4 miles now and over 700 feet of elevation gain.  I ran some of the last uphill, but had to hike quite a bit too.  I got back to my car with over 4.5 miles and 800 feet of gain.

This run wasn't quite what I was hoping for, but it was fun.  It was still a fairly productive evening.  I at least had a decent workout and it was a nice night out.

Since the snow seems more runnable now than it was last week (better grip), I'm really looking forward to running the rest of the week.  I'll have to go to some well traveled areas or else do repeats.  I'd love to get to the Delaware Water Gap again.  I'll probably go to Lehigh Gap at some point too.

4.66 miles - 1:06:07 (14:12 pace) 844 feet of elevation gain

HAT Course Preview

I needed to change things up a bit today.  I headed down to Susquehanna State Park in Maryland.  Next month, I'll be run the HAT 50K there.  I wanted to get a feel for the course.  There is also no snow on the ground there, so it is a nice change.

It took me awhile to get out of bed this morning.  Eventually I got rolling and made the two hour drive.  It's not far, but not close either.  By the time I got there, Destrie had already got her run done for the day.  We didn't get to connect at all.

The weather was so much nicer than we've had.  It was slightly chilly, so I wore my lightweight orange top.  It was finally warm enough for shorts and no gloves were needed.  I brought Injinji socks, but I ended up with two of them for the same foot.  Luckily, I had compression socks with me.  I ran in those.  I also wore my new Altra Lone Peaks for the first time.

I had a trail map and was hoping I could follow things alright.  It starts off with a long and gradual climb.  This was probably the worst one in the whole run.  I was breathing heavy and it was early.  My legs were very tired from the last two days too.  They probably could use some rest.

At least with uphills, there are usually downhills to follow.  However, those seem so short.  I was going both up and down early on.  The course was a modified version of the actual race course.  I came across a couple runners.  Then, there were a few dogs coming down a hill.  I had to stop.  The puppy nibbled on me a bit.

This was some nice singletrack, although I'm sure it looks better without everything brown and dead.  It is smooth, with very few rocks.  It flows pretty well too.  I'll give it that.

I knew to basically go left most of the time, but I was glad to be carrying my map.  At one point, I crossed a creek and came out on a road.  I was confused.  I think I saw the trail, but it wasn't blazed.  I noticed that in continued on from a nearby road.  I just ran to that part.

It was more ascending after that.  There was an icy uphill.  There was ice here and there, but most of the trails were clear.  It was early and I was already kind of tired of the rolling hills.  I came out to a park road.  It had a sign for the trails.  The trails confused me and I was running around the perimeter of a field.

I then saw hikers, who I had passed earlier.  They were up ahead on a trail.  I decided to follow them, after some bushwhacking.  They had a dog, but luckily, they gave me a lot of room to pass in the wide open field.

This field part was kind of boring, but it is fast.  I saw two mountain bikers here.  Then, it was back into the woods.  I was now on the green blazed trail.  There are so many different colors and it is confusing.  A hiker was kind of unsure of the correction direction too.

I continued straight on.  I was going the right way.  I passed a few horses on this singletrack.  I saw some earlier, when I was lost in the open field too.  The green had more up and down.  Just as I was getting kind of depressed and beat up by the rolling hills, I saw this odd shaped tree with a plaque.  Destrie has taken photos of it.  That made me smile for a bit.  Then, it was on to more rolling trail.

The trail went up and up and up again.  I was being careful, so I hiked a good chunk of this stuff.  Deciding what to run and what to hike will be tricky.  Everything is runnable, but it will beat me up by the end if I run the whole thing.  Maybe I really need to work on slowing down even more up the hills and then hammer the flats and downhills.

The top was cool because you could see a creek through the trees.  I then went downhill.  I ran by a parking area.  At the bottom, I came to the red blazed trail.

The red blazed trail was called the Ridge Line Trail or something like that.  Of course it would be climbing again.  There was quite a bit of it early.  I was just happy to be around mile 6 at this point.  I was making some progress.

The frustrating thing about this trail was that it did go along the ridge, but it also went up and down, up and down.  It weaved its way around some seasonal streams too.  I was happy when I saw a road coming.  I thought it was near where I had parked.  It turned out that I wasn't.

There was a creek to cross.  This time, it was quite deep.  I had no desire to get my feet wet.  I figured that the water would be cold.  It looked like there were more rocks up the creek.  There were never quite enough of them though.  It always seemed one rock short.

Eventually, I just sucked it up and ran over a shallow part.  It was very cool and my feet were freezing for a bit.  Complicating matters was that there was no way back to the trail without bushwhacking.  Of course this area was full of thorns too.  It was hard to even get through.  I cut myself up a little, but eventually got to the road.

I had a little trouble finding the trail here, but it wasn't too bad.  It was only marked as the blue blazed Mason-Dixon Trail.  I saw that trail earlier and it confused me.  Now, I knew it went back to my car though.  I ran on the road for a bit, then it was another climb.  No surprise there.  I was approaching 2,000 feet of elevation gain.

Eventually, the trail was blazed both red and blue again.  This ridge part was more of the same.  Up and down singletrack.  I had nice seasonal views of the Susquehanna River.

One of the problems with my new shoes is that they are a little too big.  On the steeper downhills, my toes bash against the rock plates.  I'll either have to deal with it or tie them tighter.  The toebox is super wide, something I love!

It wasn't too long and I was to an open view of the Susquehanna River.  That was the only clear view I saw from the top.  There was a bench there too.  I had some downhill after that.  I was totally surprised when all of a sudden, I came out to my car.  I was expecting another 1.5 miles to 2 miles.  I had only run 9.4 miles and the loop said 11 miles on the description.  I wasn't complaining though.

This was a fun course on a day like today, where I was only doing less than 10 miles and about 2 hours of running.  All the rolling hills will bother me though, come race day.  I don't mind a rolling course, when I know what I'm in store for and know how to attack it.  If I don't know the course though, it frustrates me.  At least I've seen it once.  Maybe I'll get there again before the race.  I do prefer a course with long ascents and long descents.

It was at least a productive run and I know what to expect now.  Since the course is two loops, I'll be conservative early on.  I did enjoy the snow free run and it was a good workout.  The weather was reasonable too, although I was sweating a lot by the end.

9.42 miles - 2:05:19 (13:18 pace) 1824 feet

Another Challenging Hike/Run at Lehigh Gap

I went to Lehigh Gap today to hike and run.  I was hoping for 12,000 feet of elevation gain for the week.  To do that, I needed 3,300 feet today.  That meant lots of up and down in the snow.

I began around noon.  It was kind of warm, by winter's standards.  I decided to wear a jacket instead of the fleece vest.  I was too hot.  I was soaked early and sweating all throughout the run.  That made it tough, but I survived.

This time, I ran directly up to the Woodpecker Trail.  That was some early running, but it quickly changed to hiking.  When I was there last week, the path was pretty worn.  This part was just so so.

I got on to the Appalachian Trail in no time.  This is very steep and I ran some, but mostly hiked.  It was a slow go.  I had some Tailwind and I drank it.  The AT section was more of a path.

I continued on, up and up and up.  I got to shelter and there was a guy sitting there.  He was impressed that I was running.  This is one of the rare running stretches.  It is super steep before that and kind of steep after that.

It wasn't long as I was to the North Trail.  I headed up that too, mostly hiking.  Near the top, I had to make my own path.  I turned and came back down.  Then, I decided to run up the AT for a bit.  It was a short stretch though.

I decided to head back down.  I wanted to get around 2,000 feet of gain before heading back to my car.  I had a sandwich and chips there.  It was fun going down the trail.  I went past the Woodpecker Trail.  I then came to a powerline.  I ran down the AT there a bit and turned around.

I climbed back up.  This hike was super slow.  I was happy to get to the halfway point of elevation gain.  I ran down a bit again and continued on.  I was eager to keep adding elevation.

I went back past the shelter.  This time, the guy was sleeping in there.  That was odd in the afternoon.  I didn't want to bother him too much.  I continued on.

When I got to the North Trail, I decided to climb some more.  I was over 2,000 feet of gain when I started there.  I headed up the hill.  I had to hike a lot of it.  I took the part that I blazed earlier too.  I was near 2,500 feet, but not quite there.

I was thrilled to be around 1,000 feet of gain from finishing.  It was now nearly 2 hours into the hike/run.  I ran downhill, having fun, but I was super exhausted.  Even downhill began to provide a challenge.

When I got to the AT, I headed back up again.  This is a more gradual way to the top.  I cruised on up.  Most of it was still hiking, but I ran some.  I was slowly gaining elevation.  I kept going out and out and I was kind of getting frustrated.  It wasn't steep enough.

I knew it eventually would climb steeply and it finally did.  This climb of a few hundred feet was tough.  I battled on though.  I saw the road near there earlier.  When I came to it, I went up again.  Big surprise.  The theme of this run was up and up.  I then ran down on the road. 

This part was fun because, there were tire tracks in the snow and it was easy to follow.  Going down I ran.  Coming up, I could've run if I wasn't so exhausted.  I was over 3,000 feet of gain now.  Then, 3,100 feet and nearing 3,200 feet.

I ran on back down.  That was fun.  It was quick now.  This path was well worn.  A guy with a dog came through earlier.  That was one reason I headed out so far.  I didn't want to pass him.

I did turn around on the AT and did a short hike to gain some more elevation.  When I finally made it to the intersection of the North Trail again, I headed up there.  I hiked and hiked and hiked.

Finally, near the top, I went over 3,500 feet of elevation gain.  I wanted an extra couple hundred feet of gain, just to make sure I was actually over 12,000 for the week.

I headed downhill.  I was tired, but nearly done.  I had gone up and down, up and down.  I was all over the mountain and repeating a lot of the same areas.  Since I hiked a lot, the time seemed to fly by.  I didn't plan on going the whole time without heading back to the car, but that's what ended up happening.

There were a few more hikers as I headed down.  They were making the trail fast.  One was a guy and his cute adult daughter.  I flew downhill pat them, enjoying myself.  Going down is so quick and the turns were tight.  Before I knew it, I was on the less used Woodpecker Trail.

I got back to my car just before 9.5 miles.  I was a few minutes under 3 hours too.  It was another exhausting workout.  It was the second day in a row where I just wanted to sit down afterward.  The snow makes thing incredible.

These two day has about 7,000 feet of gain combined.  Add in the snow and it was quite the workouts.  I'm going down to Susquehanna State Park in Maryland to run tomorrow.  I'm hoping to preview the HAT course with a nice 11 miler.  That should be challenging too, but at least the trails will be clear.  I may meet up with Destrie too.  That would be great.

9.4 miles - 2:44:58 (17:30 pace) 3510 feet of elevation gain

Mt. Tammany Hike/Run Through the Snow

This has been a disappointing week.  I decided to use Wednesday as my rest day.  Then, I unexpectedly had to work yesterday evening.  I could've squeezed in a run, but it would've been tight.  I thought about running at night, but I wasn't comfortable doing so in such cold weather.  That meant a second unplanned day off.

Luckily, I didn't work today.  I've been wanting to go to Mt. Tammany all week.  I headed there a little after lunchtime.  I didn't know what to expect, but I was hoping that enough people had hiked through to make a decent trail through the snow.

At first, I had a lightweight long sleeve shirt with my fleece vest over it and long pants on the bottom.  It was in the low 20s and a bit windy though, so I elected for my ColdGear top.  That was a good choice, because at times I was cold.  Other times, I was hot.  That's pretty typical of this time of year.  The sun was actually shinning during a lot of the run.

I'm not sure I should really call this a run.  I headed up running the Red Dot Trail early.  However, that didn't last very long.  Early on, there's a steep and normally rocky section.  The rocks were buried, but it was still a lot of work to actually run uphill.  I ended up hiking.

I ran here and there, but it was mostly just hiking.  A few people had hiked through, but not as many as I had hoped.  It also seemed like there were less tracks as I got higher up.  That was no surprise.  Even hiking up this steep trail was tough.

Thankfully, there was a lot of snow on the ground.  At least it wasn't icy, like the last time I was there.  It was still super slow though.  I looked forward to the downhill.

I had to hike through a few snowdrifts at the top.  That was tough.  It was chilly too.  Finally, I made it to the top.  It was windy up there too.  I took some photos from the overlook, but I didn't stay long.

I looked forward to getting on to the Blue Trail.  I figured that this would be smooth and I'd fly downhill.  As I got on that trail, I noticed only one or at most two sets of footprints.  It was even hard to run this part along the ridge.  I noticed that my GPS got messed up too.  It added a good half mile or more out of nowhere.

What made running through the snow tough was the ice layer on top.  If there's a clear path, there's no problem.  However, whenever you hit the edge of the footprints, you can bang your shins on the ice.  I knew I'd do this a lot on the descent of the Blue Trail.  After that happened a couple times, I turned back up the hill.

I'd now head down the Red Dot.  That trail is steeper and normally more technical, but at least it had more of a trail.  I hiked the ridge to get there.

Finally, I was on the Red Dot.  I had to hike a lot of the descent, especially the rocky part.  I tried running some of it and I'd get frustrated.  I was losing my footing or sinking into the snowdrifts.  Then, I fell on the snow.  It didn't hurt, but the whole experience had me very mad.  I thought I could at least run downhill.

Finally, I got through the technical rocky section and was able to run.  It was actually a blast as I danced, slipped and sort of skied down the hill.  I got down it in no time.  Here and there, I hiked some of the technical stuff.  I didn't go all the way to the bottom, but I did go most of the way.

I decided that I wanted some more elevation gain.  I had been happy that at least I could run some downhill.  The plan was to hike back up to the rocky section at least.  I did that.

I was enjoying the fact that I kept gaining elevation, so I continued on, even through the technical stuff.  I was nearly to the top when I finally turned around.  I had climbed another 1,000 feet.

I actually ran down more the technical stuff this time.  The trail was a little smoother and perhaps more importantly, I was more confident.  I was over 2500 feet of gain now.  I flew past a woman who looked like she was trying to run up the hill.  I wish I could've run with her.  Company would've been nice.

I had such a blast descending.  I feel like more people would enjoy trail running in these conditions, if they just tried it.  I passed a hiker coming up too.  He must've thought I was crazy.  Before long, I was cruising down the last steep part, quickly sliding all over the place.

I was around 2 hours into the hike/run at this point.  I decided that I would try to take the AT out for a bit.  This is more gradual.  It was sort of well worn, except I don't think anyone had taken that route in a few days.  It did look like some snowshoes or something like that had gone through there.

I couldn't run much of it, so I hiked here too.  I knew I'd run downhill.  I got about another 300 feet of gain and then turned around.  I was getting tired, so I couldn't even run the flat parts any more.  I did run downhill though.  It was good to get back to the car.

Now that I was close to 3000 feet of gain, I wanted to climb some more and get over that.  I headed back up Mt. Tammany again.  It didn't take too long to get over 3000 feet.  I kept going after that.  I was getting very tired and even hiking was tough.  My back really hurt going up the first two climbs, but oddly, it wasn't too bad now.  Maybe it was stretched out or something. 

I hiked for quite a bit.  I probably got around 700 feet of gain in this segment.  I started up the technical part, but once my watch was over 3500 feet of gain, I turned around.  I was exhausted.  I had been using Tailwind, but not enough.  I was starting to bonk at this point.

Running downhill was still fun.  I wasn't as steady on my feet as earlier.  Still, I ran down to the bottom.  I got there in no time.  I was well over 9 miles now.  It took me over 3 hours.  Although I had gone so slow, the snow made it very tough.  I was so exhausted by the end that I sat right down in my car.  It was an awesome workout.

I was hoping for 12,000 feet of gain this week.  With the extra day off, I'm not sure I'll hit that.  I'd need another big day tomorrow.  One day this weekend, I'm hoping to head to Susquehanna State Park in Maryland.  That is where the HAT 50K takes place.  I want to preview it.  They don't have snow down there, so that would be nice.  It's also supposed to be very warm down there.  I hope I can meet up with Destire too, for the run.  I don't know exactly what I'll be doing, but it should be two good runs at least.

9.51 miles - 3:07:44 (19:45 pace) 3420 feet of elevation gain

Wind Gap AT Snow Repeats

Yesterday was a perfect off day.  We had snow and ice.  That meant that I was back at it today.  Of course complicating the matter was the additional few inches of snow, covered by ice.  I knew it would be a tough one.

It was also quite cold today.  I went with my usual attire though.  I planned to be running up and down the mountain, so I figured that would be enough and it was.  At times, I was sweaty and other times chilly.  The sun was out and that always helps.

The plan was to head to Wind Gap and run repeats on the AT.  Since I figured few, if any, hikers were out, I knew I'd be making the trail.  It would get more runnable as I went along.  The whole switchback climb gains about 500 feet in less than a mile.

I got to the southbound trailhead.  No surprise, not a single set of tracks.  I was the first person through at all since the storm.  Hiking up the steep beginning was tough.

I was able to run a little bit at the start, but that didn't last.  Even if I could run up the hill, it was taking a lot of effort.  The snow was probably a foot deep with ice on top of it.  I mainly just hiked the trail on the first route up.  Even that was exhausting.

I finally got through a few switchbacks and my watch was around 275 feet of gain.  I decided that this was good enough.  I'd just run a bunch of repeats.  I headed back down.

I was sort of able to run down the hill.  It was slow though.  I tried to make a new set of tracks whenever I could.  Often times, I'd step on the edge of my original tracks, to make them wider.

It was good to get to the bottom.  I now sort of had a path.  Still, I had to hike more than run on the second repeat.  This was far from fast.  It was a great workout though.  Before long, I got to the end again and turned around.  There were some animals tracks near the top.  It was neat being the first person through.

This was wearing me out, so both at the top and bottom, I rested very briefly.  I'd take in some water too.  I had over 500 feet of gain after two repeats.  I started back up on the third run.  Again, I was able to run a little bit more.  The one problem is that the snow underneath had no grip.  It was a soft powder.

I also had to be careful of ice covered branches.  There were a couple low lying ones.  One hit me in the head one time, as I was looking down.  At least I avoided my eyes.

Now that I almost had a trail completely made, I was able to really blast downhill.  That was a ton of fun.  It was over in no time though.  Every ascent was slow and every descent was super fast.

I headed back up for repeat number four.  By now, the trail was a lot more runnable.  However, my energy level was getting lower.  I was nearly an hour into this run and only a little over 3 miles.  It was certainly slow, but a great workout.  This was a key repeat, because it would get me over 1,000 feet of gain.  It actually got me just over that point.

I enjoyed blasting down the hill one more time.  I was almost out of control.  I got to the bottom in no time and decided that I'd do a fifth and final repeat.  This would put me around 4 miles and comfortably over 1,000 feet of gain.

I was so dead by now.  Even some sections that I ran earlier were a struggle.  My legs were tired and my back was sore.  I hiked a lot more on this one than the previous repeats.  When I got to the end, I decided to clear some more trail.  I hiked up the next couple switchbacks.  There were even more drifts and it was a super slow go.  I did see some turkey tracks.

Finally, the snowdrifts were too much.  I headed down.  I sort of ran downhill here, but there wasn't much of a trail yet, so it was slow.  Then, I got to the part I had done five repeats of.  That was so much faster and I flew down it.  It was so much fun.  I finished up with over four miles and 1,300 feet of elevation gain.  Perhaps more importantly, I created a great trail to run on later in the week.  I can now do more repeats there if needed and get a faster and more runnable workout.  I just have to hope for no more snow.

Tomorrow, I'm not sure what the plan is.  I think I'd like to try to run and hike two loops at Mt. Tammany.  That is a popular hiking place, so I'm hoping for some tracks through there.  The rocks could make it icy though.  Still, I can't imagine it any worse than when it was all ice, when Ryan and I were up there a couple weeks ago.  Heading to Wind Gap again is another fall back plan of course.  Lehigh Gap might be okay too.  The bottom line is I want more elevation!

4.33 miles - 1:20:43 (18:37 pace) 1332 feet of elevation gain

Snow Covered Lehigh Gap Run

I wanted to go out and run the Baby Buzzard course with the Pagoda Pacers this morning.  However, the snowy trek through Trexler did beat me up and I wasn't sure what I'd have today.  I elected to play it safe, but also give myself the option to get some good running and hiking in.  I headed out to Lehigh Gap.

The weather was tricky.  It was warm for this time of year.  I went with just a lightweight long sleeve shirt at first.  However, that wasn't heavy enough.  I put on a slightly heavier shirt.  I left my fleece vest in the car.  Most of the time, I was comfortable.  At times, I was hot and other times a little chilly (as I ran into the wind).  It worked for the duration of the run though.  I probably could've worn shorts, but I elected not to.

Usually when I run at Lehigh Gap, I climb to the top via the Prairie Grass Trail and Charcoal Trail.  I then run the ridge along the North Trail and come back down.  This time, I was looking to come straight down the North Trail and try to do 3 short loops.  That would give me over 3,000 feet of elevation gain.  If I couldn't handle that much, I could stop earlier.

I ran some of the early part of the LNE.  Then, I hiked a bit too.  Finally, I ran along the flat part.  This makes for a good warmup, which is why I love going this way.  I was able to follow footprints, but they were uneven.

I got to the Prairie Grass Trail in no time and began the climb.  I ran the early part.  It was tough with the snow coverage.  No one had been through this part.  I only climbed about 150 feet before I had to hike.  It was too early to push it.

Going up this was a lot more hiking than running.  This section is wide open and not surprisingly, there were snowdrifts everywhere.  I did run where I could, but that wasn't often.

The Charcoal Trail was no different.  It was mostly just a hike.  It seemed to be taking forever.  Even the snowdrifts were a pain to hike through.  At least I enjoyed the views.  I thought to myself that I was crazy.  Toward the top of the Charcoal Trail, there were animal prints and it was a little more runnable.  Of course there were still snowdrifts here and there.

I had to go out to Devil's Pulpit and more snowdrifts.  The view of the snow covered mountain on the other side was incredible.  I then continued on to the North Trail.  This time, I ran down the North Trail.  Someone had built a snowman way up here at the top.  That was cool.

Going down along the ridge of the North Trail was fun.  I had around 1,100 feet of gain already and now, it was mostly downhill.  This trail had at least been lightly used.  Before long, I got to the Appalachian Trail.  The AT was a blessing.  It was heavily used.

I cruised on down the AT.  It was relatively smooth, thanks to all the traffic.  A lot of the rocks got buried.  I ran down past the shelter.  I continued on.  I then got on to the Woodpecker Trail.  There were some parts around big rocks, which were fun.

I continued on down to the open field part of the trail.  I was back to my car shortly after that.  I had run 3.75 miles on this loop.  This would be a nice loop to do on clear trails.

I refueled with some Tailwind.  I was a little exhausted, but I headed back up.  Rather than go through the snowdrifts, I stuck with the worn down AT and North Trails this time.  I ran some in the beginning, but that didn't last long.  This part is super steep.  The other direction is more gradual.  I'm not sure if I would've done another loop in that direct if that was my only option.  Luckily, it wasn't.

I did a lot of hiking, but I ran where I could.  Even the hiking up the snow covered AT was hard.  I gained a lot of elevation though and got an excellent workout.  I turned and ran up the North Trail.  I ran past a hiker (who I somehow didn't see later).  I was at least able to run some of this.  I went up near the top and had gained around 1,000 more feet of elevation.  There were snowdrifts on the North Trail.

I then headed back down.  Rather than going all the way down, I decided to run up the AT, at the split.  This had some good climbs, but was a little more runnable.  It wraps around the mountain.  It is a more gradual climb.  I still got pretty exhausted.

A group of snowshoe hikers were coming the other way.  They made the trail smooth, although it became a little less grippy then.  I ran on for a bit.  I think I turned around somewhere over 2500 feet of elevation gain.  I was able to run all the way back down.  I never came across the snowshoe group again.

I did see a guy hiking later on.  I was getting a bit tired.  I probably didn't have enough calories in me.  I was glad I could go down this smooth path.  I was sad thinking that it will be buried in more snow again tomorrow.

I got back to the bottom and refueled again.  The first loop took me about 55 minutes.  I was now around 2 hours into this run/hike.  I had not even covered 8 miles either.  I had a lot of gain though.

I got more Tailwind and headed back up.  I knew this would be a struggle, but I had to get at least 3000 feet of gain and I wanted more.  I had to hike a lot of this steep terrain now.  My back and legs were getting sore.  I was happy to get over 3000 feet and keep going.  I saw the hiker at the shelter.

I continued on up the North Trail.  Again, I ran and hiked to about the same places as earlier.  I was now over 3500 feet of gain.  I did the same thing at the AT junction as before.  I started climbing again.  I didn't go out too far.  I was over 3700 feet and closing in on 3800 feet when I headed back down.

After going down the steepest part, I decided to hike back up.  I was dead tired and even hiking was tough.  Since I was so close to 4000 feet of gain, I wanted to go over that.  I did on my watch, but when I corrected it later, it wasn't quite that much.  Oh well, it's not that big of a deal.

Finally, I cruised downhill.  My quads were getting tired and I was losing my concentration a little.  It wasn't too bad and I still could run.  I just had to be slightly more careful.  I finished up the big day at my car.  I had less than 12 miles and it took me over 3 hours.

This was an awesome day and I'll have to do more of this in the future.  Lehigh Gap is a great place to go straight up and straight down.  Maybe I'll  run loops here when the trail is clear.  Now that I see how much the AT is used here in the snow, I'll probably come back.  Maybe I'll be there next weekend.  I was so exhausted by the end that I just sat in my car right away.  It was a lot of work.

Tomorrow is a scheduled rest day.  That is perfect, since we are supposed to get 3 to 6 inches of snow.  I'm not sure where I'll be on Tuesday.  I'm all about getting more elevation though.  Maybe I'll run repeats southbound on the AT at Wind Gap.  Repeats can create a smooth trail where there isn't one.  That could be my best option these days.  I look forward to wherever I go next time out.

11.77 miles - 3:04:05 (15:39 pace) 3937 feet of elevation gain