This is why I run trail...

All week I was filled with that bottom-of-the-stomach anticipation.  I envisioned what the trails would look like.  I kept an eye on the weather - snow or no snow? My biggest concern for snow is getting to the trail head.  One last check of the weather - it should be clear.  Just rain the night before. 

Up early, prepped, and out the door.  Still dark but light was a comin'.  I anticipated 25 minutes or so to the trail head parking area.  Wait - why didn't I know exactly? I have been there before.  But it's been a while.  As I exited the highway, I saw the mountain I would be climbing.  Another 9 miles of driving parallel to this ridge. It was hard for me to keep my eyes on the road as I continually gazed at the snow topped ridge line.  What an amazing sight to see the lower half of the ridge bare and the upper half painted with white icing! The butterflies were fluttering in my stomach.  How I longed to get out on the trail.  This is a feeling I will never figure out.  I don't understand this anticipatory anxious yet excited feeling for a date with the trails.  Maybe it's a feeling that shouldn't be figured out.  There it was - the dirt - no mud drive up to the state game lands parking area.  No snow or ice to worry about getting up this hill - just mud.  What a mess! But there it was.  The trail head beckoned me to come quickly.  I did not let her down. 

Off I went.  Down and up the trail.  Spots of snow and ice but mostly bare.  I entered shortly after a good warm-up to the first climb.  Up and up it went.  There were no switchbacks.  I followed the gas line clearing up Second Mountain.  But were was first mountain? I don't know.  I just know this is called Second Mountain.  Halfway up and I met snow - such beautiful fluffy, fresh snow.  The rain we got the night before was snow up there.  I was first on the trail today - of a human kind anyway.  Lots of tracks but none of the homo sapiens variety. This is why I run trail. 

 

On the other side I bombed down the hill but shortly down the snow turned to crunchy ice.  Such a beautiful winter wonderland I thought.  There were many moments I just took it all in and appreciated the beauty of nature.  I did not know it yet but for the duration of this run, I would experience dry trails, wet muddy trails, icy trails, snowy trails, and really snowy trails.  This is why I run trail.

 

 

I made my way over the rolling logging trail down to the valley floor.  In the middle of two beautiful ridges was a creek and a rail trail.  It's quite a sight to the eyes to view the corridor of nature all around.  Quickly I made my second ascent.  This was the big one - 1000 feet in one mile and most of that in the last half mile.  It is a lung burner.  The water tank trail follows a trickle coming off the mountain.  It was below freezing out, but this water still found a way to keep moving.  Once in the middle of this climb I had two choices - continue straight up the Water Tank Trail or veer to the right up the Janie Trail.  I went to the right knowing it was slightly less streep but would add a little distance to my trek.  At the top I bushwacked my way through low lying rhododendron and thickets weighed down by the snow.  It was so thick I almost lost the trail.  My legs were cold and cut up from making my way through this winter wonderland jungle. I made it to the top.  Before me was a jeep trail that traveled the ridge line.  I looked down to 4 or 5 inches of snow.  Glorious! This is why I run trail. 

It was here that the adventure started.  I had read about a fire tower at the top of this mountain but had never been there.  It was a side trail that only led to the tower.  The snow seemed to be getting deeper.  Probably only my imagination.  But then before me appeared the tower.  As I approached it, I marveled at such a simple concept - a fire tower in the middle-of-nowhere.  Probably more contact with the animals than humans.  A 9-foot fence with barb wire with signs that said
"Authorized Personnel Only".  Hmmm....but the gate leading in is wide open.  I can't pass that up.  So I carefully made my way up the tower.  Ok before I go on - I do not condone trespassing or vandelism or houlaganism but THEY LEFT THE GATE OPEN! I just had to see what I could see.  I got some great views.  Too bad my minor fear of heights (and being stranded in the wilderness during the winter) kept me from going to the top.  I estimated the tower to be 100 or maybe 125 feet high.  I could tell the tower was rusty and with the snow cover, it was hard to tell how rusty.  So I went as far as I felt comfortable with.  But the views I saw were worth what I could do.  This is why I run trail. 

The trip down the mounatain was incredible.  One mile of snow top mountain followed by 3 miles of glorious downhill.  Once back in the valley again, I knew the trail went through the creek. NO other choice but to wade through it.  On any day of the year, this mountain fed creek is cold but in the middle of winter - well you get the picture.  Thankfully my Salomon shoes and drymax socks work wonders with getting rid of the wet.  Half a mile up the trail I never would have known of the ice cold soaking my feet took.  This is why I run trail. 

The rest of the journey was mud filled followed by my last climb up to the snow again and finished with more shoe sucking mud.  In the end, I finished 17+ miles in just over 4 hours.   One human sighting, multiple white tails, too many tracks in the snow to count, ice, snow, mud, single track, jeep road, logging road, rail trail, steep ascents, long downhills, flat, snowing, sunny, cloudy, windy, calm, cold, warm...This is why I run trail. 

PA Grand Canyon

My blog entries are normally 85% running stuff and 15% other.  Running for me lately has been up and down - both physically and mentally.  I had the opportunity to get away and go camping - something I don't get to do often but love.  I wanted to blog some of teh details to share but also to later refresh my memory on a great place. 

The place - PA Grand Canyon.  Camping at Leonard Harrison State Park - literally a few hundred yards from the overlook on the east rim.  Having been to the "real" Grand Canyon (as I described it to my 7 yr old), I was wondering how this would compare.  In reality I knew it wasn't even close in magnitude but PA has it's own unique beauty. 

We arrived late Friday afternoon - myself, my brother, a camping buddy and my 7 yr old son in tow.   After a 3 hour drive, we arrived to nice weather and pleasantly surprised to a decent campground.  This isn't always the case with state parks in PA.  The bathroom was nice and clean.  We set up, started a fire as the sun started to set and cooked some hot dogs over the flame.  But we knew the storm was coming - just praying it would blow to the north.  It started with the wind and then the rain.  We hunkered down under the canopy and just hung out for a while.  My 7 yr old just thought it was cool to play out in the rain at night.  Maybe it would have been but this front brought in cold air with it.  We ended up going to bed around 9 simply because it was cold and not much to do. 

After a cold rainy night, we woke early (thanks to my 7 yr old who has way too much energy) to a nice rising sun that eventually helped dry things out.  After a very full breakfast, we headed out to explore and hike the trails.  Because we were so close to the east rim, we were there at the overlook quickly and treated to a beautiful sight.  After some gawking and plenty of pictures we hiked a short trail - the overlook trail I believe it was called.  My 7 yr old says he enjoys hiking but always seems to complain during the beginning of a hike.  I think he might just become a trail runner as he was bombing his way downhill on the trail.  Normally I wouldn't care but since there is a nice drop on one side of the trail into the canyon, I had to squash that quickly.  After this trail we made our way down the Turkey Path Trail which led down to the canyon floor.  This trail is only one mile but was absolutely beautiful.  My standard of beautiful is certainly different than most as I think in terms of trail running.  The signs all said "Beware - this is a rugged and steep trail".  To me that meant it was probably perfect and it just about was.  It was one mile of pure switchback heaven. But there one problem - I was not running.  We were hiking.  All I kept thinking was I need to run this trail.  It was begging to be run.  But first , we hiked! We came to the bottom of the canyon floor to a beautiful sight of a wide creek meandering through the canyon.  There was also a rail trail that followed the creek.  There were many bikers using the rail trail on this day.  We sat on the creek on large flat rocks and ate some lunch and snapped some pictures.  We saw an unusualy sight - dozens of rock towers.  I have seen these before on trails but usually very small.  These were large (a couple huge towers) and wide spread over this part of the creek.  It was a strange occurence but rather interesting.  After relaxing for a bit on the rocks, we started our trek back up. 

Let me break for a moment to describe the trail:  From the top it starts with nicely groomed trail that would go for a few hundred yards and then turn sharply for a switchback.  After several of these the trail met up with a run that displayed numerous waterfalls and pools of water.  The trail portion became rugged and steep, sections of mini caves, steep ledges off to one side and many (many) steps.  Some years back steps were built in the more difficult sections to navigate.  My son counted 127 on the final section.  There were at least 3 other sections of steps and in between were sections of rugged trail.  The run of course made it's way to the creek at the canyon floor. 

Back to the climb back up.  It started with steps, and more steps and so on.  My 7 yr old took off and led us up the trail.  At times he is an endless ball of energy.  We made our way to the top in a much faster time than we descended mainly due to all the pictures we took on the way down.  Once at the top, I couldn't stop thinking about running that trail.  I contemplated doing it later that day but with all the people visiting, I thought I would get caught up in passing people and get annoyed.  So I waited until morning. 

And so it began, woke up the next morning.  It was cold.  I am not used to camping in the cold.  I was bundled beyond bundled.  I milled around for a bit trying to get warm by the fire.  And then I thought, there is no time like the present.  So I got ready and started on down the road towards the trails at the canyon.  One problem - the park didn't open until 9am and I was early.  There is no gate but there was a DCNR worker cleaning up around the entrance area.  So I went into stealth mode and found a trail that went around the entrance.  I was able to get a good warmup for 2 miles and then snuck my way behind the entrance.  It was here that I realized that there was a strange fog in the canyon making it impossible to see down to the canyon floor but there was also blue skies and the sun beaming down.  After gawking at this sight I took off down the Turkey Path Trail.  I figured I would have it all to myself and I did on the way down.  I had the time of my life.  I was flying down the switchbacks enjoying every single step.  It was one of those truly epic moments I will never forget especially descending into the foggy abyss.  The lower half of the trail is very technical and also has some stairs thrown in so I slowed down considerably.  As I got down to the canyon floor, I was out of the fog.  I looked up and could not see the blue skies.  This fog was settled in the middle of the canyon.  I figured I would add a little mileage so I ran a couple more miles out and back on the rail trail.  On my way back up the Turkey Path Trail, I pushed and pushed. It was tough but oh so fun.  I passed a few people coming down and realized the park had opened.  In the end I made good time ascending.  The imagery of this run will never leave me.  It has to be my favorite non-race trail moment up to this point in my life.
I can't wait to go back and run the Turkey Path again. 

Posting this 6 months after this trip, I still remember ths trails vividly. Unfortunately (for now) I cannot find my pictures of the area.  Until I can find them, you may have to use your imagination.