A Running Hike

This past weekend (a week ago) many of us awoke to yet another fresh batch of snow Saturday morning.  I had planned for a few days to use the weekend to run on a trail, something I haven't done since October.  The most likely destination would be the Schuylkill River Trail near Hamburg.  Except I had something different in mind.

I pulled into the parking area still covered in fresh snow from the night before.  It was noticeably deeper than from where I had started at home.  Also noticeable was the lack of cars.  As in I'm the only one there.

The pictures end here.  I would have had some awesome shots, but as I now use my watch as my guide the phone/camera stays locked in the car.

Out I headed along the densely tree lined path of untouched snow.  The wind every so often would rattle the fluffy snow off tree branches adding to the picturesque scenery.  Two miles in I stopped.  Now the decision.

As mentioned before I haven't been on a trail in months.  Running the path in itself was a change.  Doing anything with challenging terrain and elevation changes hadn't been done since my last Mount Penn trail run.  That's why during the week I decided to run the Appalachian Trail.

Here it is in front of me.  The issue now is I hadn't planned on doing the trail in snow.  It's slippery.  I can't see obstacles.  And I've never been on it before.  But here I am and there it is.  Let's go.

I hiked the first three quarters of a mile.  I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be runnable for me regardless of the snow.  I didn't go more than a mile onto the trail.  This was more of a scouting hike/run for the future.  According to the watch which is certainly accurate the ascent was 850 feet.  Again, this is in less than a mile.  I reached 1,266 feet.  Had I continued I'm sure I would have hit at least 1,400 in another mile.  What's nice to know is that once you reach this level the trail flattens out to a point that is definitely runnable.  I however turned around.

Having not done anything close to this type of climbing in awhile I could already feel my climbing muscles straining.  However I did decide to run back down to the river trail.  It was interesting to say the least.  No real issues except I had to run almost sideways at some points to keep from completely sliding down the trail.  And if I did start to slide I had virtually nothing to keep me from going for a long and uncomfortable ride.  It's funny how long it takes to go up and how quickly I'm back at the bottom.  Either way it was well worth it.  At my highest point the snow was stuck to everything.  It was almost as if all of it that fell glued on to every tree and ground shrub there was on the mountain.  Would have made for a cool picture.

As I ran back on the trial towards my car I realized at some point during my descent I had injured the bottom of my left foot as now each step was becoming more painful.  I don't know what it was or how it happened, but it didn't become an issue until I was on the flat trail.  Outside of that you really feel the climb in your upper legs. 

If you ever want to get away head for the woods.  It wasn't until I had almost reached the parking lot before I saw another human.  I probably could have went miles on the trail without seeing anybody.  Didn't even see any animals.  Plus it was dead quiet.

I probably would have been back there today enjoying another snowy run as a few more inches fell.  Instead I was resting for the run that prompted this trail test in the first place.  Tomorrow is the first of the 2014 Mt. Penn trail runs.  It's not going to be pretty, but that's kind of the point.  The actual temperature should be around 10 with somewhere between 6 and 10 inches of snow on the ground.  What else would you rather be doing on a Sunday morning?