Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail - Trip Report

Ok - so I haven't posted in a while.  I'm still doing all the running, hiking and geocaching that I love, but haven't spent the time to sit down and write about it.  To sum it up in a sentence:  There's been some casual hiking with the wife and dog, geocached a bit (but not nearly as much as I have in the past) and I've run a couple half marathons and maybe a 5K in there; for all the details (minus the hiking) see My Geocaching Profile, and my Strava activities.  Onto the story at hand...

The Laurel Highlands Hiking Trail.

This trail is 70 continuous miles from Ohiopyle and Seward, PA, marked every single mile with a small milestone:

I've had my eye on thru-hiking this trail for a little while now, mostly because the planning is easy being close enough to home and that I could complete the entire thing while only taking a few days off of work.  Not electing to take a summer vacation this year afforded me a few extra vacation days so I set out on the trail at 6:25pm on Tuesday night, 6/25 after a 1.5 hour shuttle from Wilderness Voyageurs.

The term "highlands" is relative to Pennsylvania, being mostly between 2000' and 3000' in elevation, this trail is some of the highest terrain in the state.  At both the northern and southern terminus, the trail is roughly 1200' above sea level, but quickly rises to 2000' + feet and rolls along for the majority of the miles, only gaining and losing a few hundred feet on subtle climbs and drops.

At the southern terminus

Day 1: Southern Terminus to Ohiopyle Shelters, 6.3 miles

After grabbing a few batteries from the extremely well stocked Wilderness Voyageurs, I set out for my roughly 2 hours on the trail for the first day.

There were two short, but challenging climbs within the first few miles, offering some views of PA Canyons, as well as some wildlife:

Looking back at these photos, it's amazing to see how the scenes changed over the next few days, even the next few hours...

Around mile 4.5, I began to hear thunder in the distance but didn't think it was coming my direction.   I'm sure you can imagine what happened next...yep, roaring thunder approaching and over a mile to go to shelter.  Having considerable energy from sitting on my ass in the office all day, I booked it, trying to beat the storm and settle in for a good first night's sleep.  About 3/4 mile from the shelter I passed what appeared to be a father and son backpacking team, just walking along...but I had different ideas.

Upon reaching the shelter area, apparently I just barely beat the rain, by just around 5 minutes and scampered around for the "Shelter #1" that I'd reserved for the a $4 charge a few weeks prior.  Luckily I found the correct one and as the rain came pouring down, I sat in solitude, munching on my footlong subway I'd grabbed on the way out to Seward.  The ranch dressing was a messy touch, but I had no issues downing the entire sub, plus the 3 bonus cookies right afterward.  Overnight was sticky, literally, being the first night spent on my Thermarest z-lite shirt-less using my sleeping bag as a blanket.  Every move over night was like slowly pulling off a band-aid.

There were a few other strange occurrences overnight, including something within 100' that sounded like flapping of a metallic sheet, almost like getting air into a trash bag, but stopping after a second or two and not starting back up after a few minutes.  The other fun encounter overnight was what I think was a curious mouse in my shelter.  Other than that, I got a good 6-7 hours sleep while the rain poured on.

Day 2: Ohiopyle Shelters to Turnpike Shelters, 31.9 miles

After packing up in the morning, I headed out in the ever-so-slight sprinkle to refill water from the well at the shelter area.  Although it was marked NON POTABLE, I figured that just meant it needed to be treated or filtered.  But as I was beginning to set up my filter, a young guy passes by on the way to the bathroom and lets me know I should get water from the nearby stream since there's "chemicals in this water".  OK then.  Over to the stream, then up the hill...

Starting off the day with a substantial climb is fairly normal, but it was pretty gradual so I didn't mind plus I found a geocache at the top...so it was all good.

Typical LHHT

One of the many rock outcroppings along the trail

Rock hallways!

Beautifully still lake around mile 11

I was making good progress and by around the 15th milestone I decided I'd update my shelter reservations from the Route 31 shelters at mile 32 to the Turnpike shelters at mile 38.  I'd plan to stay just north of the Turnpike bridge on Wednesday night, then hike out 32 miles to the northern terminus on Thursday.  Although I'd never backpacked a 30 mile day before, having 15+ hours of daylight makes it really easy to simply "walk all day" at an easy pace, take a few short breaks and make the distance well prior to sunset.

At mile 19ish, the trail crosses Route 653 and the park headquarters are located just a few hundred feet (trail) east along the road.

There are only 2 locations "along the trail" where potable water is available:  the first is at the park headquarters, and the other is just before Seven Springs Resort.  Knowing this, I elected to take the road walk, only to find a closed office with a number to call to change reservations.  At the maintenance shed, I located a water spigot and refilled under the heat of the midday sun.

Being mostly along the ridge line the entire hike, I actually had a faint cell phone signal most times I checked, and I was glad that just as I got back on the trail at Rte. 653 was not an exception.  A quick call to the office and I got my reservations switched, and even saved 4 bucks on my cancelled shelter for the following night!

Rock hallways with Rhododendron hair!

Blazes galore.

These sections never get old!

Recharging the Fenix with my Voltaic battery pack

After finding a couple more geocaches along the trail, I arrived at Seven Springs, a ski resort with a few outdoor offerings in the summer time.  Not a whole lot was open on the top of the mountain where a restaurant sits, but I managed to find a soda machine with cold Pepsi inside for the steep price of $3.  The trail then heads down the slopes, and to the only spot where I questioned my direction along the entire 70 miles.  There's just too much open space on ski slopes to mark trails.  After walking about 100' in a few different directions, I spotted the familiar yellow blaze and continued my way away from civilization.

Seven Springs

Seven Springs Lake and lifts

The trail goes right along the lake

Then down the slopes!

Apparently there's a 5K held up here

Interesting trail scene

Chug it and enjoy the view.

I managed to swiftly move along the next 10 or so miles, passing by the halfway point, as well as finding a fairly old geocache with its original logbook.  Shortly after that point, I crossed the PA Turnpike with a strange sense of connectedness back to other people, but still feeling the detachment that you have when hiking solo.  The trail during my time spent on it had very few southbound hikers, so I only ran into 1 or 2 people per day, until the shelters.

Laurel Summit, along Route 31

Original logbook.  Rock on.

Halfway!

PA Turnpike Bridge

That's quite a wide footbridge!  (It's also open for snowmobiles)

Turnpike view (east)

Ian with the state cop

After the turnpike crossing, I only had about a mile and a half of trail before my home for the night and as usual, the critters are out around sunrise/sunset.  During this 30 minute or so period, I came across one of the many Red Efts I would encounter along the way, as well as a young buck.

There was some mountain laurel still in bloom

Another ferny forest shot

Little dude

Yay!  Made it!

There were some rowdy teenagers in one shelter who luckily settled down once the sun went down and I once again got some decent sleep before my final big 32 mile day to finish up the LHHT.





Day 3: Turnpike Shelters to Northern Terminus, 31.8 miles


The day started off great, bright and early and on the trail by 6:30am.  The goal for the day was to get done while hiking in the least amount of rain possible.  Given that I can only control half of those, you can pretty much gather how the story went.

Separate bathrooms in the middle of nowhere!

Distance to Turnpike Shelters from trail.

More Rhodo's growing out of rock

The rain began around 8:15am and only got harder, and harder as the day went on.  By around mile 8, I would consider the rain to have been a steady "yellow" on the radar.

At this point the hiking simply turned into a game...could I make it to "this" mile by "this" time?  With the steady rain, there's no views, and being afraid to take my phone out for pictures, this is pretty much what you do for entertainment.

The first goal was to accomplish a classic thru-hiker morning goal: 10x10 (10 miles walked by 10am).  Even though I was finally stirring up some "business", there was a task at hand that I don't think I've ever accomplished.  Just as I passed mile 48 at 9:59am, I celebrated with a little "woot!" then began to scan the forest for a good spot to get off trail and dig a cathole.  Without getting into all the details... pouring rain + TP = a wet mess.

Back on the trail, there wasn't much to do but continue to play time/distance games and by this point, it was to try and get 16 miles in by noon.  The only problem, I had 2 miles to go and it was 11:37am.  So...here we go:  two miles in 33 minutes, in ankle deep water and pouring rain (radar RED by this point).  Bring it on!

And what do I run into at 11:56?  Two guys doing weed whacking trail maintenance with ear protection on, going the same direction as me so it's incredibly hard to get their attention from behind.  With some trekking pole waving and banging, I was able to alert them of my presence and they politely let me pass, allowing me to reach my second goal of 16 by noon.

Feeling like a Sith Lord

Finally, the rain let up a bit to a drizzle for the afternoon and I no longer had to slug through water up to my ankles.  There were some amazing little sections in this final 20 mile bit, including a hemlock forest with a beautifully soft trail path of fallen needles.  The other really cool spot was around mile 56, one of the best "rock hallways" on the entire trail.

Another little guy

The last couple of miles offered some really neat scenery, very reminiscent of the descent in Northern PA on the AT coming down from Mt. Minsi into Delaware Water Gap.

Gorgeous rhododendron tunnel during the final couple of mile descent.

Done!

Feeling very satisfied with completing the entire trail within 24 hours of "on trail" time, I changed into the only dry clothes I had available: my work khakis and polo shirt from Tuesday.  
Some final thoughts about the journey:

• The trail overall was extremely flat, with just a few rolling hills.
• This was sort of expected based on research on the elevation profiles before hand, but also a real change since most of the Appalachian Trail that I'm used to hiking has much larger elevation gains and drops.
• There really weren't many good vistas.
• Apart from a couple during the first third, there really weren't any.  On the guide it notes some coming down the final descent, but even without fog/rain, I think you'd have to wait till winter for views here.
• The abundance of wildlife (almost) makes up for the lack of vistas.
• Due to the trail being much less traveled than the AT for instance, the opportunity to see wildlife is much more frequent.  The birds I heard and saw were numerous, as well as the red efts, deer, turtles, and so on.
• My gadgets, while fun to play with, were more of a hassle than necessary.  Trying to track every step of every day while in the rain and trying to keep charged was such a PITA.  As you might be able to tell, I REALLY enjoy being able to analyze all of the data afterward, but I need to figure out a better system for recording it, as well as photos.
• The milestones are a burden and a blessing.
• It's nice to know where you are along the trail, but at some point it just becomes a game of "are we there yet?"
• The State Park Staff was extremely helpful and knowledgeable when making reservations.
• Apart from the last overgrown 10 miles or so, the trail is very well maintained.  Almost every water crossing is bridged and the shelter areas are like no other (that I've experienced, at least)

A run along the Schuylkill

While visiting my sister in Philly over the weekend, I got a run in on a beautiful Saturday morning.  As the title would imply, it was (mostly) along the eastern bank of the Schuylkill River, the western border of the city center.  It was a few miles from her South Philly place to the river, so I got plenty of diverse scenery along the way!

Morning view, downtown

Amtrak building on the other side of the river

River scene

Another river view

Construction workers sandblasting steps at a new park

There was a 5K later that morning so plenty of runners were out on the riverside trail

Boathouse row in the distance

Rowing boats at boathouse row

There was a large collection of runners gathering in this spot, but being about a mile away, I don't think it had any relation to the 5K down by the art museum

Gorgeous pathway leading up to the art museum

Full disclosure: I totally tried to race this train (I estimate it was going 10mph)

I came across this sweet dog park just after leaving the river trail.  Artificial turf and everything!

There were quite a few neat murals around the city

Back in south philly!

One lesson learned about running in the city is the inability to get an accurate GPS signal. I would estimate my run to have only been about 6.5 miles, but due to all the extra "squiggly lines" along Walnut St.  it really added unrealistic mileage.

Double Race Weekend

As I've posted before, I'm sort of going through a period of transition in my training and running.  During this period, there are plenty of phases of trial and error, and just trying new things in general.

At the tail end of a 4-week reverse taper from the Shamrock Marathon a month ago, I decided to try something new and have a weekend consisting of two short races.  There was no particular logic or insight involved with the decision, I just wanted to see how I'd feel running at a moderate-to-hard pace two days in a row.

The first race was the Kessler's 5 mile trail run at Gifford Pinchot State Park.

On a beautifully sunny and mild morning, around 150 runners set off on the trails on the southeast shore of the lake.  I'd never been in this section of the park, and was pleasantly surprised at the runability of the first few miles.  They were trails, but definitely not singletrack.  6-8' wide and mostly flat...just like what you might imagine surrounding a popular area in a state park.  I was also pleasantly surprised with my pace: maintaining just under 8:00/mi, and very relaxed.

The course was extremely well staffed and marked...like ridiculously well marked, as in bright yellow signs with black direction arrows that jump out at you in the brown and (slightly) green early spring woods in Central PA.  Even with the numerous intersections, there was definitely no excuse for getting lost out there.

Between miles 2 and 3 was about a half mile on pavement through a camping area, then at mile 3 we got to the "muddy mile".  I'm talking as much as 8-10 inches deep in some stretches!  It was so much fun slugging through that section, happy to report that I didn't see a single spill or lost shoe, though with SpeedLaces on my Brooks Cascadias I did get close to slipping out once or twice.

Caked on mud, post race

At almost exactly mile 4, we crested the final hill and the trail transformed to speedy, fine gravel, barreling downhill for the final mile.  I crossed the finish line in about 38 minutes, good enough for 17th.

The finishing chute

It was a well organized race that I really enjoyed.  I didn't stick around long enough for the hot dogs afterwards, I just headed home to shower and rest up for the race coming the following morning.  As long as my schedule is free next year, I'm definitely doing this race again.  Thanks to all the organizers and volunteers for putting on this event!

There was even another fellow runner/geocacher racing on Saturday!

After a nice pre-race dinner at Fenicci's, race #2 was the Hershey 10K, starting bright and early at 7:30am Sunday morning.  I was fortunate to join several of my friends in this race, including my buddy Ben (who I joined last summer at Savageman).  The race was sold out with approximately 2500 runners joining us.

Just like the day before, I was out there simply to give it a go with no intentions on pushing too hard.  The course was relatively flat, and almost exactly the same course for the first 3 miles as last fall's Hershey Half Marathon.

After weaving through the crowd for the first half mile, I settled into a comfortable pace with 2 or 3 others at just under a 7:00/mi.  Being completely content at this pace, me and my Saucony Kinvara's glided along until around mile 4 when we entered the hilly and winding part of the course through Hersheypark.  Out of all of the races that I've done in Hershey, this is the most distance through the park that I can remember.  After about a mile and a half going under and around roller coasters, there was a final short hill up to the stadium finish, where I just missed the 42 minute mark by the clock.

Later looking into my time at the kiosks inside the stadium, I found out that my chip time was under 42, making this an unlikely PR!   As with the other Hershey races I've attended, there was plenty of fellowship afterward, hanging out with friends on the artificial turf field inside the stadium.

Some of us went out for an amazing breakfast in nearby Palmyra after cleaning up a bit.  The Top That Cafe is a gem in the middle of town, and a "must stop" for breakfast or lunch with plate-sized pancakes and complex french toast creations at a reasonable price.  And with that, the race weekend was complete and I couldn't have been happier with the way it turned out.  The outlook in regards to shifting my training program is bright, even though I have no big races planned for the rest of the year.

To finalize this post, I'd like mention some critique on the Hershey 10K Race.  There are a few things that are just expected in a 10K event of this size:

• At least one aid station
• A tech shirt
• Possibly a finisher's medal
• Electronic timing
• A well marked course with plenty of volunteers
• Post race food/water

In some aspects of the event, my expectations were greatly exceeded, but of course there are others where the event fell short.

Falling Short:

1. Race shirts.  They were long sleeve, cotton shirts.  I would have expected a tech shirt, even if cheap.
2. While not a huge deal, after coming through the finish each runner received a bag full of some Hershey goodies.  The only issue was that the chocolates were being handed out within paper bags.  They really could have used a handle since the runners had their hands full with water bottles, heat sheets, cameras, etc.  It would have been easy to provide some sort of plastic bag with handles.

Above and Beyond:

1. Timing.  Literally within 5 minutes of finishing the race, I had an email waiting in my gmail inbox with my time.  As I also mentioned, they had something like 6 touchscreen kiosks to check your time, and various other placement stats immediately following your finish.  In addition to this, the results were online the afternoon of the race!  Bravo on this aspect, organizers, with your decision to choose Mid Atlantic Timing once again.
2. Medals.  As you can see from the photo above, these are very nicely crafted medals, especially for a 10K race.  This may be why they skimped on the shirts...it's one of the nicest medals I've earned.
3. Photos.  Holy crap I could not believe how quickly they got photos online.  I got an email notification that photos were up at 8:26pm ON THE SAME DAY AS THE RACE.  That's right, roughly 12 hours after the completion of the event.  Absolutely unreal.  Again, kudos to the race organizers for picking a great vendor.  In this case, it was Get The Picture Corp.

As always, here's the Strava activity:


Thanks to everyone who made this weekend possible.  In light of recent events in Boston, I'm grateful I had the chance to enjoy these races, and hopes of many more in the future.  Now it's time to strengthen up, continue to run faster, and look for some more races to run.

The Lure of Strava

So I had a 30 minute tempo run on the schedule yesterday, and my local running group had a 5+ mile run posted.  Naturally, I signed up for the afternoon run and notified the other runners that I might be taking off after a warmup.  Also knowing that there was a 2 mile loop on Strava around the Army War College Golf Course didn't hurt my motivation to give it a little go...and so I went, for around a 7min/mile tempo run for about two loops around the course.  I felt great, pulse was up, and the cinders beneath my feet had a great shuffling rhythm.  My lungs were working hard, just like a tempo run should warrant.

Glancing down at my watch every few minutes gave me the indication that I was actually running a solid 10-20 second under per-mile pace, but running by feel felt great so I wasn't worried.  Passing several men and women in grey and black cotton "army" t-shirts, I made my way to the second loop, and while the temp was way hotter than I'd been recently used to, the feeling was fantastic.

As you can imagine, I felt great after the run and as usual, uploaded the activity captured on my Garmin Fenix to Strava.com.   And....major buzzkill.  Even with a sub 7 minute mile pace, my rank on the loop is towards the bottom of the leaderboard....must be some serious athletes 'round here...

So...something I learned this week is: even with a fantastic tool like Strava to compare runs against others in your area, don't compare your runs against anyone but yourself.  Have fun out there and improve, but get better for your own sake.

Switching it up

After completely bonking at mile 22 of the Shamrock Marathon a few weeks ago, I decided it was a necessity to educate myself and become a smarter runner.

I believe the issues faced at the marathon didn't have anything to do with my race strategy, pacing, or nutrition...it was quite simply training.  You see, for the 4 weeks leading up to the race, I barely ran at all as a result of what I believe were shin splints on my left leg.

The motivation of not having another crappy race was enough to get me to hit the books (or more appropriately, the web) and I got my fill of advice on topics such as injury prevention and nutrition.  Being more of a math and computer type guy, I'm not a huge fan of diving into a bunch of detailed biology and chemistry, so articles written in layman's terms were easiest to digest.  Among a few others, I found a great resource in Jason Fitzgerald's Strength Running site, which provides a considerable amount of free information, mostly in the form of blog posts, but there are also a couple of PDF "articles" that dive in a little deeper.

I'm happy to say that so far, after applying a few simple principles to my training over the past week, I haven't had any major problems and things seem to be getting better for the summer season.

So what did I do?

Mainly two things:
1) Incorporated core strengthening exercises into my workouts, twice a week.
 - I found some WODs (Workouts of the Day) online that only use body weight exercises. (e.g. Burpees, Pushups, Flutterkicks, Situps, etc)  I'll do these on Mondays and Wednesdays, in addition to running.

2) Rotate different shoes and surfaces.
 - I think the last 4 runs I did were in 4 different pairs of shoes, including yesterday in my Vibram Five Fingers, which I haven't run in in at least a year.  I also got a trail run in at Gifford Pinchot State Park on Sunday, which was a gorgeous day and my feet felt great.

While I have no goals in mind this weekend, I'm signed up to two races (1 Sat, 1 Sun).  I doubt I'll PR, and I have no intentions of pushing it hard, it'll just be nice to finish a race not feeling like total crap.  That feeling is tough to get over and I'm ready to move on...smarter and more healthy!

Shamrock Marathon Weekend

It's amazing how less than an hour can dictate the feelings, and subsequent memories of an entire weekend.  When thinking back on my Virginia Beach and Yuengling Shamrock Marathon last weekend, the only thing that comes to mind is final part of the race: mile 21 - 26.  But I'll get to that in a moment...

The weekend started out extremely positive, hitting some specific geocaches on the way down, filling in some Counties, Cities and Delorme pages for VA that I've yet to find, and visiting an expo at the Virginia Beach Convention Center on a sunny Saturday afternoon with plenty of vendors.

Expo Entrance

Yup...looks like an expo

After getting our fill of cheap and free stuff, I decided to go for a short shake out run the evening before the race, down the boardwalk and snagging some "highly favorited" geocaches along the shore in the process.  Our hotel was right on the beach and extremely close to the start and finish of the marathon...an absolutely ideal spot for all things shamrock this weekend.

Nice trident!

Enough bananas in the finishing chute to feed a small army

Here's a look at this nice biking path that goes along the boardwalk for quite a few miles

Pier view #1

Self shot (necessary for logging the virtual geocache)

Pier view #2

We had our pre-race dinner at a nice Italian joint and interestingly enough, our waiter had run two editions of the Shamrock Half Marathon a few years back.

Breakfast of (leprechaun) champions, green bagel and all.

Race morning started off great, although the weather could have been better: forecasted to stay in the 40's all day with a chance of rain.  I have to reiterate here how key our hotel location was.  I literally stepped out of my room 10 minutes before the gun was supposed to go off.  The race started a couple of minutes behind, so it worked out perfectly not having to brave the chilly morning temps.

I got lined up right where I wanted, between the 3:25 pace group and the 3:35

At least 10% of these people were shivering

The race started off great.  I didn't follow the "plan" of just going for a 155-160 BPM HR, but maintaining a 7:55/mi pace felt perfect, and even by mile 13, I felt like I'd have enough in the tank to push it down to a 7:30 or even a 7:00 during the final 10K.  Well, of course, that didn't happen...

Right at mile 21, like clockwork during the lonely stretch through Fort Story, I came face to face with "the wall".  I don't think it had anything to do with nutrition, rather, my lack of proper training over the past four weeks.  I hadn't run over 18 miles during a single run since the 50K back in January, and it really showed.  On this ridiculously flat course, my legs just quit and after a little research it looks like something to do with my IT band, but honestly I'm not sure.  It's sort of the same strained muscle feeling on the outside of my hips I get after a long day of backpacking.

Anyhow...I slugged through those final few miles continuing to run, but at the slowest pace imaginable, even though I'm pretty sure I saw a 79 year old lady in a walker pass me by at around mile 24.

I must have picked it up for the final .2 knowing about the enormous beer tent waiting after the finish.  It was a disappointing final time, but we got changed at the hotel and then made it over to enjoy the Yuengling brews and mass produced Irish stew on the beach.

Beach scene near the end of the finishing chute, outside the beer tent

Quality architecture inside the tent

"The Deloreans" rocking out some 80's classics

Though I didn't qualify for Boston this weekend (or even hit my secondary goal of 3:30), it was a fun time of geocaches and running.  The race experience was put together perfectly by J&A Racing, including the live race timing updates, and the post race party.  Thanks for a fun time this weekend, with the exception of that final hour of the race (totally not their fault, but not fun nonetheless).

If you're interested, here's a link to my race in detail.

Finishing off St. Patty's day right, with an amazing stout!

Sabotage

I've done it: pretty much ruined my chances for qualifying for Boston this weekend.  It didn't happen overnight however.  Over the past four weeks I've eaten too much, drank too much, and run too little.  The last part of those wasn't entirely a dumb decision, as I've been having issues with shin splints on my left leg, and rest has been a priority in order be able to complete all 26.2 miles just 5 days away.

I'm definitely happy with what I'm still capable of, given the way I've (poorly) executed training and nutrition over the past month or so, gaining close to 10 pounds in the process.  With that said, the new goal is to simply go Sub 3:30.  I'm planning on taking it easy for the first half, keeping my HR around 155-160 and if that goes well, maybe push it a bit for the final 13.1.

My progress will be posted automatically on my Facebook Page and Twitter Page at mile 7, 13.1, 18 and the finish line.  Follow along on Sunday for all of the St. Patty's Day action...good, bad or ugly!