lapham peak
there’s just something wrong about waking up before six on a saturday morning without an alarm clock. i rolled out of bed to gather my gear and drove out to Lapham Peak State Park for some quality time on the trail. i opted to start with the Moraine Ridge (AKA “black”) trail which is rated “Advanced” and is seven miles long. one fun thing about these trails is that certain sections of the trail have names such as “Magic Carpet Ride”, “Stairway to Heaven” or “The Wall.”
“The Wall” refers to a nasty hill that goes nearly vertical on the black trail. there is a trail spur to avoid it running up it but i chose to climb it anyways. i rolled through the trail in about 66 minutes then stopped back at my car to refill the water bottle i was carrying and grab two packets of Gu. heading back onto the black trail, i headed out for my second loop.
shortly after climbing “The Wall” for the second time, i opened a packet of (chocolate flavored) Gu and glupped it down with a chaser of water. for the uninitiated, Gu is a rather necessary item as it provides calories to avoid your blood sugar from getting too low. Gu has the consistency of toothpaste and tastes like the richest brownie you can imagine. regardless, i continued on my way and rolled into Homestead Hollow which hosts the Colorama 10k/5k as well as the Smokey Bear kids runs in a few weeks.
rounding a corner on my way back to the parking lot, i came upon a group of 20 or so folks out on a hike wearing full camouflage. as i approached i figured that the group was likely a ROTC or Reserve group out for PT. i announced myself with a clearing of the throat and their leader shouted “make a hole” so i could pass unimpeded. i said thanks and kept moving along down the trail, downing Gu #2 around 2 hours after starting the effort.
i made it back to the parking lot with fourteen miles covered in 2:12. after refilling my water bottle, i headed back to the trail head and this time opted for the two mile Meadow (AKA green) trail, which was rated “Easy.” by this time, the sun was warming things up and my legs were feeling the effort of the previous fourteen miles. i rolled myself through the green trail in a bit over 18 minutes and proceeded to dump what little water i had left in my bottle over my head to cool off a bit.
in all, i mustered 16 trail miles in a few ticks past 150 minutes. trail running is a bit different than running on the roads in that the terrain is never consistent and you’ve always got to be looking to see where your next footstep should land. the grade of the hills isn’t anything like you’d encounter on the roads and there’s times you’ve got to dodge folks to give their dogs a bit too much leash. all in all, it was alot of fun but i’m looking forward to some cooler temps this fall as it’ll make it much more comfortable to run in.
MTD – 73.5 miles
YTD – 1000.3 miles
Odometer – 29,108 miles