I left the house at 5:30 AM to meet my son for a 6:00 start at the Delaware Water Gap. Our goal was to run a 10 mile loop twice: up the Red Dot Trail on Mt. Tammany, along the ridge on the Tammany Fire Road, the Turquoise Trail over to the AT by Sunfish Pond, the AT back to the start. And… Finally! The trails at the Delaware Water Gap were free of snow!
The run was tough going for me. I felt slow and tired. We got to mile 7 and what I thought to be a small stone in my shoe turned out to be a blister on my heel. By the time we finished the first loop, I had blisters on the backs of both heels. I put Band-Aids on them and started up Mt. Tammany again. My heels were ON FIRE!
Halfway up the mountain I started getting spasms in my hamstrings. I had taken Endurolytes and Sports Legs to prevent spasms. But that wasn’t enough to overcome the fact that I had not run more than 7 miles in one shot in months. The second time up the mountain got me. It seemed to take forever to make it.
I knew I couldn’t make the full 20 miles. So I sat on a rock and bemoaned my miserable condition. While my son continued on the full loop, I took the Blue Dot Trail back down to the parking lot. I was done.
I made it 13 miles. But according to my crazy training plan I should have done 21. Things are not going according to plan. But here are some photos.
Looking through the Gap just before sunriseThe Moon in the Belt of Venus, halfway up Mt. TammanyGiving it my best on Mt. TammanySunshine on Mt. Minsi, the shadow of Mt. Tammany, the Delaware River, the Poconos, the Moon, the Belt of Venus… all beautiful!A snow-free Tammany Fire RoadMy son taking in the beauty of the early morning sun and the snowmelt along the Turquoise TrailSunfish Pond
THE END
(Once the blisters start, fuck taking any more pictures.)
When you reach mile 11, have blisters on your heels, spasms in your hamstrings, and come to terms with giving up the 20 miles you had planned, getting off the mountain, and settling for 13… while sitting on a rock in the woods and feeling like a loser.
Season’s Greetings! It might as well be Christmas with all the snow we’ve been getting!
Week 3 of my 50K training. I was shooting for 12 miles this week. But seeing as we had a nor’easter AGAIN a few days ago, I was sure the trails would be covered even more than last week. I knew that attempting to gain miles via the Tammany Fire Road was not a workable plan. Reaching 12 miles by doing Tammany loops (3.35 miles each) would mean up and down Mt. Tammany 4 times. When I got up at 4:30 AM I knew I didn’t have it in me to make it 4 loops, especially with increased snow on the trails.
When I arrived, I soon found that the snow was deeper on the trails as I suspected. It was mildly packed on the Red Dot Trail. It was less packed on the Blue Dot Trail. That made for a super fun descent on the mountain. Most of the rocks were well covered. Running on the narrow slightly packed single tracks was a breeze. The steeper sections of the trail were less packed and a lot of fun to careen through! I knew if I fell it wouldn’t matter. I would just land in deep snow. It felt like being a kid again! Plus, I set my fastest times ever on that trail. But I only had enough in me to do 2 loops, not nearly 12 miles.
Here are several photos.
The sun rising about Mt. TammanyAnother beautiful view of Mt. MinsiThis shirt makes me look like a 6-foot tall highlighter running through the woods.Sun and single track on the Blue Dot TrailPleasant single track over a very rocky stretch of the Blue Dot TrailNor’easter wreckage along Dunnfield CreekNor’easter wreckage along Dunnfield Creek
My training plan called for 9 miles this week. The plan starts at 6 miles and adds 3 miles each week. I know it’s not the best idea, but I’ve become a bit of a lunatic in my plans in order to get ready for a 50K on April 21 that I really do not want to miss. So I set out for the Gap with 9 miles in mind.
However, there are always things that challenge my accomplishment of all the miles I have in my mind. For one, a nor’easter covered northern New Jersey with several inches of snow a few days before. Also, my family’s schedule has gotten pretty hectic with a toddler in the house, both my wife and I working full time (she working two careers), and both of us needing time to run. The first challenge made the trails harder to run on. The second group of challenges means my time for exercise has decreased, which means my physical conditioning has decreased. I should add one other factor here. My weight has increased. Lugging myself up a mountain is no small feat at this point.
What follows are photos (and a video) and some comments in three sections: The Way Up, The Fire Road, The Way Down.
The Way Up
The snow made for gorgeous scenery. The Red Dot trail up Mt. Tammany was packed with snow, not too hard to navigate. The views were beautiful.
Looking through the Gap down the Delaware River, one third of the way up Mt. TammanyThe view from Mt. Tammany looking over the Delaware River, Mt. Minsi (PA) and the Poconos
The Fire Road
One aspect of my family’s tight schedule is that my wife often works on the weekends. Add a snowstorm into the mix and time becomes even more limited. Due to that snow, I postponed running until Sunday, but had to wait until the afternoon when my wife got home. Well, that added another challenge. By the time I got to the Gap, there were quite a few people on the trails. That just makes it hard to run while maneuvering around folks, something that contributed to badly injuring myself in 2016.
So, when I got to the head of the Tammany Fire Road trail, I decided to see how far I could make it along that route. The trail was covered by several inches of pristine untrod snow. It was irresistible, my pathway to solitude away from the crowds.
I stomped through that snow for 45 minutes making it almost a mile and a half. My toes were getting cold even in their wool socks. My thighs were on fire from marching nonstop. So I retraced my steps back to the Blue Dot trail.
The pristine untrod Tammany Fire RoadThe desecrated trod-by-Snyder Tammany Fire Road
The Way Down
The way down the Blue Dot trail was slushy and sloppy. My thighs were on fire but I had a good run down the mountain.
At the bottom I was surprised by the number of trees that had fallen in the storm along the Dunnfield Creek. It was quite a mess! Climbing over some of these obstacles was a challenge with my spent thighs.
I called it a day at 2 1/2 hours with 6 miles covered. I didn’t hit the 9 mile mark. The effort expended in the snow made up for the 3 missed miles.
View from the Blue Dot Trail looking North to the next ridge upon which the Appalachian Trail traversesThe Blue Dot Trail along Dunnfield Creek looking up toward the ATAlong the Blue Dot Trail near Dunnfield CreekOn the Blue Dot Trail with the bridge crossing Dunnfield Creek in the background
At some point early on Sunday morning while I was running my Tammany Loops (See my post: “Early Morning Tammany Loops”.), during my second loop to be exact, some knucklehead spray painted the above endearment along the red dot trail. Some time between 7:15 and 8:30 AM the deed was done.
I remember what it was like being young and crazy about a girl, “in love,” as they say. I remember writing a girl’s name all over my desk in 6th grade. Come to think of it, I wrote a different girl’s name all over a desk a few years later.
Then I remember an act of vandalism I inflicted upon the unused factory across the street from our house when I was 15. I spray painted letters on one of the doors. They were letters of true love. They were not for a girl. They were for a band.
LED
ZEP
My old neighbor, Mr. Bennett, thought for sure it was someone with the initials “LED” in love with someone else with the initials “ZEP.” He was about 500 years-old, drove a big old station wagon, had a wife who was OCD about washing her hands constantly, and he had a plot of land a few miles down Route 31 where he grew an abundance of vegetables. He was kind enough to give our family plenty of tomatoes and zucchini. I’ll never forget the day he pointed over toward the factory and said to me, “Look at that, Sammy. Must be somebody in love.” I thought, You moron, it’s a band! The best band in the world! Thinking about it now, he probably wasn’t as senile as I took him to be and probably saw me painting the damn door the day before, like a knucklehead.
My family had a Ford Torino in those days. When my stepfather was at work and my mom was occupied with my baby sister, I would take the keys and drive that car, a pukey tan colored boat, up our gravel driveway onto the street, down the Bennett’s driveway and around their house, over and over like it was the Indy 500. Mr. Bennett got a kick out of it. He also seemed to think I was as innocent as a Boy Scout. He never knew that I cut a corner too close and took a chunk of cement off his house with that Torino. (My stepfather took a chunk out of my hide that day though!) Mr. Bennett also did not know how I and my best friend, who turned me on to “LED ZEP” in the first place, used to throw the rocks from the gravel driveway to bust out the windows of that old factory. Sometimes we used our Wrist Rocket slingshots.
But I digress in telling you about what a moron I was as a teenager. All I intended to do with this post was say that there is really no excuse for graffiti in the woods. What is the point?? Or is “MB 03 05 A…(What is that? A backward D?)” a new band I don’t know about? Either way, you got the first letter right: M. For moron. Because if you think the hikers and runners will pause to appreciate your sign of deep and true love, you, my friend, are a moron.
