Sugar Hollow Loop Group Run 03/13

Rebecca, Drew, David and I met up at Greenberry's at 7.30 to carpool to Sugar Hollow. Since my injury wouldn't be happy running, I decided to join them by mountain bike. It was a gorgeous day and you definitely could smell and see that the spring is just around the corner. After getting ready for the trail we took off on the North Fork Moorman’s Trail up to Blackrock Summit after the Skyline drive. The rain a few days before made some parts of the trail look like a creek. So we had to run on the shoulder a bit. The Moormans river had a refreshing temperature and cooled us off up to the knees each time we crossed it. Mountain Biking was not as fun as running but was a good mountain time.

Some pictures:


David adds: After Christian turned around, Rebecca, Drew, and I continued up the trail to Blackrock Summit. The weather was spectacular, making for great views of the Shenandoah Valley, Massanutten, and surrounding scenery.

From Blackrock Summit, Rebecca headed back down the North Fork trail to minimize potential IT problems that day. Drew and I continued south on the AT, with Drew being so gracious to stay with me at my -- hopefully improving -- speed. We passed lots of dayhikers and weekend backpackers on our way and it was overall a perfect running day, with temps hovering in the low to mid 60s. As we neared Turk Branch Trail -- our return trail -- we came across a giant doe (deer from Amazonia?) that jumped in front of us on the trail. No bear, although there are signs up this year warning that the area near Turk Gap is very bear-friendly.

We finished by returning on the South Fork Trail to Sugar Hollow -- with a few more refreshing Moormans crossings -- at about 1:15 pm for 20.4 miles in about 5 hours. Overall, a great day of mountain running. Here is my Garmin report:

Training Group Run Sunday, 03/13

This Sunday we are thinking of heading back to the mountains for a Sugar Hollow Loop run. The plan is to run north on the North Fork Moorman’s Trail up to Skyline Drive, then north to Blackrock Summit, before turning around and heading south on the AT to Turk Branch Trail down to the South Fork Moorman’s trail back to the start. The roundtrip would be about 20 miles (The route is approximately 2 miles longer than the one mapped above because we are adding a climb to Blackrock summit.).

We will meet at the main parking area just west of the reservoir at 8:00 am (Remember the time change to Daylight Savings!) to start the run. I believe Drew, Rebecca, and I are in. Who else would like to join?