This Sunday i set out to do the Elizabeth's Furnace 50k race course or at
least a big chunk of it. I ended up with a big chunk of it and a lot of bonus
miles that were quite fun despite not being the course i wanted to run.
I started the day out at home quickly packing 10 packets of medjool dates and
almonds into my fanny pack and loading my water pack - all with the help of
my ever patient partner Laura. After a nice breakfast of our usual egg white
omlet and a whole banana i set out to drive to the Signal Knob Parking Area.
The drive to the Forest was uneventfull and quick. I appreciate the 70MPH speed
limit on the western part of rt 66 though the speed frightens me a bit. Walking
and running really is first class travel to me. When i got to the forest i made
a quick pitstop at one of the less popular parking area to take care of a nature
call before driving on to the Signal Knob Parking area which was just a couple
hundred yards away. As it was a foggy day there were few people parked at Signal knob. I was pleased as i sometimes worry about getting parking on nicer days.
The first direction on the turnsheet for the Elizabeths Furnace 50K tells
you to start at the South end of the Signal Knob parking lot, cross the bridge
and turn right towards Signal Knob on the Orange (Massanutten trail). I started
south on the little trail to the orange trail. I got to the intersection of
Orange and Blue (Massanutten and Tuscarora) before i realized i had gone the
wrong direction. The trail sign said 3 miles to Maneaka Peak trail. I turned
around and by the time i got back to the parking lot and crossed the little
bridge at the end of the parking lot and started on the Orange Massanutten
trail again (it's a loop) i had run about 1.6 bonus miles. No harm no foul. It
was a nice day !
I had heard in descriptions of "The Ring" where people run the entire 71
mile Massanutten trail ring that the trail up Signal Knob was incredibly rocky.
The beginning of the trail was like a narrow, smooth single track road. I was
wondering what people were talking about but after a while the trail started
switching back and it started hitting those rocks. It even crossed a talus field
or two but there was a trail built. It was incredibly rough but the only part
that really gave me pause was a blowdown i had to climb over. I slipped a bit
climbing over. That was scary. After a rocky switchback the trail turned off the
edge of the mountain and headed in a more level direction. I could see the ridge
that the Maneaka peak trail would come off of in the close distance. This part
of the run had a bunch of puddles.
After a bunch of puddles and a pleasant, reasonable level run through a
forest a white blazed trail came in from the left. This was the Maneaka Peak
trail. This trail followed a ridge that was more or less defined. After a while
the trail went abruptly up what seemed to be a pile of huge slabs of rock. I
love this type of trail. After the slabs it was rough for a while and it settled
down to being a gentle ridge run - with rocks of course. The run on the ridge
seemed to go on for quite a while before it intersected with the Blue Tuscarora
trail. The Tuscarora trail went downhill with just a few rough places here or
there. I was able to run most of the downhill with a few tricky spots. I was
impressed to see mountain bikers on the trail. At one point i started wondering
where the pink Sidewider trail was going to come in and i asked one of them.
They told me "in about 1/2 a mile". Sure enough after a few more switchbacks
the trail appeared on my right and i took it.
The Sidewinder trail was pretty smooth though it had an up and down bump
where it crossed a stream. It mostly went along the shoulder of the mountain
for a while til it intersected with, in the words of the Old Dominion 100 race
director, a fine logging road. The fine logging road had purple blazes. I
followed the logging road til the end running as fast as sub 10 minute/mile when
it was flat and walking around 15minutes/mile when it was steep. The logging
road abutted a steep gully like trail that led down to a nicer trail that also
had the purple Mudhole gap trail blazes. I saw a side trail that crossed the
creek and being a day that i got lost i HAD to take it. I sloshed across the
creek and did a 1/2 to 3/4 mile detour on a lovely dirt trail before i realized
there were no trail blazes. I turned around and sloshed through the creek
giggling to find the trail again. I got a bonus creek crossing !!! On the way
up mudhole gap there is of course a good amount of mud but the main thing is
you have to cross the creek 5 times. When there is a lot of water the best thing
to do is just slosh across. Slippery rocks are dangerous and it is more fun to
just wade through the water ;-) This time it was not that deep. I have been in
Mudhole Gap when the creek crossings were knee deep.
The creek crossing fun ended just before Forest Road 66 which carries the
Orange blazes of the Massanutten trail. When i got to the dirt road i turned
left and cruised for a while til the Orange trail went off to the Right near
a gate. I followed the trail enjoying the easy forest trail worrying a little
about the coming trail intersection. When the Blue Tuscarora trail intersected
at this point it was confusing and i started off in the wrong direction. It
seemed really spooky. There were a couple of blown down trees and the trail did
not look like anyone had walked on it in a long time. There were undisturbed
leaves blown over it. Soon i realized i was going in the wrong direction and i
doubled back. The trail on the ridge was sometimes well defined, sometimes not.
Sometimes the ridgetop was only a few feet wide and sometimes it had 3-4 ft high
slabs of rock sticking up all over the place. The trail was rough and rocky !
I loved it ! It went on for a LONG time and going was slow but i found this part
to be one of the best parts of the run/walk despite it being a bit spooky
because of the potential for getting hurt. At one point i found an empty ammo
box of the kind used by geo-cachers. It had a label "flashbangs" on the inside
of it. I was surprised not to see a sign in book inside. On this trail section
i scraped my left leg on one of the standing rock slabs but i hardly noticed it.
I did however slip a couple of times and both times really hurt. One time i went
down and bruised myself in the rear and one time i slipped on leaves but caught
myself. The second time made my left knee hurt because of the strain. By the
time i got off that ridge i was a bit shakey.
When i got back to FR 66 and the Orange trail i sat down and ate a Hammer
Gel and one of my date/almond packs and tried to make a decision on whether to
continue the run or cut it short. I decided to cut it short and i took the blue
trail back towards the Signal Knob parking area. What i did not realize is that
route might have been shorter but it had a nice steep climb on it on a switched
back trail. Somewhere on that switchback trail the gel kicked in and i realized
that i should have kept on the planned route but now that i was climbing i kept
at it. Soon i was back at the top and the White Maneaka peak trail appeared. If
i had done the prescribed route i would have been coming out here after another
loop over Signal Knob.
The descent down the Tuscarora Trail was a bit slower this time and i fell
once. I was very carefull to pay attention. I was a bit shakey from all the
technical trail i had gone over during the day. The climbing, though i had gone
very gently on it probably had taken a little bit of a toll, though i am sure
that the descending took more of a toll. The Pink Sidewinder trail appeared and
i thought "i'm almost there" but there was still quite a lot of descending to
do. Once i got to the intersection with the Orange Massanutten Trail i turned
Left to the Signal Knob parking lot. This section of trail seemed more familliar
than the others. Of course i ran it twice at the beginning of the day ;-). When
i got to the gravel of the parking lot i started running a bit faster til i got
to my car. I felt well satisfied driving out of Fort Valley. On the way out i
never fail to wonder at the steep talus walls around the Passage Creek. It is
so beautiful there ! Once out of the park i drove a while on rt 55 and 79 to the
7/11 and stopped to fill the car and get a bite to eat. Jerky and a large coffee
never tasted so good !
The stats for the run are as follows:
6:56:56 walk/run 21.58total 7.58r 14.00w 5000Ft climb and
descent VERY technical trails.
I never stopped my watch for looking at maps or eating or anything. That is
start to finish. Mostly walking but it was a good workout ;-)
No comments:
Post a Comment