Before I left for my first week at Wharton, I was able to get in a nice relaxing 5 mile run at home. That was Saturday the 13th. I had a long drive ahead of me and I needed to get moving.
I drove until the sun was setting, and then attempted to find a place to stay along PA/MD/W. VA Route 219. Drove back and forth over state lines trying to find a hotel or motel open for the night. Who would have guessed that every single hotel would be either booked or closed for the night? Luckily for me, I planned ahead and brought a few blankets along with me. Part of the luck was also getting triple upgraded at the car rental place from a full size to a Minivan. At first I hated the idea, but when I had to go to sleep, the sto-N-go backseats became a nice flat area I could lay out a blanket and fall asleep on. So I found a Walgreen's parking lot not too far from where I needed to be in the morning, and made my "camp" for the night.
While I looking for a place to stay, I did cross over into West Virginia, and in Silver Lake there's the Smallest Church in 48 States. It was open at 10:40PM. I stopped in for a quick visit, signed the guestbook, made my peace with the world, and left it how I found it. Check out this LINK for a quick video someone else has posted.
Along the way to Philadelphia from Detroit there are approximately THREE (3) "Highpoints". I calculated that I enough time to visit the State Highpoint in PA, and in Maryland. I saved West Virginia for another trip. They are all relatively close together, and can definitely be accomplished in one day's time. Waking up in Oakland Maryland I made my way back down Route 219 crossing over into W. VA (Silver Lake, half a mile up the road from the church) to the trail head. The trailhead isn't well-marked, so for those of you looking to earn your 50 States "Highpoints", look for a small semi-driveable path about .6 miles from the Smallest Church road. It's maybe a 100 yard drive on that path until you hit the actual trail head. Park and head to your left. You start on the West Virginia side of the mountain, and when you reach the summit, you're actually on the Maryland border. 10-15 minutes of brisk hiking up a moderate slope and your on the summit of Backbone Mountain. Unfortunately for me, about 10 minutes into the climb a rain cloud drifted into the side of the mountain. Visibility was about 50ft or so, luckily for me I had an emergency rain poncho.
Driving back the way I originally came, up route 219, I turned off into Amish country to find Mt. Davis in Pennsylvania. About 1 hour north of Backbone Mountain. I parked in the picnic area, and headed out for an easy 3 mile run. Strangely, I had a strong GPS signal and an even better signal on my cell phone. Proved to be a savior later on that day. Now on to the highpoint story.
To keep it short and simple, watch out for mountain lions on the way to the Mt. Davis path. I startled one, it jumped up and rain away about 50-70ft from me, turned, gave me a warning growl, and stared at me waiting for my reaction. I didn't know what to do, other than remain motionless. I decided to stare back, showing no fear. I have no idea if that was the right thing to do. If the cat had decided to attack me, the only thing that might have saved me was the shovel handle-sized stick about two feet away from me. The news would either have said "Crazy guy hikes to highpoint, stops to kill a mountain lion" or "another stupid guy got eaten by mountain lion". It turned and walked away, growling as if to say "damn you for waking me up...I keeeeel you". After that experience, and after my heart rate came back down, I continued along the path looking for the highpoint. Being my first time there, I assumed the "Mt. Davis Path" would take you to Mt. Davis. I was wrong. THAT path quickly proved to be overgrown and a little more technical. After being stubborn for about 1.5 miles, I realized that path wasn't taking me UP any mountain. In fact, I had lost about 400ft of elevation. I turned back, only to find that had I stayed on the other path, I was maybe 400 yards from the highpoint. Due to the lack of prominence from the surrounding areas, there's a tower built so you can have a view of the area. I'll come back and edit with a photo when I have time. Not too much to see on my day. It was kind of hazy, but towns in the distance were visible to the eye.
Tuesday there was a nice run through part of the UPenn campus and down Walnut onto the river path. Ran well past the rowing club houses. Very nice path. Surprised to see hundreds of people out at 6:30AM running/biking/rowing.
Thursday there was a gorgeous sunrise. My running partner said he wasn't going to go if it was raining. I thought he was nuts given what I could see out my window. Turns out that from his window he saw a very different weather pattern. I left on my own, and right around 25 minutes OUT, somewhere in Olde City (very narrow streets) the skies went from pink/peach/orange to near black/grey/purple with lightning everywhere, and a wall of rain bearing down on me. You could see it coming. I knew it was going to be bad, but was not prepared for THAT much rain. WOW! I rain as fast as I could, through the torrential downpour. Visibility was 4-5 feet max. The streets were flooding instantly. I made it back to campus and was received by our security with towels. They knew I was out there and waited for me. Personally I think they were trying to keep the lobby dry, but I'll go with excellent customer service at this point. A great run. Those are the experiences I love. Unfortunately, I later found out that someone was swept up in the flooding from that storm not too far from where I was, and they did not make it.
No run on Saturday or Sunday. Saturday was spent with family, catching up on lost time. Sunday was a travel day. Didn't have a place to stop and run AND SHOWER.
TODAY I rocked a 100-200-300-400 (x4) track workout with a 5.25 mile cooldown run afterwards. Ran a total of 9.3 miles and feel great.
My mileage for this month has been less than stellar. I think I was at 23 miles for the first week, 30 for the next, 15 last week, and maybe I'll get to 35 this week if I do it right. The summer in general hasn't exactly gone the way it was supposed to either. Between having some health issues that slowed me down mileage-wise, and having an excellent training partner out of the picture has presented a challenge to me that has me losing the motivation to compete or even care for that matter. Right now it all feels like I'm going through the motions, not really putting any passion into what once was a passionate event for me. Maybe it will all change tomorrow. But right now, I'm just living for today.
