It might surprise you to find out that those morning runs,
starting and finishing at whichever hotel I found myself in and going along the
long, straight, boring roads that were usually the only running option, were
actually a bit rubbish. It was good to
see a bit of the places that I was staying in and it was good to get some
exercise each day to counter some of the American size portions I was eating,
but the routes themselves were not exactly inspiring.
Today I found myself with a twelve hour layover at Newark
Airport, only a short train ride from Manhattan. Rather than hang around the airport for the
day I decided to get out and about and the choice of place to go was obvious –
rather than take a short train ride I hired a car for the day and drove the 70
or so miles to the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, on the border
of New Jersey and Pennsylvania and through which the Appalachian Trail
runs. I’d done a bit of research (I
found a blog written by a keen hiker who can best be described as the John
Kynaston of Delaware Water Gap) and had worked out a route going out linking up
most of the shorter marked trails and back along the Appalachian Trail. I was really keen to run along part of the AT
since it is such a daddy of a long distance path – it runs over 1,000 miles
from Georgia to Maine.
So here’s a few words and pictures on my run – about 14 miles in
total but quite slow (around 4 hours) because of the nature of the path, as
you’ll see, and it crept up to 30 Celsius over the course of the run.
I started off with an ascent of Mt Tammay, a modest 1,500ft
hill that forms one side of the Gap. The
Gap has been formed where the Delaware River has cut through a ridge of
quartzite on it’s way to the sea. Now if
you know your rocks, you’ll know that quartzite (a metamorphosed sandstone)
weathers down into a jumble of sharp angular blocks typically ranging in size
from small boulders to about the size of a house brick. I’d heard that some
parts of the paths I would be running on were a bit rocky because of this
broken quartzite.
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| At the start of the ascent of Mt Tammay - I thought this was what was meant by rocky trails so it seemed OK to me. How wrong I was. |
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| Looking into the Gap from Mt Tammay - the Delaware River cuts through a ridge of quartzite. It was a hot, hazy day. |
The climb up Mt Tammay (red trail) took a little over 20
minutes, with a few photo stops. When I
came down the blue trail I was on the other side of the hill from the other
ascendees and for the next hour and a half I didn’t hear or see any other
people – I didn’t hear any cars or planes, it felt properly wild. But it was by no means peaceful – the paths
through the woods were an assault on the senses – I was constantly watching the
trail because of all the rocks and other dangers (more on that to come), above
my head was a cacophony of bird and insect calls as I went past, the smells of
the forest filled my nostrils and my feet felt the sharp quartzite through my
shoes on every step. I followed the
trail up Dunnfield Creek to Sunfish Pond, a very pretty wee lake which modestly
claims to be one of the seven natural wonders of New Jersey. I’m not sure what the other six are.
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| The rocky trail alongside Dunnfield Creek |
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| Sunfish Pond - one of the seven natural wonders of New Jersey |
At Sunfish Pond I hit the AT for the first time. I could have headed back to the car along it
for a 10 mile run but decided since I was feeling okay and still had plenty
time (though I was moving much slower than I had expected because of the very
rocky paths) I would run out and back along the Trail to the intriguingly named
Raccon Ridge and Mount Mohican, a couple of miles each way. The first bit of the path was nice and smooth
so I thought oh good, the Appalachian Trail mustn’t be as rocky as the other
trails, but no soon enough it was back to business as usual. As I returned back past Sunfish Pond on the
AT this time the path became very much like the section of the WHW just north
of Inversnaid – lots of clambering over boulders and root stocks, and more than
once I very nearly trod on a timber rattlesnake basking on the rocks. Luckily they slithered down between a gap in
the rocks just as I got near them. I
think a few rattlesnakes on the WHW might slow even Terry Conway down a little.
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| The AT at Sunfish Pond could hold its own againts the Inversnaid section of the WHW... |
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| ...with some added dangers! |
As I ran the last few miles down the AT back to the hire car
I passed lots of walkers heading up to Sunfish Pond. By now it was nearly 30 Celsius and they were
suffering so I was glad that I had started a few hours earlier (perhaps the one
benefit of having to catch a red-eye from Portland the previous evening) and by
now was heading back downhill, fantasising about burritos and free soft drink
refills at Taco Bell.
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| Most of the trails were feet-achingly rocky. |
So it was a good way to spend the day – it would perhaps
have been nicer to run on some slightly less rough trails (my feet are
throbbing as I write this) but I can’t fault the forest and the few vistas that
I saw. Especially since it was all only
just over an hour drive from New York City.
Didn’t see any bears.
