The JRT is a beautiful trail which meanders in and out of the Jordan River valley for 18.5 miles. If you follow the trail counter clockwise from Dead Man’s Hill Overlook (appropriately named), as we did, the trail immediately descends over 400’ to the Jordan River, follows the northern bank of the river to the Pinney Bridge campground 8 miles later and returns to the start following high ridges which yield great views of the valley.Once, while on an overnight trip to the JRT, I was passed early in the morning by a day hiker who intended to hike the whole trail in a day. This brief encounter planted a seed inside me that I thought it would be “fun” to see how long it would take to run the entire trail. So, this weekend we set out to run the entire trail with only one goal, to finish. It only took me 15 minutes before I tripped on a root and fell. It was a quick reminder that this trail was not intended for running but rather a cautious hiker. The other half of the Dynamic Duo, KB, stayed upright a little longer, making it 60 minutes until she took to the air like superwoman and skidded to a halt in mid-flight form. Fortunately, neither of us was hurt and these were the only incidents of the day. We were elated to reach the Pinney Bridge CG in good form after only 1:40 of running. After a 20 minute break, in which we topped off our Camelbaks, we found the last 10 miles to be particularly challenging with very difficult hills and tired legs. We managed to finish the loop exhausted and sore in 4 hours 32 minutes.
3 comments:
Nice work Dynamic Duo! Watch out for those roots. Trail running is a different world, but a great way to see the outdoors. The marathon will seem like kids games to you guys after the training the dynamic duo has been through. At about mile 22 just think about at least you don't have to worry about jumping over roots or carry a canoe on your head! Some times those white lines on the road can be tricky.
True, trail runs are definitely a whole different world. Where else would you be surrounded by such beauty and you can't look because you are worried where your next step will be. I neglected to leave out the part where we were grunted at by a deer because we scared him enjoying a breakfast of dew covered grass. Overall, a wonderful experiene. But now my shins and ankles are having their revenge-very sore!
Ice dog & KB-
Awesome display of running power! Well done, sounded like a great run. You both will do just fine in October. Ice dog what happened??- you need to work on your balance, KB showed you up in the finesse department! I guess you're better on in the vertical opposed to the horizontal.
Have a great rest of the summer Dynamic Duo!
THE BERTMAN
Ice dog & KB-
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