Trail Exploration

Beginning my quest towards ultra-marathon and long distance trail running, I began a series of trail exploration runs. Here is a brief overview of my latest undertaking.

I have now started to recon trails around Fort Benning that will give me better training value than just hitting the roads.

First, I started by looking in my own back yard. There are a lot of the trails around my house, but many are severely messed up. Only used by hunters and sewer service trucks, often they remain flooded and in "shot-out" condition. I discovered one such trail in my quest this Sunday. The trail past my 3rd mile just stopped after a section of culverts cut across it. After a minor back track, I took a turn, traversed a creek and then 20 meters of some nasty wash out, then up and out of that area.

Second, I am starting to find ways to use more trails to get to places that I would normally go to. There are paved trails all throughout my housing area, but I thought it would be cool to find the woodland routes before the nasty critters start to come out for the season. Over the summer last year, I used a large trail to go the 5 miles to work. Now that I have moved to a different position, it will now be a nice 9 mile gaunt through the woods to my place of duty, only having to cross 2 roads so far. I'm also mapping out a route to cut that down to just one road crossing. The less I have to deal with the traffic, the better.

Third, a lot of trails can be found by following the power lines, but they are only cleared so much as a pick up truck has rolled through the area and knocked brush down. It seems very common that one side of the tire marked path is better cleared than the other, making me believe the drivers that survey the power lines might be loading their trucks down to one side! Equipment, or a bad diet, has yet to be determined.

This run that I did on Monday morning incorporated the well maintained fitness trail until mile 2. I left the fitness trail and followed the outer edge of the "Follow Me" golf course until I got to the rebuilt northern side and found the old trails leading out. Then by instinct and basic knowledge of the area, I was down behind my 'hood and looking for trails that could be used, both for day and night. The powerline service trails were the best as they were slightly hilly and moderately technical. I got two good scratches on my legs from uncleared growth that made me feel really good about my little morning adventure! Nothing like a little blood before breakfast!

Bottom line: 5.7 miles in 50:20 on mostly new terrain.