I made the trek down to Florida again this year. Visiting my parents in Zephyrhills for a few days. Planned out some adventures (mild) along the way with stops to run on various rail trails, paths, along with a few fire towers. Great way to break up the driving.
I left on Sunday afternoon and drove through the rain to PA and slept for a few hours before continuing on.
Ran 5 miles on the nice dirt trails (Bear Hole Trail) of the Swarata rail trail in Pine Grove PA.
Was planning to run at the Woodstock tower in Woodstock VA but the trail was a bit too rocky for me, so I settled for a short hike.
I had trouble finding the correct trail for the Hanging rock battle trail (Salem VA) but once on it really enjoyed the smooth dirt trail for a nice 5m run.
Finished the day with a hilly run on the paved Huckleberry trail in Christianburg VA.
Day two started with a 4m run at sunrise on the Tweetsie trail in Johnson City TN. This would be my last run wearing gloves (temps in the low 50s).
I did a stealthy visit to the Flat Gap fire tower (ducking in through the gate) but the stairs had been removed so no chance to climb.
I mixed it up a bit with some trail and some roads on the very hill Sharp's Ridge memorial park in Knoxville TN. I had hoped to get to the fire tower but was blocked by a fence and an occupied ranger station.
In Chattanooga TN I ran on the TN river walk trail, this was a location I'd been before (with Eric) but I was injured at the time so I'd never run here. It was sunny and 60s (getting warmer).
Stone mountain was a spot I'd hoped to run for a few years now and was glad to finally make it. I parked in downtown and took the connector trail to the park and ran the "walk up trail" to the summit. 20 minutes for the 1.8 miles and another 20 for the 2.2 miles (with an add on) for a pleasant 4m run on a sunny day. The mountain had a lot of people for a random Tuesday in March. I can only imagine how busy it is on a nice weekend.
I finished the day with a quick visit to the Forsythe fire tower (Forsythe GA) before calling it a day.
My final day of travel started with a very dark run on the Ocmulgee heritage trail in Macon GA. The trail was decent enough if not a bit sandy from recent river flooding. The northern part had a huge homeless city with trash everywhere, but otherwise the trail was nice.
I went a bit out of the way to get to Moultrie GA for a run on the Tom White linear trail. This was a paved and fairly quite trail. I enjoyed the mid-50 temps and cloudy skies for a pleasant 5 mile run.
My final run was planned for Wildwood FL which had a bunch of paths, but on arrival I found it was a very active golf cart community and it appeared that pedestrians might not be allowed on the path. I did a quick check of the map and decided to head to the Van Fleet rail trail. I'd done the southern end before but hadn't run from the northern terminus (Mabel stations). The 80 degree temps and sunny skies heralded my first run in FL this year.
