Today I “officially” started training for the Irish adventure. We will be doing about 18 miles a day, each day, for three days. Whew!
So today I parked at the Margaret’s Way parking lot, off SR900, with a plan to go all the way across the mountain to the SE May Valley Road Side, and back.
On the way out, I went up the Margaret’s Way trail to its end at the Chybinski Loop and then went right and took the Perimeter Loop Trail, my first time on that one. It was fine except for one very serious blow down. I wound up crawling on my belly underneath, as going over it looked even tougher, with several branches obstructing the path over this massive tree. Old growth? Perhaps – it was big. I should have snapped a photo, but I was wrapped up in getting past the obstacle.
This trail hit the Bullitt Gorge Trail, which hit the May Valley Loop trail and I took that one to its beginning, just .1 mile from the parking lot on that side. I took a quick break and just turned around.
On the way back I skipped the Perimeter Trail due to the blow down and substituted the West Peak Trail. I have done that trail from the other direction a few times, today was the first time from this direction. It is steep!
But then I finished that section back at the Margaret’s Way Trail and cruised back, the 2.76 miles. Saw some nice flowers along the way:
Here is an image of the track, which was 11.9 miles, 3,300 feet of elevation gain:
You can see it is basically an out-and-back except for the loop around the word ‘Squak Mountain West Peak 608 [meters]’. I took the lower section on the way out and the upper section on the way back.
A nice workout. I need to pile on the mileage and work up to 3 days in a row.