A few of us did a thing this past Saturday…a huge mountain trail loop route called the Catawba Run Around or Triple Crown Loop. All but one had done it at least once. It is a huge deal to finish this thing in one day, as most people backpack it for 2-3-4 days. To us, it is just another fun Saturday, just much longer than normal. The Catawba Runaround is a very iconic hiking/backpacking/ultrarunning loop route that includes the 3 Crowns of the Appalachian Trail in the Roanoke VA area-McAfee Knob, Tinker Cliffs and Dragons Tooth. Most of us would add a 4th Crown of North Mountain (not on current, but is old Appalachian Trail). This loop is 34 plus miles and over 9000 feet of elevation gain. It is very slow and technical terrain.
This group run event was mostly centered around one of our friends doing it for the first time. Congrats to Heather as she did it in great and happy fashion. 9 of us started and 9 of us finished, which is pretty phenomenal by itself. Usually someone has some level of an issue and stops at some point. One guy-Jeff aka “The Natural” did several out and back runs during our run and had over 40 miles and 10,000 climb at the finish. To give him credit, he did the out and backs to cater to the back of the pack. We have several people that have big events coming up, like Georgia Death Race, Mount Mitchell Heartbreaker, Bigfoot 200, Blackbeard’s Revenge, Rim to Rim to Rim, Promise Land and others..but really, we were all here for the fun of it. And we did have a ton of fun.
The huge takeaway, after the fact, was that our 71 year old female friend-Dru did it. Sometimes we take her for granted, because she has been doing running events, at a high level for a long time, so nothing surprises us. But when you stop and think about it, it is astonishing that she did this in a bit over 13 hours. I was one of the people that was with her at the finish and trust me, she was moving at a great pace down Tinker Cliffs and Andy Layne Trail in the cold, windy dark. She had her big metal flashlight, that is almost as big as she is, going down the trail! In the middle of the run, at 21 miles and 6200 climb we gently offered Dru an out option, if she wanted. We had a friend that did a partial and could drive her back. She would not consider it and was determined to keep moving.
I do not want to keep making a huge deal out of her accomplishing these huge things at her age, but at the same time, it is so astonishing, how can you not?
On top of her athletic abilities, she is an extremely sweet and fun loving person. Everyone that knows her says “I want to be Dru when I grow up”.
Hats off Dru to another huge accomplishment.
And yes, I asked..she is more than fine with me/us advertising her age. She is happy to be old enough to be retired and play as much as she wants, along with spending time with her grandson and other family/friends.
The hike along the Bullhead Trail in the Great Smoky Mountains begins from the Rainbow Falls Trailhead, located just outside of Gatlinburg. Starting from Light 8 in Gatlinburg, turn onto Historic Nature Trail / Airport Road. After driving 0.7 miles veer right onto Cherokee Orchard Road, upon which you’ll enter into Great Smoky Mountain National Park. After driving another 2.2 miles you’ll enter the one-way Cherokee Orchard Loop Road. After driving roughly 0.6 miles on the loop, the Rainbow Falls Trailhead will be located on your right. If this parking lot is full there’s an auxiliary parking area about a tenth-of-a-mile further down the road.
I was birthed with my brothers and sisters of various colors, at a plastics production plant. I was blessed with bright yellow as my color. A few of my siblings and I were boxed and placed in a truck. We all wondered where we would go and what life would be. We were trucked to Roanoke, Virginia and placed in a store. I liked this Roanoke place instantly and wanted to experience it fully, among other places. We sat in the store and again wondered what life would hold. One day, a lady with long blonde hair and an Iron Man shirt on picked us up and smiled. This is promising! I do not know what an Iron Man is, but she looks adventurous and fun.
The blonde lady took us to her home and not much happened the first night. Again, we wondered what life would hold and what was next. The next morning, there was excitement in the air. The lady had excited friends in her driveway on bicycles. They were chatting it up about a big birthday adventure…oh it was the lady’s birthday! Each friend was given one of us. Things are building up and this is exciting.
I was given to a man and we were all strapped on their bicycles. We were all overcome with excited fear of the unknown. They took a group picture and took off at what seemed like to us, a high speed! We had never felt wind and open air like this before. How exhilarating! We found out that when they squeezed us that we made excited noises. They got a kick out of this and made their own excited noises. They kept riding their bikes. We went up and down big mountains and saw amazing views. We all had so much fun. We were in shock over all of this. What a day! We wondered if this would be a one time thing or is this our life going forward. We prayed and hoped that his was a forever life.
Our new owners left with us. This was another change. So many changes in just a few days. Again we wondered what was next and what life would be like. Before this we had not ever been separated out.
My owner took me to his home. I felt like he was trying to decide what to with me going forward. I sat on a shelf for a while. I was scared his nice dog may do something with me, but she never did..whew.
One day, he grabbed me and placed me with some adventure gear and luggage. We got in a car with his family and drove a long way. Again I wondered what was happening..is this another adventure? We visited this place with big mountains and views. I found out it is called the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I figured this out when he placed me on a big sign for a picture. I was in shock over all of this. He and his family took me on a hike after that. We saw mountains, waterfalls, big views and turkeys. These turkeys looked a little similar to me and my siblings, without the bright colors!
After we got back home, my owner was gifted a koozie/drink holder that is also a sleeping bag. I may look like I have feathers but I DO NOT! I have nothing on my skin and get cold a lot. I get especially cold on these fast bike rides and mountain hikes, plus I needed a place to sleep. My owner checked to see how the koozie bag fit if I was placed in it. Perfect! It is so warm, cozy, and snug!
My owner thought about naming me Charlie but later he decided on Chilly. He had a college buddy whose nickname was Chilly and I always looked cold and chilly, that is how I got my name.
I have seen my siblings at other group adventures and we always have fun. We always go back with our owners. We have realized this is our life and it is fantastic.
My owner also takes me on other adventures with just him and his family or friends. Other than the Smokies National Park, we have been to the Day Creek/Blackhorse Gap area for a trail run. Another adventure was what my owner called the Rockstar bike route. I was in a picture early in the morning on his bike, and then he and a friend rode 160 miles in Western Virginia!
I even got to experience Christmas!
I keep wondering what is next but the wondering is different than before. I know this is my life and it is great. Now I wonder what adventure is next. I hear talk of going to Colorado and Arizona this year..I wonder what Colorado and Arizona is and what we will do? Hmmm…
This is a free duathlon-bike-then-run race event. Ride: 14ish mile/2125 feet climb Run: 5.7ish mile/750 feet climb loop trail run. The start/finish is at the Roanoke Mountain Campground/picnic area. Mass start in the campground on bikes. We will take a left out of the campground onto Mill Mountain Parkway, then we will do the Mill Mountain Loop (down the new road and up the old road) After the Star and at the bike statues, turn right on Mill Mountain Parkway. Go past the Campground and do the Roanoke Mountain loop (up the South-“good” side to the summit and down the North-“bad”/back side. When finished with Roanoke Mountain, go back to the campground to finish bike portion. Once at the Campground we will lock our bikes up and put our running shoes on. We will run the 5.5ish Chestnut Ridge Loop counterclockwise. Start and end of the loop will be from a designated spot-(near Peakwood) in the campground. Once you finish running the loop you will be done (if you do not know the regular CRL loop then you need to learn it..it will not be marked). We will keep track of total elapsed time and rank everyone. Routes: Ride: https://www.strava.com/routes/3047178801349111852?v2=true Run: https://www.strava.com/routes/3047176558263598314?v2=true **There will be a safety meeting before we start. We do not want to be speeding down the steep descents period, plus there will be pedestrians, cars etc out on this route. You should treat the downhill descents as a careful completion and focus on the other parts for speed. Parking/start/end-https://goo.gl/maps/fcMmEk6zCSwWekuZA
I did this 34ish mile loop on 11/18. I got the idea and route from friend Rachel Corrigan, who did it with her boyfriend a few months ago.
I had considered signing up for the Looking Glass 100K, but I chose to do this instead. My wife will be out of town at a conference, I have a free place to stay at in the Smokies and I will save alot of money, compared to doing Looking Glass.
The 2024 date: Miserious Mountain Trail Run V will be on Saturday November 9th
This is a “Fat Ass”, Free, Unofficial event..but will be treated like a race. “FAT ASS” is the name given to a low-key run that is frequented by experienced runners & hikers and characterized by the phrase “No Fees, No Awards, No Wimps”. Yes, the run is totally free to enter and are put on by passionate runners who are also running”. This is a “community” fun type event that you can treat as competitive or a fun completion.
I will need to request a donation of $5.00 for aid. We got by the past 4 years without doing this, but it is a necessity. Manned or not manned, there will be water and food at Andy Layne and the bottom of Hi Dee Hoe Trail. Pay at PayPal: @williammckeown1
This event started in 2020 during Covid when all of the official races were cancelled. Masochist Mountain Trail Run was a race that many had planned to do. I created this event to take it’s place. The Hinchee trail had opened up recently, which connected Carvins Cove to the Battlefield Trail, which takes you to Parkway Brewing. I realized that you can start at various big time trailheads and end at Parkway Brewing for a nice finish spot and hang out. The Miserious name is a spin off of Masochist. You can start when you want to on race day, but the idea is to finish in the afternoon between 1 and 5. The 35K/20 milers start finishing around 1pm and hang out to see the others finish later in the afternoon. The longer distance runners want a nice finish also! We do wait on everyone. -There will at least be aid at Andy Layne-(mile 11 of the 50K) and at Carvins Cove Hi Dee Hoe trail (mile 10 of the 35 K and mile 21 of the 50K)-there will be an update on that before the race. There are 100K++, 50 mile+, 40++ mile, 31 mile and 20+ mile options. You can create shorter routes and enjoy the same finish, but the official routes are the presented ones. The 35K/20 mile course has been the most popular so far. We have had completions of all the distances. All of the options, come from the Appalachian Trail, to Carvins Cove, via Saw Mill Branch trail… then through the Cove to Hinchee Trail… then Battleground Trail(Kessler Mill Trail) to Parkway Brewing. Finish at Parkway Brew, for a cheering finish. There will be a party at the finish.
50 Mile route: https://www.strava.com/routes/2756859311072448144 The 50 miler starts at the Battleground statue, by the Orange Market and ends at Parkway Brew. This course does most of the Catawba Run Around loop, in the middle. Will flag the mile ten turn, which is turn left, at the bench and bushwack straight up to the AT. (please realize that the 50 mile has a different course, from Sawmill Branch to Brushy Mountain)
100K route: https://www.strava.com/routes/3024718077599364040 Point to point course starting near Captain, Va- past Kelly’s Knob on the AT (where Huchison road crosses the AT Start point directions ) Follow the AT past Tinker Cliffs to Sawmill Branch, then follow the 35K course directions to Parkway Brewery.
The event is designed for and best to finish in the afternoon, when Parkway is open, for a cheering finish and immediate beer. Aim for the 1-4pm window. There will be people cheering at the finish. Plan to hang out and see others finish 35K and 50K runners must start and finish on the event day. the 40 milers, 50milers and 100kers can start Friday evening or after. Must state your distance and start time, before race day. You can make your own bibs for fun, if you wish. It is best to arrange carpool to the trailheads, but not a requirement Everyone needs to know the course and turns. Do your homework! Do not do this without knowing what you are doing. Do not expect to just follow someone the whole way. Strava routes are posted. Learn how to follow a route, on your smart phone. Turn by turn directions, with mileage, will be posted. Take a laminated cheat sheet with you. I will post and rank the times for each distance. You must post or send me a Garmin Strava type link, to be ranked for speed. I will also post completions, if people do not want their time listed, please let me know.
Adventure friend, Caleb Johnson and I decided to do this thing..
I suggested it to Caleb a few months ago. I had seen this route promoted by the Virginia Endurance Series group. I was highly interested, but the mileage is really high, and I was not interested in doing a 2 day overnight ride. At first I thought it would be good to do the last 100 miles as a partial completion and century ride. When I mentioned that to Rob Issem with the Virginia Endurance Series, he encouraged us to do the whole route. Caleb and I eventually decided to do the whole Pave route-166 miles in one day. We picked September 30.
The RockStar challenge has 3 courses-MountainBike, Gravel and Pave. I will not explain it all, but the Pave is the shortest and easiest by far. See the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/rockstarvirginia
They have a “Grand Depart” day in April, in which several cyclists start at the same time and do the route that they choose to do, but you can also do the route any time you want. There are lodging and camping recommendations, restaurants and store stops, plus highlights of the route noted. We did this on our own.
The short of it is that we planned to ride 166 miles point to point from downtown Harrisonburg VA to downtown Roanoke VA on back country roads and gravel roads, through Mountains, Farmlands, National Forests and a State Park. The idea of doing it in one push/one day appealed to us more than a bike packing trip/overnight stay. Everyone has different preferences. Clifton Forge area is a great place to stay overnight, plus there are other great options.
Research and preparation: The logistics of a point-to-point/one way route like this is a major pain. You either get someone to drive up and drop you off at the start and pick you up at the finish OR you drive yourself up and go back to retrieve the car later. I do not think a train or bus was an option here. I went back and forth on on the logistics. I give a lot of credit to Caleb for preparation. Many times on adventures with other people/groups, I mostly lead the way and do the preparations and planning. Caleb did a lot on this one. Among other things, Caleb put waypoints in the route so that the bike computer and our watches would tell us where our stops were (water, food store stops). Caleb also secured a bike computer to rent from Cardinal Bike Shop in Roanoke. Kudos to him.
My wife, Maria graciously agreed to drive us to Harrisonburg Friday evening-THANKS Maria!. We got hotel rooms and Maria dropped us off at Black Sheep Coffee in downtown Harrisonburg at 6am Saturday morning (Blacksheep was surprisingly kind of hard to find). Note on the hotel-there were great options near the start, in downtown Harrisonburg on Wednesday, but by Friday they were all gone. We had to stay 20 minutes South in Staunton.
We were off and riding, navigating the many turns in downtown Harrisonburg in the dark, shortly after 6am. There are 18 turns in the first 5 miles..it is shocking. Some of this was in the dark but we went down Harrisonburg Greenways and other short roads until it opened up into Farmland and backcountry.
Caleb packed light and totally relied on the stores/water stops. He only used his bike jersey pockets and the bottle cages/bottles, which worked really well. I attached a rear rack on my bike to carry food and other supplies (back up lights, etc). Everyone has different preferences, but I thought what Caleb did was the way to go. Rely on the store/water stops and carry as little as you can get away with.
Quote from the Endurance Series: PAVE – “The Pave route is stunning and it stays mostly in the valleys alongside the ridge lines that the Trail and Gravel routes use. A road bike with 28c or larger tires is the recommended steed. (Approx: 85% Country Backroads, 15% bikeable Gravel and Dirt Roads)”
I enjoy gravel riding but I was totally in a paved mindset and trying to make sure we had the pace to finish in one day. Roughly 15% of the route is gravel. Gravel is slower and I did not have a great tire set up for the gravel parts. I did fine with it and had no issues. Caleb had a good gravel tire set up and moved much better on the gravel than I did. Every time we hit gravel, he was probably holding his breath that I did not have an issue. I had 32 road tires on my bike and they did well. My recommendation is to have nothing smaller than that. I think Caleb had 40 gravel/knobby tires. My advice is to be prepared for it with the right set up and enjoy it.
We went through a lot of beautiful farm country-barns, pastures, etc. We went through a lot of National Forest. We went through Hone Quarry Recreation Area, where a few of us had run a 40 mile trail race, earlier this year. We went by The Wild Oak Trail that is a 28 mile trail loop and race event, that I did a couple years ago. We rode by Elkhorn Lake and Braley Pond, which I used to visit many years ago when we lived in Staunton. I fly fished the river behind Elkhorn Lake pretty regularly back then.We rode from the North side to the South side of Douthat State Park. This was Caleb’s first time in that Park.
The ONE snafu- we scouted out and knew all of the store and water stops ahead of time, but we missed a store around mile 115 that was on route 220. 220 is a busy highway that we were only on for a very short distance. We were focused on our side of the road and totally missed the store stop on the other side of the highway. We were 33 miles past it, when we figured it out. The next store stop was another 17 miles. Now we were out of water. I had a filter with me. We stopped and tried it, but it was not working. I failed to soak it before the adventure. Caleb drank from the creek unfiltered and I opted to tough it out.
We rode by Andy Layne trailhead, which is one of the main parts of the Miserious course/event that I created. We rode by McAfee Knob parking lot/trailhead and where the AT crosses route 311. We rode by Parkway Brewing, which we visit a lot. We rode through Salem and onto the Roanoke Greenway toward Mill Mountain.
The end of the route goes up the old road on Mill Mountain and then downtown to the finish at a Roanoke iconic/famous restaurant-The Texas Tavern. The old road going up Mill Mountain is very steep and is tough to do on fresh legs. We had this hanging over our head the whole ride..will we be able to bike up it with 160 mile legs? It was tough and slow, but we did it pretty easily. Caleb was faster than me going up it, not that it was a race. We were proud and happy with ourselves to be done with that climb and basically done with the whole route. We congratulated each other at the Star on top of Mill Mountain. Now all we had to do was 4 or so miles down the mountain and into town to get to the official finish at Texas Tavern. The route took us through Elmwood Park amphitheater and the downtown Market, which was interesting and nice.
In the meanwhile, Maria was following our progress on the Strava Beacon link. She and Brayden Meadows met at Texas Tavern and waited for us to finish. I cannot tell you how much I appreciated their support.
Finally we get to the Texas Tavern and finished! It took around 16 hours. 6am to 10pm. All 4 of us had food at Texas Tavern in celebration. Caleb and I had agreed beforehand that we would get a Cheesy Western ( hamburger with fried egg).
This was a fantastic adventure. We were blessed with perfect weather-it stayed between 60 and 70 the entire time, with no rain or wind. The whole thing went extremely smooth other than the missed store stop that I mentioned earlier.
Major kudos to the Virginia Endurance Series, Paul Workman and Rob Issem for putting this epic route together and promoting it. Our names are on the RockStar Hall of Fame- RS HOF
Lastly, people ask if or how much my but hurt during this, due to being in the saddle for so long. Not at all. I think everyone is different on that aspect and I am just lucky. My toes did get numb and did not get normal until sometime the next day.
1/ COMPLETED- January- The Catawba Runaround aka Triple Crown Loop. I had done the complete loop in 2018 and had been wanting to do it again. Keya Price was thrilled to do the whole thing also. We had several others join in for sections of it. It was a cold windy day and North Mountain tried to blow us out. Overall it went as perfectly as we could hope for. We were both very happy about it. This was Keya’s first CRA. I was faster than my 2018 time, but we were not in “race mode”. Huge success!
2/COMPLETED- February- Mount Leconte self created ultra mountain trail run in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park I had a business trip in Nashville and arranged to stay in Pigeon Forge (free through the company) for a couple days after. I did most of this route 2 years ago but was not able to do the last trail due to major ice. I did not have spikes with me and there was no going over or around it. This 2023 edition went great! No issues at all. Took longer than I thought but a fantastic adventure.
3/ COMPLETED- trail race March 25th- Hone Quarry 40 mile trail race in Dayton VA area. 8000ish climb. Inaugural race. First time race director and he was only 29 years old. This was a great course and race overall. I really enjoyed it and highly recommend it. https://www.honequarryultra.com/
4/COMPLETED-April-The Catawba Run Around aka Triple Crown Loop Allison had asked me to do this with her months before we did it. This was her first time doing it. It was a big goal of hers to do it after healing from an injury. We had a great and fun day. Alice Katherine joined in the the Andy Layne/Tinker Cliffs portion. 8 consecutive months of a trail ultra run.
I am sharing a list and rundown of my largest adventures from the year. I enjoy sharing this stuff with anyone that is interested and for myself, so here goes.
I did not initially think I had a huge adventure year, other than completing my first 100-mile running race event and the Pemi Loop, but looking back through my Strava activities for the year, I did a ton of epic adventures. I may not ever have another year like this..hard to say. These are not ranked. There are too many variables to rank, such as views, difficulty, distance, area, people I was with or solo, etc. I was able to knock out a few adventures that I had been wanting to do for a while.
The list is in chronological order. Each event has a Strava link with route details and pictures.
1/ January-Chaos Fatass Event-Gravel-road running. I should have done 40 miles but I saw my friends go into the brewery. My discipline failed me on this one.
2/ February-Wild Oak Trail-Cold TWOT event. Trail running race event. Solo adventure at a free/organized trail running event. This had been on my list for a long time. I was happy with the course and how I performed.
3/ February-Cabin Fever 50K in New River Gorge. Trail running race event. This was the most continuous running I remember doing in a 50K in a long time (or ever). I kept waiting for the bonk to happen but it never did. Good 50K trail time for me. Had a great time staying with friends in a cabin for the weekend. I was the fastest 50 plus year old..that may be the first time for that.
4/ February-Shenandoah National Park -Old Rag-White Oak Canyon-Hawksbill Trail running self-created adventure with Erin Breisacher. Great day. I had done this before as a 2-day backpacking trip with Doug Falls.
5/ April-Shadows of the South 100 attempt-Trail running race event. The event itself was a disaster due to disorganization-Run Bum. It was hot for April and I got sick at around mile 35. Threw up several times and struggled to finish the 50+ mile course. The 50 was still a huge distance but the whole thing was a failure overall. The moral of the story is to not trust Run Bum. Parts of the course was excellent and it was my first time running in the mountains of North GA.
6/June-Shut In Trail run then bike back on the BRP Solo self-created duathlon adventure. This was arguably the best self-created adventure that I have done. I staged my bike at the bottom of Mount Pisgah, ran-hiked the Shut-In Trail, then rode the bike back to the car on the BRP. IT was awesome. Saw HUGE bears on the trail.
7/July- The RVTR Top 100 Trails Challenge Completed this in July. This was an event in which runners are challenged to complete 100 selected local Roanoke-area trails that total more than 216 miles and 68,000′ elevation gain in the 2022 calendar year. I was one of only three who completed the challenge. I finished the challenge first in just over 7 months beating the nearest competitor by 3 months. Thanks to Marty Winn for putting this on. He and his wife Ruth finished it also!
8/July-Pemigawasset “Pemi” Loop in NH running/hiking solo adventure. Trail running an epic loop in the White Mountains. One of the best adventures I have had when you factor everything in. Loved every minute of this.
9/September-Iron Mountain 30-mile Trail running race event. Fantastic weekend in wonderful Damascus with a boatload of friends. The goal was to pace Marty Winn to his first official ultra trail running event. Mission accomplished plus a ton.
10/September Bedford 50-mile bike ride 2 Saturdays in a row with wife Maria and friends. Great course. Maria wanted to ride it before the event. Rode with several friends for the real event.
11/ October Cloudsplitter 100-miler Trail running race event with Keya Price, Matt Warner, and Jack Bugo. It was amazing..does not seem real at all..was like a dream or watching a movie. I cannot say enough how special this was in so many ways.
12/November Linville Gorge Loop -Self-created trail running adventure with Johnny Robinson. First time doing a big adventure with JR and man was it something. This was a huge huge adventure. Crazy hard route. Some bushwhacking and significant navigation. We gambled on being able to cross the river and won!
13/December Black Mountain Crest self-created trail running adventure with Johnny Robinson and Jack Bugo. Another huge adventure. Amazingly tough and gorgeous.
EdgeofMountain 