November 14, 2009
Somewhere in North Carolina
No, hoards of kamikaze turkeys are not swooping down in a pre-Thanksgiving surprise attack on the Bent Creek basin in the North Carolina dawn. Or are they? It’s the 3rd annual Gobbler 50k Fun Run hosted by Adam Hill and the NC ultra krazy runners I’ve come to enjoy hanging out with during my running tour of duty. The come back from several seasons of mostly minor but nagging injuries has waylaid me from a full 50ks worth of running fun for this event. So along with most of the kamikrazies, many deployed from very recent endurance events, I elect to complete only the first loop of 14-15 miles.
It’s a couple-plus hours drive down to south ███████ville, so I picked up Beth about 0530 and an old sickle moon carved our flight path through a thick fall fog down the Holston valley. We landed at Rick and Tammy’s base about 0630 and waited on Clifton to complete our crew, then we set out for Bent Creek across Sam’s Gap on I-26 in the IMTR family van. There was much exchange of trail war stories and running reconnaissance gossip to digest. ████ is newly wed, █████ is in the trenches of her second tri-mester, and █████ was engaged even as we spoke at the battle for a Richmond BQ as she strafed the marathon throngs with blue PowerAde in her wake. Beth and Rick had ran the Mountain Masochist 50mile +++(+) Trail Run just last weekend flanked by some stellar performances from folks of the northern Can-Alaska Alliance, and where our own IMTR Doug Blackford won the 60+ division.
We landed in the cool, deep November shadows of the Bent Creek forest awaited by many other ultra troops already bounding about in running shorts and shivers. When a full platoon had been mustered and the sun had taken the ridgeline to our east, Adam our commanding Gobbler, distributed maps and last minute instructions to have fun. We pulled out onto Bent Creek Gap road and took a quick left on FS 479M (that’s in code –sorry, but that’s all I can say). The road was generous in girth and chamfered neatly into the rocky ravines bobbing, dipping, and rising cautiously toward the eastern blueridge crest. I was disposed to be the tailgunner and sweep our trail markers, partly because I’m a back of the packer by nature, but today even more appropriately, I was destined to make some obligatory lower GI maneuvers in the bushes during the early stages of our campaign.
After about 6 miles I was much relieved to have completed this duty, caught up to and passed on the sweeping assignment to Martha and Gayle. Our path took a sharp turn on to the MST at the ridge crest espying the ████████ Parkway (again, sorry for the redaction). This is some great running single track perched for miles above 360° blue ridge vistas. I caught my 3 IMTR travel companions at a trail intersection, otherwise I would have inadvertently strayed on to the designated route. Our short cut stealthily tunneled through a rhododendron thicket along an easy grade banked with lush moss. Here, we suffered our only casualty. ███ took a K-9 landmine hit to her right shoe. We should have been paying more attention since we were approaching the Sleepy Gap Overlook on the Parkway where many non-pedestrians park. Apparently, they allow their K-9 troops to relieve themselves at will along the trail.
When our casualty had recovered her composture, we took an even more onerous short cut down and down and down a trail that eventually brought us to a point exactly where we were 4 miles earlier in the loop. Things still looked safe and secure so we went back up and up and up and up. We made it back to the MST unscathed by additional short cuts but somewhat more depleted of troop strength. The predefined path emerged back onto Bent Creek Gap road at the gap’s overpass tunnel. It was only a steep 1.5 miles back down to our base. We cooled and restored hot, tired muscles in the little mountain creek that is Bent, ate and drank our field rations, and headed home.
███
Somewhere in North Carolina
No, hoards of kamikaze turkeys are not swooping down in a pre-Thanksgiving surprise attack on the Bent Creek basin in the North Carolina dawn. Or are they? It’s the 3rd annual Gobbler 50k Fun Run hosted by Adam Hill and the NC ultra krazy runners I’ve come to enjoy hanging out with during my running tour of duty. The come back from several seasons of mostly minor but nagging injuries has waylaid me from a full 50ks worth of running fun for this event. So along with most of the kamikrazies, many deployed from very recent endurance events, I elect to complete only the first loop of 14-15 miles.
It’s a couple-plus hours drive down to south ███████ville, so I picked up Beth about 0530 and an old sickle moon carved our flight path through a thick fall fog down the Holston valley. We landed at Rick and Tammy’s base about 0630 and waited on Clifton to complete our crew, then we set out for Bent Creek across Sam’s Gap on I-26 in the IMTR family van. There was much exchange of trail war stories and running reconnaissance gossip to digest. ████ is newly wed, █████ is in the trenches of her second tri-mester, and █████ was engaged even as we spoke at the battle for a Richmond BQ as she strafed the marathon throngs with blue PowerAde in her wake. Beth and Rick had ran the Mountain Masochist 50mile +++(+) Trail Run just last weekend flanked by some stellar performances from folks of the northern Can-Alaska Alliance, and where our own IMTR Doug Blackford won the 60+ division.
We landed in the cool, deep November shadows of the Bent Creek forest awaited by many other ultra troops already bounding about in running shorts and shivers. When a full platoon had been mustered and the sun had taken the ridgeline to our east, Adam our commanding Gobbler, distributed maps and last minute instructions to have fun. We pulled out onto Bent Creek Gap road and took a quick left on FS 479M (that’s in code –sorry, but that’s all I can say). The road was generous in girth and chamfered neatly into the rocky ravines bobbing, dipping, and rising cautiously toward the eastern blueridge crest. I was disposed to be the tailgunner and sweep our trail markers, partly because I’m a back of the packer by nature, but today even more appropriately, I was destined to make some obligatory lower GI maneuvers in the bushes during the early stages of our campaign.
After about 6 miles I was much relieved to have completed this duty, caught up to and passed on the sweeping assignment to Martha and Gayle. Our path took a sharp turn on to the MST at the ridge crest espying the ████████ Parkway (again, sorry for the redaction). This is some great running single track perched for miles above 360° blue ridge vistas. I caught my 3 IMTR travel companions at a trail intersection, otherwise I would have inadvertently strayed on to the designated route. Our short cut stealthily tunneled through a rhododendron thicket along an easy grade banked with lush moss. Here, we suffered our only casualty. ███ took a K-9 landmine hit to her right shoe. We should have been paying more attention since we were approaching the Sleepy Gap Overlook on the Parkway where many non-pedestrians park. Apparently, they allow their K-9 troops to relieve themselves at will along the trail.
When our casualty had recovered her composture, we took an even more onerous short cut down and down and down a trail that eventually brought us to a point exactly where we were 4 miles earlier in the loop. Things still looked safe and secure so we went back up and up and up and up. We made it back to the MST unscathed by additional short cuts but somewhat more depleted of troop strength. The predefined path emerged back onto Bent Creek Gap road at the gap’s overpass tunnel. It was only a steep 1.5 miles back down to our base. We cooled and restored hot, tired muscles in the little mountain creek that is Bent, ate and drank our field rations, and headed home.
███
It was verry COOL and super foggy, not really what we were expecting, but then again you can get just about anything when your in the high country. We scraped up what "cold weather gear" we could, snapped a photo and got moving. JJJ, JennyD, Joey, Christina and I were looking forward to a day of exploring some new territory and revisiting some well known areas. Christina took off on a solo hiking mission and had to battle some aggerssive cattle and shoe sucking mud on the Helton Creek Trl. I had been S on the AT from Elk Garden but had never been N so I was excited to fill in a gap between Mt. Rogers and Elk Garden. We quickly warmed up on the climb and had to take several breaks to make sure of potential navigational errors, it was very rocky, wet going at first which slowed things down until we reached the Mt. Rogers Trl. and Lewis Fork Trl. We took Lewis Fork Trl, which is a designated Horse trail to Old Orchard Shelter and got back on the AT. Lewis Fork Trl is wide and a bit rocky but we were able to open it up and get some running in here before climbing up from Old Orchard to the Pine Mtn Trl. Once we popped up onto Pine Mtn. the fog lifted and the sun was shining and it was like a crisp beautiful fall day in JULY! what a treat. we had a snack and proceeded on in hopes of finding some ponies. I was determined to find them since it was JennyDs first Grayson experience, it just wouldn't be complete w/o pony time! 
Rick, Tammy, Doug, Martha, Eva, Dennis, JennyD, me. It had been a good while since I had done this section and we thought it would be nice for Eva to check it out before the Iron Mountain Race. It's not an easy section and a lot of people commented on race day that it felt long. Once we made it back to FS90-12mi later, where the vehicles were parked Eva, Tammy and Martha opted to head back while the rest of us were looking to get in around 20mi headed off to check out some unexplored territory we've been meaning to check out for way too long. We took back up the IMTR a very short distance then took a left on the Rush Creek Trl. I will def. be making my way back there, it was wonderful. Very runnable, slightly down, along the creek, super nice. At the bottom we took another left onto the Sawmill Trl. also very nice, with a slight very runnable uphill grade. Sawmill intersects Buzzard Den which connects into Wrights Hollow, we had planned on checking those out as well but it was a unanimous group decision to cut it a bit short and head on back to the van. We were pretty much beat after the 18mi we did cover and there was no better way than to refuel at Fatties w/ some cold beer and burgers. If you're ever in Damascus be sure to check them out, they have awesome food and a deck outback by the river.
The drive from Charleston to the park is short and easy and we were some of the first to arrive (thanks to Rick :) I hadn't preregistered so I took care of business, easy peasy, and continued on with prerace rituals as other runners drifted in... 
So despite the 2 hr. drive from my house and the fact that it's all on paved roads there is a certain draw to the race, it's a beautiful spot for a race and the fact that it's a small farming community keeps the traffic down....I mean way down. You may see a couple cars but they are usually race spectators who are very aware of the event and very cautious. As an added bonus to the beauty and tranquility of the venue, there are special awards!! the oh so coveted sheep trophies are a big deal :) 
Everyone wants a cute little cuddly sheep, or BIG Sheep for that matter! the sheep trophies increase in size according to place (I'm still waiting for my big break and my BIG sheep) and a t-shirt every year with a great cartoon drawing of the "Varmint" up to no good, 
