2nd Annual St.Patty's Day Run

We had a great group this year for the St. Patty's Day run (Annette Bednosky, Rick&Tammy Gray, Marianne & Mike Brannon, Josh Helms, Nick Whited, Doug Blackford, Beth Minnick) and the luck of the Irish seemed to be on our side as the prediction of nasty weather was anything but nasty or predictable for that matter ; ) It was a beautiful day with perfect temps (not like the freezing wind and snow last year) and everyone was excited for the adventure ahead, many were just happy to see which way the trail would take them....

There are tons of options in Damascus, with the AT, Virginia Creeper Trail, Iron Mtn. Trail and various other hiking/biking/horse trails, you can't go wrong. The St. Patty's Day route is the Government Road Loop - from the caboose head S on the AT about 10+ to McQueen's Gap- head right on mostly FS type road, and a couple miles of pavement on the end of Gov. Rd. which spits you out across from Food City and another right back to the caboose. Here is a map like object that shows the route and some apprx. mileages. It is about 24 mi if you complete the gov. rd. loop and 21 mi if you do the out and back from the caboose to Mc'Queens Gap.

Government Road Loop/24mi

Caboose-Creeper-Beech Grove-Iron Mtn Loop/10-12mi

Everyone was in various stages of training so it was nice to have options. Nick, Annette, Rick, and Doug opted for the entire Gov. Rd. Loop, nice work guys! Rick had covered a lot of ground the previous weekend on the new river trail and is nearing his Umstead 100 mile goal!! and Doug has Bel Monte 50 miler next weekend! these guys are machines I tell ya!

JJ, Josh, & I opted for the out and back sticking to the nice cushy trail :) Marianne and Mike had just competed at the Land Between the Lakes last weekend so they enjoyed a nice 15mi out and back and Tammy took to the beat of a different drummer ;) and set off on the creeper to hook up with the Iron Mtn Trl via the Beech Grove Trl which is another awesome loop, around 10-12mi, right out of downtown Damascus and is part of Eric Grossman's race http://imtr.ehc.edu/ on October 4th this year.

Our luck ran out with the weather and everyone got a good taste of a spring shower on the way in but still finished in good spirits. JJ and I hit the river for a post race dip (I am a true believer in this practice now!) then headed to the Old Mill to refuel, I didnt see a single crumb left on anyone's plate :) Thanks Everyone for coming out!