The Milk Route

This is a nice country route near Landisville.  Not extremely hilly, but it does dip steeply in to some creek bottoms.

Get to it by parking at the Hempfield Rec Center.  I don't know if the rec center's bathrooms are available, but it would be worth a try.

Out of the parking lot, take a right, staying on the grass, and then the first right on Snapper Dam road.  Then follow the map.

The first half mile is through suburbs, but the rest is through farm country.  You'll see many idyllic rural scenes along the way.  I mapped a 6.7 mile route, but there are lots of optons to make this course shorter or longer.

There are no restrooms or water along the way.  The roads don't have much shoulder, but cars are infrequent enough that they can give you wide berth.

My mom used to buy raw milk from one of the farmers along this route, so hence the name "The Milk Route."

This is one of my favorites.

http://www.endomondo.com/routes/315327283

Rainy Day Running

Runger

Here's a new concept in a friendly little article from Kelly Leighton about runger.

Pretzel City Sports

If you are looking for races in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland, you should sign up for the newsletter at Pretzel City Sports.  They keep a good calender.

Lancaster Junction Trail and Auction Road

This is one of my favorite runs these days:  Lancaster Junction Trail and Auction Road.

Start from the trail head, which is the Salunga Park and Ride, near Spooky Nook Sports.  There is a public restroom there, but only open during the summer.

Head down the trail, and at the first road crossing, turn left off the trail and get on Shenck Road.  Follow that to the covered Bridge.  Go through the covered bridge, then turn right onto Auction Road.  Follow this the whole way around (slight jog at Colebrook, just keep going the same direction) until the railroad tracks, which is the other end of the trail.  Get back on the trail and bring it home.

The route has all kinds of nice attributes:

1.  Convenient parking and restroom.

2.  Scenery includes a creek, covered bridge, Amish farms.

3.  In Strawberry season there is a pick-your-own strawberry farm.

Today I saw spring flowers in the woods!  Yay!

The run has a couple of negatives:

1.  Many people walking dogs on the trail.
2.  Shoulders on the roads are not always great, but cars are infrequent.
3.  The route is difficult to shorten or lengthen.

But all things considered, this is my go-to run these days.  If you're in Lancaster, you should give it a try.

Enola Low Grade Trail - Western Trail Head

I went jogging on the Enola Low Grade Trail today.  It's a 30 mile long trail that have never explored.  I was on the western most end under the Turkey Hill Windmills.  I started at the Orange arrow and went out about two and a half miles, then back.  I kept thinking I would run to the end and than back - I had no idea the trail is 30 miles long!

I recommend this out and back run with 5 stars out of 5.

There's a nice row of parking at the trail head, but I'm sure it gets full on nice warm days.  Best of all, there are porta potties.

The surface is very smooth and level cinders.

There are historical marker and stuff like that along the way.  Including everyone's favorite: a caboose!

Little creeks come down through the cliffs, go under the trail, and then over top the real railroad tracks below, in big metal sluices.

There were old and new mile markers, but I didn't run far enough to get my bearings about which way the numbers were going, and so forth.

I saw a "2", but didn't see a "1" or "3".

Yay!  Even more porta johns!

This part of the trail I ran today gave me the feeling of being in some sort of rough and tumble Industrial wasteland, despite the wonderful vistas of the rivers, and turkey vultures and hawks circling overhead.

I liked the parts where I was wondering what might be up around the next bend.

Some of the overhanging cliffs are quite spectacular.

The bridges over the Susquehanna for Rt 30 and Rt 462 are visible from near the trail head, but my phone battery died before I was able to take those shots.

I'm interested to run the rest of the trail, now.  Evidently it gets rather full of bikers and families with little kids and strollers.  Need to watch that.