by Shaun Luther
On April 18th I spent a few hours with some of the HST Conservancy volunteers working on a trail reroute near Geigertown. This section of trail should be familiar to many of you since it was one of the big climbs on the former Charlie Horse course. The old section is the .8 mile long 350 foot climb from Furnace Rd (Aid Station 2) to the top of the hill. The new section is 1.3 miles long with the same altitude gain.
A few years ago the so-called Terada Tract of land was acquired by the state of PA and given to the William Penn State Forest to manage. When possible, the HST Conservancy tries to route the trail on to public/state land. When the trail crosses private property, there is alway the risk of a landowner rescinding permission for trail use or the property is sold and new owners don’t want the trail on their property. So it was pretty obvious that this was a good opportunity to move the trail off from private property to protect more of the trail. The HST Conservancy worked with the state to place the trail on the tract and this year finally got approval from the Bureau of Forestry to proceed.
So on the 18th the HST Conservancy formed a work team and the new trail was cut. Most of the new trail follows old abandoned fire roads, so there were only a few spots that required heavy rock work. A majority of the work entailed removing undergrowth and bench cutting a tread.
I think most runners will enjoy the new section. The hill is much more runnable (maybe that’s not a good thing).
Representing with an old Shiver shirt.
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