[668] Hiking Buck Hollow & St Patrick’s 5K

It has been a long while since I went on a real hike!  Hiking was how I get out into the woods before I discovered trail running.  I used to do it all the time along with backpacking.  I haven’t touched my backpack since the Corona/Pandamic.

I missed doing it.  I started my blogging journey since picking up ultra running.  Most of my entries were about running.  My last time out on the Buck Hollow trail was recorded here (2018).  

Not that I don’t like hiking any more but when you can run on it, why hike? Unless something happened, hiking was not an option.

So I dug out my backpack.  Actually I got a hand-me-down pack from my cousin and I needed to test it out to make sure it was comfortable for an up coming trip to the Grand Canyon (still in planning stage).

  For the last 5 years, I have not done any backpacking.  So this past Saturday was a perfect time.

I drew up the plan to hike up on Buck Ridge, cross the Appalachian Trail and Skyline Drive, and ascend to Mary’s Rock and then back track and use Buck Hollow Trail to loop back to the car.  We parked on 211, just a few miles west of Sperryville.

I have not been back to this section of the trail since forever.  I used to go there all the time.  My memories were not as good.  So I printed out a trail guide from HikingUpward and followed it.

Since it was on a weekend, I was afraid the small trail parking lot would be overflowed.  We planned to arrive early at sunrise to avoid the crowd.  As perfect a plan it was, we slipped by two hours and did not start until 9:15.  We were lucky there were still a few parking spots left.  The plan B and C was to either park further down and use Pass Mountain Trail (not as scenic) or to drive to Skyline Drive and use one of the bigger lots there. 

I loaded my pack with the usual stuff, clothes, supplies, water, minus the tent, and food.  Originally I wanted a fully loaded bag to pretend going on a camping trip but the weight was too much, so I took the tent and food out. It saved about 10 pounds.

A friend told me, to be ultra light in packing, is not the brand of equipment I am carrying but the philosophy of what to bring and leave behind.  I want to bring everything including multiple sets of the same thing. I am the opposite of an ultralight trail person.

I knew the pack was going be heavy.  On a flat and none technical trail, it is doable.  But when you are outdoor on a technical trail, and here at Buck Hollow, the first thing we had to do was to hop across some rocks.  Boy was the pack heavy.  I remembered the last two times, I almost fell in the creek.  This time, I did a bit better.  I was standing there rehearsing multiple times in my head of how to jump across and finally did it without incident.  Phew.  My feet remained dry.

The hiked upward was uneventful.  It just climbed without end.  We got to  a fork and I asked my friend which way she wanted to go.  I had in mind of going to the right but I like choices.  My friend chose left.  In normal time, I probably would take right and race up to see who get up first.  Note, I already knew both trails would meet back together a few miles later.

So we took the left branch.  It was steep climbing.  By 11 ish we reached the end.  We came across other hikers out with their dogs.  Some were friendly and we took our time to chat and said our hello.

We also came across couple runners.  Though their names escaped me now, but we have seen them (or they’ve seen us) in other races. We chatted too.  All trail runners are friends when we are out on the trail.

We then hiked the last mile up to Mary’s Rock.  I have been there before but it was a long time ago.  

We had an amazing day because the sun was out but there were some mist and the clouds form some thick stream like ice cream.  

We had lunch up on the rock.  By lunch, I brought like 5-6 fig newtons.  I already ate all of them during the ascend.  My friend shared with me her sweet potatoes and tangerines/Hallos or Cuties.  Then it got crowded. Groups of people showed up, there were like 20+ people around us.  We stayed there long enough and so we needed to descend.  

The coming down was faster.  It was all downhill.  Sperryville was close by and was a perfect spot for a reach late lunch or an early dinner.  Forgot what the place was called, Hidden Twig or something.  It was a good ending to a perfect day.  (total: 9 miles)

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Next day I ran the Lucky Leprechaun, a 5K St Patrick’s Day Run with Potomac’s PR Race, my local shoe store.  I ran it before but recently as in the last couple years, longer races like 100 miles have taken over my schedule and shorter races, I just couldn’t squeeze them in. 

This weekend finally I got to circle back to do one of my local races.  The course was familiar to me.  I ran it once or twice before.  

We arrived early so as to get parking. We got a street parking. Note parking was not an issue, but street parking there were only limited spots available.  The sun was just rising.  When we went into the PR store, it was still dark outside but by the time we got out bibs, it was already lighted.  Not that there were a crowd in there but I was amazed how fast the time went.

The hour before the race was quickly passed.  We were first looking for coffee and then for bathroom.  Then the starting line.  Reston Town Center is huge.  I always get lost there. 

I ended up had to hold in without finding a bathroom.  (Bathroom/Pottyjohns were located at the purple parking lot like in the past, but I could not find them until at the end of the race).

Off we went.  There were quite a lot of runners.  First mile had some wicked hills.  I run ultras so it was not that bad but I was not warm up yet so,  I walked the hills.  I felt tight in my calfs and shins.  Better to ease it in than running too hard.

By mile two, I caught up to my friend and was about to pass her.  She planned to walk it. But maybe because of some friendly competition, she took off. 

I was about to hit my strides by now.  Things were loosen up.  Then came more hills. 

Mile 3 seemed forever to get to.  People in the back surged forward.  I felt still maintaining a good pace of 11 min ish pace. 

The finish was on a slight uphill. 

Note, then I saw the bathrooms!  Hey, just what I needed.  Better take care of business first, I told myself.  I saw another runner did the same.  Now there was no line for the bathroom, so I hopped in on one. I was sure maybe later, they might not be quite empty.

So  I crossed finished after coming out, finished 37:09.  Not bad. It was under 12 min pace.  If I could keep this pace for 24 hours!  I could run a 100 miles.