Baker Trail – An “Easy” 50

First, some background…The Baker Trail is a 141 mile “trail” through western/central Pennsylvania and the Baker Trail UltraChallenge covers a third of the trail each year. This year the third annual race was held, traversing the southern section of the trail. Last year, Angelo and Mical ran (and Lorrin paced) the central section, which despite having the majority of miles on roads, was an enjoyable course of gently rolling hills through scenic Amish farmland. We passed the time counting Amish children who waved from vegetable patches.

This year the course was described as 20 miles on non-technical trails and 30 miles on roads (dirt, gravel and paved). While generally accurate, this statement doesn’t tell the whole story of the course. There is a 14 hour cutoff for this race, and we thought we’d never have to worry about that… we could take it easy and it would be a great practice run for MMTR.


Part 1- The trail (aka scrambling in ravines), Miles 1-20
The race starts in an industrial park on the “Armstrong Trail”. It’s awful humid at 7:00 am and we start slow in the back of the pack. We talk about running conservatively, how we’d pass people later, and how this was a “training run”. The first 4 miles are a flat, crushed black rock path along a river, where the early morning haze makes the docks appear suspended in space.

Course Note #3: The trail sections have good footing; there aren't many rocks or roots.
The first climb is steep and Mical realized her road shoes on slick, shale-covered non-switchbacked uphills were not a good combo. Lorrin’s trail shoes were only a little grippier. Non-technical might mean “no rocks/roots” but it doesn’t mean “no scrambling into and out of ravines.” Some research into the Baker Trail origins may reveal it was built by West Virginians. This first climb goes on for quite much longer and more steeply than expected, but then we run a gently sloping downhill with lots of ferns and pine trees.

After a quick stream crossing, we run up a road. Mical remarks it is probably a good thing we took it easy so we won’t have a big backup at that cable climb.

Course Note #4: At mile 6.25, there is a 50-foot cable climb up a very steep slope covered in loose shale.
Replace the word “slope” with “cliff face” and you get a better picture, especially if by “cable” you mean “impossible-to-grip plastic-covered metal cable covered in other people’s sweat…and blood.” Gazing upon this obstacle elicited some choice words.

Once we hauled ourselves up the cliff, we again dove into series after series of ravines. Not really runnable, since you might smack your head on the upslope while hurtling down. And there were stream crossings in every ravine. And we found our obligatory snake! The 5-ft black snake was stretched across the trail, but quickly moved away as Lorrin took a picture.

Just before mile 16, it started raining and it felt great! It cooled us off and the sun went in for a bit. That didn’t last long and the humidity was back. We passed a few people at the mile 16 AS and found ourselves on some very runnable trail with nice views, and got in a group with a few guys from PA (David and Jason) and OH (Mike). It was nice to be running with others as opposed to just straggling at the back of the pack. We were all trading stories about various ultras and enjoying the race.

Course Note #1: The elevation gain is 6,600 feet and loss is 6,300 feet.
There were some more tough ravine descents and climbs that we laughed about, and joked about how slow we were progressing. Lorrin and I speculated we could probably make up time on the road. The guys laughed and said they had driven the course the night before and the hills were killer.

Estimates have put Bull Run Run 50 at 6000 – 6500 feet of gain/loss, and it didn’t seem that steep! Our only explanation for the Baker Trail estimate is that the GPS must have cut out in the deepest part of the ravines.

Course Note #5: There are unbridged creek or drainage crossings. Unless there is significant rain, all can be jumped across or crossed on rocks or other objects without getting wet.
This one is funny! Most of the stream crossings did not have “stepping stones,” and before we reached AS5 at mile 20 there was a knee-deep stream about 40 feet wide.

Part 2- The roads (aka running in a sauna), Miles 20-46
Course Note #2 About 30 miles of the course is on paved or dirt country roads.
This is about the only course note that could be called accurate. By mile 20, which took maybe 6.5 hours, we were beginning to be concerned about our time. Surely we would speed up on the roads…but we started with a killer climb that lasted at least a mile.

Unlike last year, this road section was not really scenic or interesting. We joked about the “car graveyards” and other things we would frequently see, such as scary dogs chained up barking at us. Also, the road section did not have rolling hills, rather very steep up and then very steep down.

Around AS5, Lorrin decided to change into road shoes. David & Jason from PA had a full support crew, who must have been practicing for David’s Wasatch run the following weekend. They jumped on Lorrin and she got a 100-mile shoe-change treatment, wet shoes & socks removed, feet toweled off and put into vibrating, massaging slippers, then blister inspection and on with the fresh shoes and socks.

Rule #7: Personal listening devices of any kind are prohibited.
The final section of trail was on the left off a paved road. Mike from Ohio was standing at the juncture and yelling at a guy who was booking it up the hill…he missed the turn. We also yelled at him, but the earphone wires were swinging and he must have been rockin’ out pretty hard. Later, his family would cause some trouble with the race director about the course not being well marked and how their son deserved to be allowed to continue even though they drove him from where he got lost to the next open aid station (because he was so lost, several interim ones had closed).

While running a grassy forest road, we did get a neat view of a nuclear power plant (blacked out on Google Earth) and then down on the power plant property. As a company pickup drove past us slowly, we hoped we didn’t look too suspicious.

Advisory #9: Stop if you feel sick!
Time was ticking away, and while it looked like a 13 hour finish was possible (we had hoped for 12 hours initially), it seemed unlikely. We just weren’t moving very fast, and it was very warm. We were becoming delerious. Lorrin shouted “A bear! with cubs!” but it was only a stupid cut-out silhouette off in the distance, next to a waving man and an elk. Aid station volunteers kept saying “it’s not as hot as last year.” Last year’s report says temps were in the “mid- to upper 80's.” Paul later told us it hit 92 at least. But the humidity!! At one aid station, a lady bumped into Lorrin’s arm and exclaimed, “oh, you are too hot! You should cool down.” Uh-huh. Volunteers were driving between aid stations with coolers of ice to keep runners from overheating.

Paul met up with us at a few aid stations where he spent many hours volunteering; he ultimately ended up riding his bike along with us from somewhere between mile 41 and 45. He entertained us with his stories of the day and made the time pass a little faster. I also started wondering if we’d be close to the 14 hour cutoff. Then, we started hearing thunder in the distance and it was getting darker….


Part 3- The storm (aka running for your life), Miles 46-51
It appeared we were running right toward the storm, as the clouds darkened and it started to rain. It was starting to get scary dark and stormy and the lightening was flying, though still in the distance, as we passed mile 49 and had 2 miles to go. We told Paul to get the heck out of there on the bike (seemed less safe to be on a metal bike than to be running) and go get the car in case we needed to sit in there to wait it out. He took off and we picked up the pace.

Advisory #4: Watch the weather forecast closely to know what gear to bring; the UltraChallenge will happen rain or shine.
At Aid Station 49, we asked for those reflective vests other people were wearing, and they chided us for not getting them at the prior aid station! But no one offered them to us! And just as lightning was crashing all around us, a volunteer drove up, not to save us, but to encourage us to keep going and not to worry about that ridgeline near the finish.

Lorrin tucked in behind me and we just ran, fast. (By ‘tucked in,’ Lorrin was trying to stay lower than everything else, lower than Mical, lower than road signs, lower than cornstalks. She was also whimpering.)

Seriously, we were actually running hard for the first time in the day (ironically, had we been able to run faster earlier, we would not have been in the storm situation…). The dirt road had become a river. With about a mile to go, Paul pulled up and turned around (almost running over a disoriented Lorrin who ran in front of the car) and drove behind us with his flashers on. It was really dark, pouring rain, and we had turned onto the road to the finish, where there aren’t many cars, but those that were drove really fast. He clocked us at 7 mph in the Prius and we FINALLY could see the farm. The lightning was pretty close (in fact, until Paul met us with the car, it was the only source of light-- power was out, so no streetlights). Basically, it was pretty dumb of us to be running instead of getting in the car.

The Finish
The sign to the finish led up across a field, up a high bald, and then back down to the farm. [bad words spoken here]. We booked it to the lower driveway and bolted for the barn where everyone was huddled in the dark, ringing cowbells and beaming out spotlights. “Watch your step” someone said, because there was a board across the doorway, then someone scanned our chips and handed us medals. Done!

Course Note: All participants will finish back at the farm where food will be provided. Showers are also available for cleanup.
Poor us! The power went out, so they couldn’t finish cooking the food. And no showers. We ate a little of what was available, and Mical & Paul drank some beer. Lorrin, who has a deep terror of thunderstorms was too exhausted to drink a beer. Yes, it’s true. But we all slept really, really well that night.

We heard there were 8 people still out on the course behind us when we came in. Only 3 of them finished, one after 14 hours. The winner came in at 10:13 and one-third of the field did not finish. Marvel at the super-slow splits for everyone here: Baker 2007 Splits. Although our race was definitely dramatic, we have nothing but high praise for the race director and legions of volunteers. The racer-to-volunteer ratio was probably 1-to-1, and they were tremendously encouraging, concerned about our welfare, and dedicated to reviving the Baker Trail. Thanks to all of them!

Check out the Pictures!