Training Log Archive: JanetT

Main trails and some bike trails at Jordan Creek Parkway in Whitehall (near Allentown). It has an extensive disc golf course incorporated which would provide enough terrain for an interesting sprint map, perhaps, if we had a base map to work from (and folks to come).

Added: Map link (if you click the link, the Parks Finder will come up and ask you to accept its waiver; after you accept it'll show the trail network. I think its a valuable service from our county)

Otherwise the main trail is pretty boring even though it goes close to Jordan Creek in places. First part was concrete, then gravel (larger stones), then macadam. On the way back from the far end I explored a dirt trail that headed uphill. There were some side trails to adjacent housing areas, and it eventually plunged fairly steeply back to the main trail not far from the bridge across to the isolated spur where MTBers play.

Bike trails are a mix of dirt without too much else and dirt with roots/rocky/steep/obstacles, etc. I didn't cover all the trails but had with me a map from the Lehigh County Parks and Trails website, which includes most but not all of the newer disc golf trails.

About 80F. Shaded, so I wasn't concerned about not using sunscreen.

Investigating another section of trails to see if there was another bridge over the creek (there was). Adjacent to that bridge is a community garden (and port-a-john) and more of the disc golf course.

Forgot a running shirt and didn't want to soak the regular shirt I was wearing, so walked instead of ran. Explored some trails at Whitehall Parkway I hadn't been on last time we were here. Temps near 80.

Focus: hamstring strength. Isometric exercise can be intense.

Mariton Wildlife Sanctuary near Riegelsville, PA (SE of Easton, near the Delaware River). Went to viewpoint (supposedly with a view across Stout valley, but too many trees were leafed out), then down the hill and back up again. Bougher Mountain is the high point with large bare rock outcroppings visible from the main trail.

Lots and lots of tulip poplars and sassafras, in the knocked-down-by-Superstorm Sandy (2012) areas (and many vines and thick vegetation), more variety in older woods that hadn't been logged or farmed, including a few oaks and maples, more hickory (including pignut and shagbark), beeches and sweet birch. Interesting place if you like the climbs and descents.

We also visited Chimney Rock but it wasn't what I expected.

Temps near 80 but less humid than it's been.

Legs tired from hike so I didn't run along the Delaware Canal. Instead I walked and took photos. We parked near locks 22-23 (northern-most locks on the canal between Easton and Bristol).

At another parking area we looked at a different lock where a stream flowed to the Delaware (near an iron furnace). On the wood along the aqueduct there was a humongous spider just hanging out, not quite tarantula sized, but huge. (Not a garden spider, either.) Edit: maybe a female dark fishing spider. It did have long legs.