HockeyGeekGirl Developer Advocate, Geek & Runner

Looking for a road runner friendly trail in North Eastern Pennsylvania? Look no further!

I recently attended a conference in East Stroudsburg Pennsylvania.  I had never heard of it, and looked it up on the map. It’s about an hour and a half drive East of New York City, or about a two hour drive North from Philadelphia.  The closest international airport was Newark.

I needed a 29 km (18 mile) run.  I did a little research and discovered this region is known as the Poconos, and the Appalachian trail runs through the area.  The Appalachian trail is well known among ultra trail runners. Many have set their sights on various speed records along the trail.

I am quite familiar with the start of the Appalachian trail: Mt Katahdin in Baxter State Park.  It was a frequent destination for family hiking and camping trips, my mum has climbed it over 25 times either solo, with friends, with children, or with grandchildren.

I mention this because as you can see from this picture of my mum with my sister and her family on the peak, the Appalachian trail includes a number of mountains and hills.  Not quite what a road runner wants for their long run.

I set my sights on the section of the map that seemed to indicate a trail along a creek. Perhaps a creek trail would be a little less hilly.

I stopped at the welcome centre and talked to the staff about my need for a fairly long running trail. I don’t mind running on gravel, but would prefer not to be clambering over boulders or running up the side of a mountain.  I enjoy running on a trail, but I am not a trail runner 🙂

They suggested the McDade Recreational Trail which does in fact run along the creek I saw on the map above. Its used by day hikers and mountain bikers and most of it is crushed gravel. She provided me with a trail map that showed me the different trailheads each of which had a parking lot. The guide included a grid showing the distance between trailheads. I found a guide to the difficulty level for each trail section online. As an added bonus, the map also indicates where to find water fountains and restrooms! What a treat for a distance runner.

I settled on a run from Hialeah to a spot just past Bushkill village, a 9 mile stretch of trail. At which point I would turn around and run back. If I had more time, I could have run 18 miles and caught one of the hiker shuttles back to my parking lot!  On Saturday and Sundays in the summer, there is a shuttle bus that drives from trailhead to trailhead so hikers can go out one way and just catch the bus back. The welcome centre has the details on when and where you can catch the shuttle.

As a female running solo, I also appreciated a trail that gets a reasonable amount of bike or hiker traffic with trailheads every 2-4 miles in case.

I started out at 7:30 AM. The gravel was just big enough to be a bit annoying underfoot. I was running in road shoes, trail shoes would have cut down on that annoying rock poking the bottom of your foot feeling. The first stretch had a couple of short but steep hills. After that it was pretty flat except for the trail sections to and from the visitor center. I developed a love/hate relationship with these signs 🙂 and yes some of them were quite steep.

Apparently the hiker traffic starts later in the day, for 90 minutes I did not see another person. I did see a hawk sitting in a tree by the trail, and at one point a deer bounded onto the trail in front of me and then back into the woods.

A short while later I heard another deer crashing through the woods, so I stopped to take out my phone to catch a picture of the deer if it came onto the trail.  Just as I started reaching for my phone, an adult black bear bounded across the trail in front of me! I could tell by the rustling of the corn stalks on the other side of the trail it had stopped only about 15 – 20 feet off the trail. So I clapped my hands and let out a couple of yells. Sure enough the cornstalks rustled as the bear ran off further into the distance.  A black bear isn’t usually a threat to a runner unless you get between momma and her cubs, OR you startle the bear. Better to yell and warn the bear you are coming than run up beside it on the trail.

You might be surprised to find out I was more nervous when I met a second deer later in my run. It was standing on the trail, when I stopped, it looked right at me and  stood its ground. Most deer bound off into the woods when they meet a person.  This was not far from the visitor center so maybe it’s used to being fed by people? Maybe it was curious? Regardless, I stood and waited for the deer to head into the woods rather than walking straight towards it.  I know deer rutting season (when they can get territorial) is in the fall, and it was late August, always better to respect the wildlife and give them their space.  It did allow me to get a nice picture (this was taken with full zoom on my phone).

Once I turned around and headed back, I met a dozen or so hikers and another dozen cyclists enjoying the trail.

All in all a pleasant trail run for a non trail runner. The trail is well marked with lots of access points. Most of the trail is along the woods but you pass corn fields, old buildings, at times you can see the creek but most of the time it’s just a pleasant run through the forest. If you have trail shoes I would wear them to protect the bottom of your feet from the patches with bigger gravel, but I managed just fine with regular running shoes.

If you find yourself looking for a long run in North Eastern Pennsylvania I can’t imagine a nicer spot!

Looking for more suggestions on where to run when travelling check out my other running related posts.