Head to the Hills, its cool up there!

Dupont State Forest, wow what a hidden jewel right outside our backyard. The one challenge that the ultra runners in Greenville face is where to go to get good trail runs, without having to travel to far. Usually we head to Paris Mt State Park on the north side of Greenville, this Saturday, Mike, Robin and Scott headed to Dupont State Forest just across the SC/NC state line to run with a group from the NC Ultra Runners in the Dupont Waterfall Bonanza, a 22 mile trail run. It took Mike and I about 75 minutes to get to the parking lot at Hooker Falls.

This weeks training called for a 16 mile run on Saturday and 8 on Sunday, so the 22 was out for Mike and I. We met the group at Hooker Fall parking lot for a briefing and map handout. What's really cool about this area is that you can start on one trail and if you need to shorten your run there are tons of trail to switch off to and they are marked extremely well. Here is a link to the map of the area, while the map may seem daunting, once your on a trail it is easy to quickly re-adjust, Dupont Map.

The main run was 22 miles, but due to time and training schedule, Mike and I decided to do 14. We ended up with 12 miles, not a bad day of trail running. We made up the extra 2 on Sunday.

After the first waterfall stop at Bridal Veil Falls, Mike and I headed up Conservation Rd. to Buck Forest Rd. From there we took Jim Branch, we both agreed this was a very nice trail, both for quick running and Mt Biking. Highly recommend it. From there we took Lake Imaging Tr. to the Parking lot. From there it was an easy run down the main road to Hooker Falls Parking.

Many thanks to Adam for organizing this event. Next year, we'll be back in numbers and do the full 22. Thanks again.

Here is part of Team Dirty Feet from Greenville SC, plus new member Mike.
(L to R) Mike, Me, Scott and Robin.



PS.. With all the beautiful scenery we get the porti-johns in the background :)

Here is the data from my Garmin.




Mike