West Branch State Park

Yesterday I helped my brother Jeff move into his new dorm at Kent State, which he is now attending after being at Clarion University for two years. Now that he's at KSU we should be able to get in more runs together which will be cool. Today we decided to head over to West Branch State Park to run some trails. This was our first time back to these trails since our strange nighttime experience last December - Read about it here We decided to start our run from the parking lot next to Rock Spring Rd. Next to this parking lot there is a map which shows all of the trails developed by CAMBA - Click Here to view the map. As you can see, there are many trails which branch off of the snowmobile trail (which runs between the 2 locked gates)

The Snowmobile Trail

The first section that we ran on was fairly flat and basic. Then we eventually arrived at the "Experts Only" mountain bike trail.

That's right... we're experts...

This section is very technical with many large rocks and lots of turns. I enjoy this trail a lot because it tests your balance and coordination and it helps you to build strength and endurance. The miles seem to go by quick too since you are always watching your next step.

A portion of the trail filled with trees and thorn branches

CAMBA is a great organization and did an amazing job building West Branch's network of trails. Here are a few more pictures which show how you can go from running on a nice smooth single track trail, to leaping over log jumps, running over bridges, and passing through creeks.

Jeff freestyling without a mountain bike - (Click play button)

On these trails built by CAMBA there are a few random items that must have been in the way while they were building them so they just decided to leave them for decoration...

Jeff decides to take a pitstop and then wash his hands...

Overall it was another good day of running (about 6.5 miles total) and a lot less hot and humid (mid 70s).