Two-Way Switch

 Today was a switch in two ways - first, we got a late start, so I ended up swapping my Sunday run for today and hope to do my today run tomorrow.  Second, we went South on the AT this time instead of North, which is the way I've always gone.  There are (very) small bits of the AT that jog along a road before it jumps back again into the woods, or field, or wherever.  The Southern direction from where we usually park is a bit of road - so we just drove a little further and got to a larger parking lot where the trail picks up again.  Luckily, it's really well marked (yay, white blaze!)  In the parking lot, we were getting our packs on, etc and a trail runnery looking guy came up to chat - he asked if we were heading north or south - we said south.  He let us know that he'd be heading north and then told us for the next several minutes how hilly the southern part was that we were about to encounter.  He was a very nice guy, though and welcomed us from Maine and told us about his trail running group - pretty cool.  We set off over a rickety bridge, around a tiny patch of forest, over some railroad tracks, then a hundred yard jog on the road to a cornfield (the fields say hello, Triffitts!) where we wound around the edges toward the mountain ridges ahead.  I could tell it was beautiful in the summer, but even in winter (no snow) it was still inviting.  We were soon climbing up the first hill and I realized that this is exactly the type of training I should be doing for the Peaks 50 in May...At the top, we saw the midpoint place that our parking lot friend had mentioned - the official halfway point on the trail between Maine and Georgia.  We continued on several more miles, up and down hills and ridges and across a little brook.  Pete was using a GPS app on his phone that accounts for elevation/distance gain which my garmin does not.  We turned around roughly 4ish miles in and headed back.  I was glad to get some climbing in, but discouraged about whether I'll be trained enough for May.  I know it's 4.5 months away, but I already feel behind leg-strength wise.  Below is a map of our route and the elevation.  Not that impressive, but a start for the hard work ahead of me.  I ended up with 8.15 miles on my garmin, 8.45 corrected, and Pete had 8.76 on his phone.