The 2011 Mountaineer Autumn Classic

"I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

It was a beautiful autumn morning as the sun rose over Cooper's Rock State Park in Bruceton Mills, West Virginia. The temperature was somewhere in the mid-30's as people gathered to sip hot coffee to awaken and stay warm and became eager to start the 12-mile loop through the Appalachian hardwoods. There was more than enough food piled onto the tables to feed a small army (that included Beth Byron and her roommate Lisa's nutty/chocolatey trail mix bars!).

Fog fills the gorgeous Cheat River Gorge.

Fog was swirling about the Cheat River Gorge, taking a long time to burn off as the sun climbed ever higher.  The solemn beauty of the autumn colors was radiant and the faint smell of smoke from some distant campfire added to the ambience.  People would come into the day use parking lot, take a few minutes to prepare, and head off down the Scott Run Trail to do battle with rocks, roots, and mud, to get the day's adventure started. The "hardcore" runners, true to form and with serious speed, rocked the course from top to bottom; those like Tad Davis and Maria Dalzot (this after a true race effort the day before!) and Ironman/Ultraman Mike Levy. And God love Conrad Quesen for running on broken sesamoid bone in his foot!

My sister Lauren and her husband Randy (the rocking Weavers :-)) drove down from the Cleveland area to experience some West Virginia splendor and to drink a bit of red wine with me the night before in my apartment -- ha!  Among some other familiar faces were Anne McAlpine from Chicago (thank you, Anne!) and a colleague from work (Ken) and his faithful black lab (Smoky).  The entire Johnson family drove down from Pittsburgh to tread the area where "someone" received a wedding proposal many years ago out on the windswept Raven's Rock (thanks for the story, Andy).  Aira and John Burkhart stopped by to show their support.  And last, but certainly not least, a shout out to trooper Xiangyi Zhao who, despite losing the map and directions, slogged up the last several miles of the Advanced Ski Trail, sans water.    

Raven's Rock

It was also a great time to "break bread" and cross paths with new people and not-so-familiar faces faces. To wit, a very nice nephrologist (Karen) from the local hospital, someone I met at the gym recently (Dick) who was taking his son (Connor) on his longest run distance to date, and a chemist from Pittsburgh (Steve) recently located to the area.

Entering Rock City!

In closing, $350 will be going to the folks down at the food pantry tomorrow; that is, Christian Help of Morgantown, West Virginia.  As I remarked in an email to some of those who ran and walked today, each of these people in their own unique way are special people who greatly enrich my life and have now enriched other people's lives in a time of need.  Thank you, thank you, thank you ... And the same goes out to those I failed to mention in this post.

Update 10/26/11: An amazing person and humanitarian matched the $350 that was raised and made a donation to their local food bank.  That means $700 total was raised for local food pantry shelves.