Morrow Mountain State Park is located in the Uwharrie Mountains of North Carolina. It makes for good family camping when higher mountains are too cold, or too far away. It's also got an extensive trail system. So I wanted to try and sneak in an April Fool's every single trail run while there.
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| eating is a camp priority |
Compared to
Eno and
Umstead, Morrow has the same mileage but more climbing: 35 miles and 4,500' climb. I prioritized my postman route to have water stops less than 8 miles apart and a start/finish close to the campground. I'd be slowed by unknown trails, but aimed for 6 hours.
I started at 7:10 am from campground loop B for what would've been the first of four major climbs. Repairs were underway on Hattaway Mountain, but staff allowed me to go in as far as they were working. I didn't get to summit, but did get about the same mileage as the loop.
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| morning on the bridle long loop |
Next was Quarry, ethereal in the mist. A section of Long Loop led me towards Three Rivers basking in bright morning sunshine. After filling up water at the boathouse, I ran along the banks of the Pee Dee and up and over Fall Mountain, with plenty of views through the trees.
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| Fall Mountain low |
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| Fall Mountain high |
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| Fall Mountain footing |
Here I got a bit carried away with photography and somehow crashed the GPS tracker on my phone. Thankfully I noticed this less than a mile down the trail and restarted the app. I also noticed my slowing pace, so I put away the technology to focus more on running.
There were plenty of turns I needed to pay more attention to on the
park map anyway. Two hours in, I made it to the nearest spigot from Rocks TH in the campground loop C. I chugged a couple bottlefuls, refilled and dumped out the debris from my shoes. Onwards.
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| bridle middle loop |
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| dogwoods blooming everywhere |
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| looking toward Sugarloaf from mountain loop |
The day was just too beautiful and I couldn't resist pulling out the phone for more photos, especially atop Morrow Mountain. However, the sun was getting a bit intense through barren limbs. I embraced the breeze, chugged water at the summit and kept the salt coming.
At 21 miles in I was going to have to keep up my pace to break 6 hours. The 400 ft ascent up Morrow was a power hike for me, so I tried to bank some faster miles before the climb over Sugarloaf. The mountain won and I finished at the park office parking lot in
6:06:50.
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| descent from Sugarloaf |
I really enjoyed my run at Morrow Mountain State Park and would highly recommend it. The wonderful weather, camping with family and friends and bonus Saturday orienteering in the park were just icing on this incredible cake!
NC state park postal runs:
| 2/5/2022 | Umstead | 35 | 2,885 | 5:15:34 |
| 3/6/2022 | Umstead | 36.6 | 3,072 | 5:30:02 |
| 3/20/2022 | Eno River | 34.8 | 3,203 | 5:23:30 |
| 4/1/2022 | Morrow Mtn | 35.2 | 4,291 | 6:06:50 |
| 4/10/2022 | Medoc Mtn | 30.9 | 1,534 | 4:55:44 |
| 4/24/2022 | Pilot Mtn | 32.3 | 4,219 | 5:40:12 |
| 5/1/2022 | Raven Rock | 37.1 | 4,038 | 6:51:06 |
| 5/21/2022 | Stone Mtn | 28.6 | 5,972 | 5:55:40 |
| 6/11/2022 | Hanging Rock | 44.6 | 8,406 | 9:55:19 |
| 9/9/2022 | South Mtns | 70 | 14,000 | 16:06:23 |
| 10/22/2022 | Umstead | 36.6 | 3,072 | 5:10:48 |
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