Save | Article PhotosSCOTT?JOHNSON/THE EXPRESS Craig Fleming, Hyner View Trail Challenge race director, holds the 770 letters of those registered for the event, which is scheduled for Saturday April 18. Behind him is a collage of pictures of participants during previous years’ events. HYNER - For trail-running enthusiasts Craig Fleming and Dave Hunter, events like the upcoming Hyner View Trail Challenge and this fall's Megatransect are not just hikes in the woods.
They are more about communities and people coming together to live a healthy lifestyle.
Fleming and Hunter, along with dozens other community members and organizations, are getting ready for the 3rd Annual Hyner View Trail Challenge on Saturday, April 18.
The success of the event is evident not only by the extraordinary number of participants - capped at 770 from 18 different states with no further registrations being accepted - but also from the comments of those who have walked or run the 17-mile trail around Hyner Mountain in western Clinton County.
Fleming, race director, said the number of participants has skyrocketed since it was established in 2006, from 430 in its first year to 650 last year - and now to this year's 770 participants.
"I would say it is definitely catching on," he said.
Indeed, participants are coming from Florida, Colorado, Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina, for example.
Fleming and Hunter are quick to point out, however, the growth is mostly due to the support they have received from various community organizations, including the Bureau of Forestry, the Western Clinton County Sportsmans Association, Bucktail Medical Center's ambulance, EMTs, volunteer firefighters, trainers from Lock Haven University, Clinton County Search and Rescue, Leadership Clinton County, Nature Conservancy and local Boy Scouts.
Because of so much cooperation among the communities and organizations, "there have been no obstacles" to getting the event organized and run, said Hunter, who is not only helping to organize the Hyner challenge, but is the new race director of the Bald Eagle Megatransect this fall. "Everything, from the course being clean to the delivery of foods, the support of people volunteering, the EMS, the paramedics, the ambulance services... They have all come together."
"It comes down to we're trying to do something good for the community and the community recognizes that and, in return, has been very supportive of us," Fleming quickly added. "Without the community, I think it would just be a race with about 200 people and it would be an average at best race."
The amount of help needed to pull off such an event is impressive with volunteers needed to man each of the five checkpoints. Each has water and electrolyte drinks and three offer food, such as peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, candy bars and bananas.
They said one of the biggest supporters is the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, which has partnered with the Challenge organizers to continue to offer trails that are not only breathtaking, but very difficult to traverse.
"It's kind of like creating the actual course. It's not like being forced into a mold, saying this is what you have to use and deal with all of the inadequacies," Hunter said. "We're actually able to treat them to a lot of visuals and terrain changes and that's what they like. They want to feel like they're out in the middle of the PA Wilds and, boy, there are some spots where ... they are.
"There are also in-your-face elevation changes. If you haven't trained as well as you should for this, you're going to hurt. There's no doubt about it," he continued.
The challenging course is one of the reasons Fleming and Hunter have closed off registrations for this year, noting participants will need weeks to get into shape to tackle the course. Fleming also warns participants in his message on the event's Web site hikerun.com.
"I want to be clear that our course was not designed for the 'leisure' runner or hiker. Nor was it designed so that everyone can easily finish. And lastly, don't expect to come to this course and set any records for a 25K," Fleming warns. "Our course was designed to challenge people both mentally and physically. We make you earn that finisher's medal and the awesome meal afterwards. If you only train periodically, then reconsider what you are signing up for."
Fleming and Hunter said they have to make the course tough enough to convince people from out of the area to want to spend their money and time to participate.
"We try to push it right to the point of where will we snap them," Hunter said. "The steepest hills are steep enough that you almost want to crawl coming off the top."
This year's course covers 16.8 miles and includes elevations as high as 4,222 feet, traversing Hyner View, Huff Run and Johnson Run trails and Post Draft and Cleveland hollows.
Fleming said officials changed the course between the first and second years, but have left the course the same for this year due to popular demand. Don't fret, he said next year's course likely will be different ... and much better as planning will start immediately after this year's event.
Some of the changes are due to hunters and landowners letting the organizers know about unique landmarks that may have been forgotten over the years.
"Anyone can put on a race in the woods, but after a mile and a half of that, you get a little bored," Fleming said. "We think, let's take you down a ravine, let's make you climb up a steep hill, let's make you go over some steep cliffs, let's make you cross some streams ... Anyone can run in the woods anywhere across the country, but it's what you see across the way."
Hunter said it's encouraging to see such a cross-section of people come to the event, from locals who are new to the sport to the "most die-hard trail runners" from across the country. Last year's winner, Jeffrey Buechler of Colorado, came in at a "blistering" 2 hours, 36 minutes - over 20 minutes ahead of his nearest competitor. A total of 534 finished last year's race, taking over 10 hours to complete it. Eighty-seven people did not finish.
Hunter noted the event has allowed lost and deserted trails from many years ago to be rediscovered and are now being enjoyed year-round. Fleming said the idea originated from people involved in the Sproul State Forest and the PA Wilds initiative coming to him asking for an event similar to the Megatransect, but western Clinton County.
In the three years since its inception, the Hyner View Trail Challenge has grown to the third biggest in the nation and is now one of approximately 40 races involved in the Trail Runners magazine Trophy Series.
Fleming and Hunter said they are pleased the Megatransect and Hyner events are a positive force for healthy living.
"It's encouraging to see a community that's becoming physically active and they're educating themselves on fitness," Fleming said. "Sure, we're putting on an event that day, but we're also touching people's lives all year-round."
That education carries over to a free lecture series at Lock Haven University, with doctors and dieticians educating the public on various topics of how to train and what foods to eat for events like the Hyner Challenge.
"I know that on any different weekend, there are people out on the trails now," Fleming said. "Those trails were overgrown, they were neglected. Now, all of a sudden, we have a community of people who are hiking every weekend... That's what's exciting. A lot of the 770 people (registered for the Hyner challenge) are local and it's growing.
"People are getting out and exercising and using the trails. That's the biggest compliment."
Fleming said he and other organizers of trail events in the region are hoping to make this area the "trail mecca" on the East Coast, with four "very reputable" races making up the "Grand Slam Series:" Hyner Challenge, Bald Eagle Megatransect, the Dam Half/Full Trail Marathon in R.B. Winter State Park in Union County and the Rothrock Challenge on Tussy Mountain in Centre County. Fleming is also the race organizer for Rothrock.
"We like to think all four are equal. They just offer a different taste," Fleming said. "We'd love for people to do all four and that's helping the area. When you have two out of four in Clinton County, that's pretty impressive."
