A trip to Middle Run Nature Reserve

by Gerry · April 29, 2013

There is no doubt that Middle Run Valley Natural Area aka “Middle Run” near Newark, DE has some of the best single track trails in the area (Delaware, PA, NJ). The Delaware Trail Spinners did a great job in creating the network of flowing well designed trails! This was a reason I wanted to get Susan down to the trails before she was scheduled to started her next round of chemo. She had been through a rough patch with the last chemo treatment, it had some side effects that kept her from doing the activities she likes to do on a normal basis.

Susan getting ready to roll.

As an added incentive, I had recently built up a new bike for her from some left over parts, donated parts (thank you KORE!) and a new frame & fork I bought from our friends at Transition Bikes. Susan had been out on the bike on our local trails to get several miles in but she took some stops along the way. Under her current condition the extra pedaling jacked up her heart rate. On the plus side, at least she was getting out and enjoying life!
I assured her that the trip to Middle Run would be different. Sure she’d have to do some pedaling to get up the hills but she would get to enjoy the fun downhills.

We set out on a 7mi loop that I had chosen, (turned out to be 8 miles) it sounded like it might be a little far for Susan since she wasn’t really in shape for it after the recent treatment. We left the lot and immediately were flowing down a trail then across a bridge with a short climb then another fun downhill, climb a little bit more then down again to the “chunnel”. What a fun way to start this loop!

Enjoying life!

We made our way up from the Chunnel and made our first real climb up towards “Bryan’s Field” and decided to pass the entrance to the skills park. We stopped at the bottom of this trail and recounted the trails thus far and I have to say that I missed that part of our rides together.

Smiles all around!

We’d have another long climb, stop a couple of times then and another fun longer descent that brought out the smiles once again. This was Susan’s favorite section of trail as I had expected. Overall it was a great day, Susan enjoyed the downhill sections and endured the climbs. A fun day together on the trails…more photos below.