Hyner Challenge at Hand
HYNER – Next to October’s annual Flaming Foliage Festival celebration, there is no bigger event in western Clinton County than the annual Hyner View Challenge and this Saturday’s running of the trek up and down the Hyner Mountain is set to go.
1,300 trail runners have signed up and as run director Craig Fleming notes, they had best be ready for the challenge, as he alerts trail newcomers: “Get ready for the ride of your life. The course is set up to challenge each individual both mentally and physically. There are three major climbs and three major descents over the 25 kilometer course filled with vistas, stream crossings, and single track paths. The 50K has 5 major climbs with about 6,500 feet of vertical.”
Saturday’s event is part of the newly formed Rocksylvania Trail Series. Fleming noted the challenge hosted nine out of the 12 Trailrunner Magazines Trophy Series winners that chewed up the same dirt at Hyner in 2017. The 50K is the first race in the PA Triple Crown of Mountain Running.
Again this year, Fleming said, race entries were capped at 1,300, selling out in five days in May. He said 1,000 will running the 25K, and 300 running the 50K. 30 different states will be represented and three other countries, Canada, Australia, Great Britain.
The run director lauded the many volunteers who make the event possible. They include Renovo, South Renovo, and Chapman Township Fire Departments, Clinton County 4×4 Rescue, The Nature Conservancy, Team RWB Lock Haven, Leadership Clinton County, Boy Scout Troops 66 and 137, and the PA Trail Dogs.
Fleming said Robert Maguire and CMA Realty have been a huge asset in order to park the huge amount of cars, Maguire also letting the race use the Hyner Bridge Tavern, formerly the Eagles Nest, for registration purposes. The WCSA in Hyner is again hosting the event. .
Several well known sponsored runners will be in attendance and a crew will be on hand filming a runner from Colorado named Zach Miller. Both male and female winners will receive a vintage axe with the Hyner logo on the handle.
New Trail Brewing Company from Williamsport is one of the main sponsors and is naming one of their beers after one of the Hyner trails, SOB Hill Pale Ale. And a group of local churches provide all the tasty desserts for the race.
Saturday’s 50 K takes off at 8 a.m., with a 9 a.m. start for the 25K. The weather man promises mostly cloudy skies, temperatures in the low 50s, northwesterly winds at nine miles per hour, although it likely will be colder and windier atop Hyner Mountain.
