Hyner View Trail Challenge Ready to Run/Hike
1,200 Runners Set for Saturday
HYNER — It takes a special person to get up before daybreak this Saturday and spend what for most others is a day-off by running up, over and down Hyner Mountain, just the beginning part of a 50-kilometer trek through the rugged forests of western Clinton County.
150 such special people have signed up for the 7 a.m. start of the third running of the 50K, a portion of some 1,200 total participants; the other 1,050 booked for the 9 a.m. beginning of the 25-kilometer run/hike, all part of the Hyner View Trail Challenge now in its eighth year.
The 50K route follows the path of the 25K, with an extra 14 miles run on land owned by the Nature Conservancy.
Meet director Craig Fleming said the 1,200 participants is the maximum the course can allow, noting that while trail running is the fastest growing sport with more races continuing to pop up, there is a limit for Hyner: “Ours has reached its capacity. Trails can only hold so many people.”
As always, Fleming said, the Hyner View itself will always take the center stage.
Participants this year filled the allotment quickly. Contestants come from 25 states from as far away as California, Colorado, Utah and Florida. Pennsylvania has the most entries, followed by New York state with 90, 33 from Ohio, 30 each from Virginia and Maryland.
Entries range in age from 9 years to 84 years old.
Competitors are not the only ones up early Saturday. Fleming said there are some 150 volunteers from the local area who will be logging long hours.
They include two local scout troops, Troop 66 of Woolrich and the Renovo Scout Troop camp out together and provide an aid station.
Others, Fleming said, include Team RWB from Lock Haven/Williamsport, Leadership Clinton County, Clinton County Search and Rescue, Bucktail Medical Center and the three fire companies from Renovo, South Renovo and Chapman Township.
Fleming said the mammoth event is more than just a one-day affair. He identified key players/organizations involved in the staging as Bob Farley, Jim Burnworth, Judy and Bob Baguley, Stace Hibbler, Bob Renninger, Steve Geyer and “many others” spending countless hours getting the trails ready.
He lauded the Western Clinton County Sportsmans Association for hosting the event each year, telling The Record the WCSA “goes the extra mile to make runners feel at home.”
Fleming also thanked John Stewart and Bobbie Maguire for use of the Hyner air strip to park all the cars and said DCNR’s Sproul State Forest personnel had been “great in making this one of the top trail races in the country.”
For more on the “nuts and bolts” of this year’s Hyner View Trail Challenge, please see the print edition of The Record’s B section page 7.
