July 14, 2012 -  I include this 32-mile adventure run in my reports mostly for
future reference.  It was an excellent rail-trail / bike path to build tempo and
perhaps do a 50M or 100K training run in the future.

Bob Lott, Eric Gray, and Mike Monyak joined me to park one car at each end of
the trail and one in the middle so that we could run point to point and still have a 
ride home.  Bob, Eric, and Mike would run half way to the Wehrum road
crossing while I continued to complete the entire length of the trail.

The Ghost Town Trail derives its name from the numerous mining towns that once
existed along this old rail line, including the largest Wehrum, Bracken, Armerford,
Lackawanna #3, Scott Glenn, Webster, Beulah, and Claghorn - all gone now,
except for some structures and the industrial remains of an era bygone.  Eliza
Furnace in the town of Vintondale is a well-preserved iron furnace that operated
in the 1840's and serves as a reminder of the Black Lick Valley's boom industrial
times.

The crushed-limestone path follows Black Lick Creek from Ebensburg on the
eastern terminus to Black Lick in the west.  Given the thousand-foot drop in
elevation from east to west, that was the direction of our run.  Considerable
effort has gone into restoring the natural beauty of the area, but the past
continues to remind trail users of another harder time.

Eric, Mike, Bob and I started from Ebensburg in a light drizzle and sauntered our
way along the smooth trail, chatting and carrying on as we went.  The tempo
seemed comfortable to me, but may have pressed the rest to task.  Mike and
I became separated from the other two at about ten miles; chasing down Mike
I continued forward at a steady but increased pace to reach halfway, where I
filled my water bottles before continuing the second half alone.  The others would
stop at 16 miles while I forged ahead to explore the entire trail and finally meet
up with Mike at the Black Lick terminus in a time for the 32 miles of 5 hours and
2 minutes, not bad considering the lolly-gagging and many stops we made during
the first ten miles.  I was satisfied with the effort and not sore, and really enjoyed
the day's adventure, appreciating the little bit of rain to dampen the normal heat
of July and discourage any mosquitoes.