Jonkers East Loop Trail Run

Our trail grading: ORANGE 1A

Distance: 12.5km

Extremeness: 1km of the Canary MTB trail & 11km of established jeep track...

Location: Jonkershoek, Stellenbosch, South Africa

Joggers: Deryck Nel, Dirk van der Merwe & me

This Saturday we got up early and again started our jog in semi-darkness. We decided to mainly keep to jeep tracks so that Deryck's ankle can rest for the 30km we are planning on the 14th of April! We started up the jeep track which turns left immediately after entering Jonkershoek gate and soon realized that the  Canary MTB track would be an easier and more enjoyable way of jogging uphill. Our route took us up to the lower slopes of Pieke, jogging through awesome pine plantations and beautiful ravines of natural forest (similar to what you get in George and Knysna). Next time we'll go up another level and maybe jog to the "saaltjie" which we visited during our Botmaskop Trail Run. Dirk turned back at 5km and Deryck and I climbed a further 100 or so meters before picking up the pace for the enjoyable down run.

Some sad news: Micah True "Caballo Blanco" was found dead in New Mexico on Saturday. He was an inspiration to many an extreme jogger on this blog and died doing what he loved most... extreme jogging. To those of you who have not read "Born to Run" by Christopher McDougall I strongly encourage you to do so... truly inspirational reading for any jogger. Here is the link to Reuters article: Ultra-marathon runner Micah True found dead in New Mexico