Rachel Carson Trails Challenge Brings Out the Grit and Determination

One of two North Hills men who hiked the Rachel Carson Trails Challenge Saturday finished; the other is looking forward to next year. 

Tony Hargrove, 48, of Ross, said that although the 34-miles-in-one-day hike from North Park to Harrison Hills Park was tough at times, he never considered giving up.

“I never thought about quitting, but I didn't allow myself to go there,” he said. 

The Challenge was Hargrove's first. 

Jason Figura, however, started with a disadvantage -- he fell playing in a soccer game a month ago and bruised his kidneys.

“My doctor told me that I could resume normal activity, but maybe he didn’t know what my ‘normal’ was,” Figura said.

The trail, known as the "the bloody, muddy" Rachel Carson, winds through creeks and small paths through the woods in county parks and on private property. About nine to 10 miles of the trail is roadway.

The hike started at 5:50 a.m. Saturday, and although there were four checkpoints about seven to eight miles apart along the trail where hikers scanned electronic tags to register official times, the goal of the hike was about endurance and completing the entire trail before sunset.

Saturday's Challenge was the second attempt for Figura, 28, of West View. He had to pull out of the hike last year at about the 26-mile mark due to dehydration on a day that was cruel in humidity and heat.

“I’m going back for redemption,” he had said before this year’s event. He was still optimistic at early check-in Friday night, but he pulled out this year at about mile 23.

“My kidneys were just bothering me too bad,” he said, “I still felt reasonably well, but I have too many other things this summer to endanger anything.”

The humidity was rather low and the temperature was in the 70s to 80s on Saturday, the day of the event. More than 600 people participated in the Challenge. Another 200 hikers/runners took on the Homestead Challenge, a 17-mile event and another 70 the Friends and Family eight-mile challenge.

On Sunday, Figura said he felt “really good," and he thinks he talked his girlfriend, Diana Garguilo, into hiking next year’s Homestead Challenge.

“She had to pick me up, and she thought it sounded like fun,” he said.

Figura’s next event is July 2, when he travels to the New York Finger Lakes Fifties Trail run to attempt the 25K run (approximately 15 miles).

“I was going to attempt the 50K, but I think I may drop to the shorter distance. Better safe than sorry,” he said.

Hargrove said he started out hiking alone, but made it through the Challenge with the help of others. 

“At the first check point, I felt worse than I thought I was going to feel, which made me nervous," he said. "At the second check point, I felt much better.  At the third, I could see the light at the end of the tunnel,” he said. 

“That light quickly disappeared somewhere between the third and fourth checkpoint.  Not sure if it was the hills, the heat, the blisters, the fact that I ran out of water, the fact that we were over 20 miles in, or more likely the combination," he said. "I just kept telling myself to make it to that fourth checkpoint.”

When he met a hiker who was in pain and contemplating quitting around mile 31, Hargrove asked if he wanted a friend.

“I asked him if he wanted me to hang with him and finish together. I figured he would say, ‘No, go on, I will be fine,’ but he said, ‘Sure, I would like that.' So we finished the hike together at a slower pace and chatted it up to pass the time.”

“I met such a great group of people from all over the Pittsburgh area and even one from Ithaca, NY,” Hargrove said. “It was important to chat it up with other hikers and take our minds off the pain.”