10-mile running route in Heinz National Wildlife Refuge, Philadelphia

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@trang and I have recently discovered a new long-distance running route in Philadelphia. The route winds through the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge. Heinz is considered "America's First Urban Refuge" and has beautiful nature and a fantastic selection of birds and fish.

But before, I tell you give your more info about the route, let me make my first @cleanplanet post on Steem. I ran in the Refuge the previous weekend and noticed several large bags of trash. I believe volunteers had collected the litter, but due to a misunderstanding it was never collected. Therefore, when I saw the same full trash bags a week later, I decided to carry them out myself:

The trash bags were located at GPS coordinates 39°52'19.4"N 75°18'28.8"W, which sits on a peninsula (man-made petroleum pipeline). You can see the peninsula and trail in the following photo:

I've highlighted the trail and parking lot, which did not exist on the map during our run. I added them after to OpenStreetMap. In addition, I added a couple other trail segments that were missing from OSM in the Refuge.

The full track for our run is available here:

Notice the close proximity to the highway and PHL airport. It is amazing how vibrant the wildlife is and how extreme the juxtaposition of nature to manmade. There is even a side trail that let's you run under the highway I-95:

In my opinion, this is one of Philly's best long distance running routes. Definitely worth checking out if you're training for a marathon or half. Look at @trang killing it:

Until next time!