Itusi Trail
Having lived in the Charlotte area for a number of years now, I have run many of the local trails on regular basis: Beatty, Ann Springs, Latta, White Water just to name a few.
I run these trails because they are within easy driving distance of my house. But sometimes, I need to get outside my comfort zone and run some other trails.
This past weekend, I ran the Itusi Trail at Lake Norman State park or as some people call it Duke Power State Park. This park is located between Mooresville and Troutman and is roughly about 30 minutes driving distance for me.
So last week, I talked Val and Megan into joining me.
We picked a start time of 7:30 and promptly found ourselves setting at the park entrance. For reason known only to the officials of the state park system, Lake Norman State park doesn't open until 8 AM. First note to self, check the park opening times before picking a park trail.
Hours aside, we rolled off a little after 8AM and had a great run. Itusi Trail is broken into two sections. The first section is about 6.5 miles and the 2nd section is about 6 miles. There's a little extra running on the roads to reach the 2nd section but nothing more than 100 to 150 yards each way.
There were a few little climbs but overall I found the trails to be better than Beatty.
We spent 3 hours and 20+ miles running on them. The trail was excellently maintained and markers were so plentiful that I never felt lost. Taking that thought a little further, getting lost would be rather difficult since all I needed to do was keep turning right and the trail would bring me right back to where I started.
For anyone looking for a little change of pace and wants to get in a nice run ,I definitely suggest the Lake Norman State park trails. And for those interested, there was a 3rd 6 mile trail that we didn't do because it required a little extra running on the roads to reach and we wanted to keep the miles around 20. This means on the next trip; we still have a new trail to check out.
Sharing one thought a time,
The Cool Down Runner
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