spectacular trail - prior to this run i had only seen a 1.5 mile segment leading up to hunter mountain, so i was in for lots of surprises and i was never disappointed. great variety - lots of sections with endless vert, some flatter/faster ridge running near the tops going through evergreen/moss forests, plenty of technical stuff with a few small scramble sections. no road or jeep trail linkups, just great trails the whole time.
weather was great - ranging from high 20s to mid 40s, lower humidity, and got pretty sunny in the afternoon which was nice.
trail conditions were difficult - i don't think this is a great time of year to go fast, but i was too impatient to wait another 6 months. it's been raining quite a bit recently and there were numerous mud/water sections which were slow to navigate around. also quite a bit of water (and ice!) on the rocks. and a double traverse meant at least a couple hours in the dark (at my speed at least) which always slows things down. but the biggest issue was a ton of freshly fallen leaves - this mostly impacted the lower elevations - but in those sections it was impossible to see what was under the leaves and i decided to just go slower and play it safe. i suspect the best time of year to visit is late spring (after a dry spell), or maybe in summer if you can find a day with cooler weather and no crowds. even 45 degrees felt too hot on some of those climbs!
i ran unsupported - started with 2L of tailwind and refilled a few times along the route. finding water was very easy, given the recent rains - could have just gone with 1L and more frequent refills if i wanted.
note on gpx - seems pretty accurate, some minor offset issues in a few spots. trail was easy to follow (at least during the day) and so i only got lost a few times on side trails for views or going the wrong way up rock scrambles.
Comments
? keep up the strong ? work ? ?