FKT: Aaron Iles - Patapsco Valley State Park Traverse (MD) - 2020-03-21

I don't mean the current record holder any disrespect, but after seeing Sean Schmidt complete a traverse on 2020-01-26, I was a bit displeased with the route he took. His route unnecessarily used roads at Daniels, Oella, and Ilchester. Additionally, his route did not traverse the entirety of the park. My goals for the route were as follows:
1) Maximize use of trails
2) Minimize use of roads
3) Minimize distance
4) Maximize use of trails near the river
5) Maximize simplicity of route for repeatability
6) Traverse as much of the park as possible

I believe you will find those statements to be true when you examine the route I planned here: https://caltopo.com/m/4VT9
I also documented the entire route from start to finish and wrote a guide for anyone planning to repeat the route: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vTemvsH20YezgXV_4YCUsvNUmEjCZMI3Gw4JgorEVrJylMegg90MpIGfYA2ImvJo3zuqrycr6kdMIS6/pub

I agree completely with Sean's start location and his guidelines. The park's trails are not labeled and change weekly so establishing a hard-and-fast route is not possible (which is also why my guide is probably TOO detailed.) However, stopping at the Avalon shelters like he did sells the route short in my opinion. This is the Patapsco Valley State Park Traverse so it should traverse as much of the park as possible. There's still another 4 miles of park with runnable trails. This is why I am submitting a new route (at least a new finish location) under the same constraints he outlined in his original attempt. You'll notice my distance is still 35 (34.8) miles and I met all of the criteria Sean proposed excluding the finish location.