A never-done-before route I dreamt up, combining my two favorite trails: VT’s Westmore Challenge and Kingdom Heritage Trail. This linkup is close to home where I’ve grown up and essentially right in my backyard.
This was most mileage I had ever done on foot, and my largest human-powered effort. I started in the dark, 5:51 am at the Moose Mountain Trailhead on Wheeler Mountain Road and finished just shy of 14 hours later at the Gore Mountain trailhead in the Silvio O. Conte National Wildlife Refuge. Temps were steady in the 30’s all day. With no prior experience with this distance, I was cautious with my pace and ended up speed walking much of the route’s flat road sections in an effort to avoid any injury from the repetitive impact on the hard surface. In general, I moved my fastest on the soft trail in the woods of the route.
I completed the Westmore Challenge Route to the base of Leadership Drive in 6 hours and 27 minutes. The surprise of ice covering the rock on the upper reaches of Bald Mountain made that stretch rather exciting and slower going than expected. Much of Bluff, Middle, and Gore Mountains were also coated in snow but luckily not ice. Aside from the snow, much of the route was very wet and leafy, conditions were far from ideal. I saw no one on trail until two people at mile 42 coming down Middle Mountain. They were just as surprised to see me.
I did the route fully unsupported carrying all my food and equipment. I stopped to filter water 3 times. Overall, this was a great adventure. I’m excited to give this another go in ideal conditions, and when I am better trained.