Amanda and I drove up to the Goose Creek TH on Wednesday morning and began our run at 6:28am heading CCW on the loop. Last year we fastpacked it in the CW direction from the Twin Eagles TH and adding the summit of Bison Peak, so we were familiar with the route. Our trip last time was difficult... the mosquitoes were terrible and we only had a tarp to sleep under with no bug netting. My fastpack dug into my shoulders and I had to use extra clothing as padding. My dog got stung in the face by some insect and her breathing was labored at night. We didn't get to fully enjoy the amazing scenery and so we wanted to go back.
Everything went very smoothly this time. We had perfect weather and the mosquitoes were just beginning to hatch so they didn't bother us. We felt pretty good the whole time though we were obviously very tired by the end. This fkt is very soft and I hope some woman or team of women go out soon to improve on our time. We took our time, stopping to have a long lunch break on the Bison Arm and taking lots of photos throughout the run. Water is plentiful throughout the route so we only carried a liter each and stopped often to filter.
We would recommend doing the CW direction for the fastest time. We saw others recommended CCW but here's our case for CW. We prefer to hike technical ups and run less technical downhills. If you go CW, the first climb to Hankins Pass is steep, rocky, and rooty so it's better to hike up than run down as we did. Heading CW the downhill from Bison to Lost Park is very runnable and the rolling sections over to the Wigwam TH are also very runnable. Again the downhill on the Goose Creek trail back to the TH is much smoother than if you go the other direction. The only way that the CCW direction would make for a faster day would be if you could sustain a running pace on the gentle uphill from the Wigwam TH through Lost Park to where the incline increases heading to Bison Arm. Also if you are good at technical downhills maybe you could make quick work from Hankins Pass to the end.
Photos on Strava.