FKT: Andrew Bishop - Merrill Creek Loop (NJ) - 2024-12-09

I was travelling to NJ on work and stopped in to attempt this FKT. I ended up running this twice back-to-back because my first attempt I took the black perimeter trail down the backside of the main dam and down to the tailwaters and back up. After getting back up on the other side I realized I should have stayed high on the dam so finished the loop and then did another loop over again on the correct trail. The upload here is my second loop which matches the gpx route loaded to FKT. Given the relatively short length of the run I did not resupply or take water with me. I ran this counterclockwise. I started at the painted stop line on the parking lot at the boat ramp. The trail was rocky and rooted for the first mile or so and then became just slightly rocky for the next mile. After that the trail really smoothed out but had some blow down trees and eventually became a gravel two track for the last ~2 miles. A really enjoyable run to knock out though I probably would have preferred to only run it once...