That was much harder than I anticipated!
I started at the north trailhead off California Park in order to tackle the southern, more difficult-to-navigate portion of the loop first, per Courtney Clifton’s recommendation. This was excellent advice because trying to find the trail at night in this section would have been very difficult!
A note on navigation: sometimes it’s difficult to know whether or not you’re actually on the trail. Cut logs from long ago provide reassurance, though. I got off course several times but managed to backtrack and correct course.
I carried enough calories for about 10 hours, which was a mistake. Though, I did end up having trouble eating in the latter half, so I’m not sure it mattered too much in the end, at least for this particular effort. Water-carrying capacity was 2.5 liters: two flasks and a bladder. I think this was the right amount considering how hot it was during the day. Water was abundant enough along the route, especially in the second half.
Wildlife (and livestock) sightings were abundant! I saw many deer and elk throughout the day and night. I passed through a field with about 1,000 sheep during the day waving to the sheep herder as I passed through. Around 9:30pm, I was greeted by another sheep herder and his dog. He was very kind and impressed by the route. I also got close enough to a third sheep-herding area later in the evening such that the sheep dogs started aggressively barking. I could hear them for miles after that.
The effort was somewhat injurious. I slipped on a log and bruised my quad pretty badly on the approach to the turnaround point, which later made it quite difficult to run downhill. I also snagged my calf on a piece of barbed wire on the ground in the last 10 miles.
At some point, I thought I could finish in the 12-13 hour range, but it became clear in the last five miles that this wasn’t going to happen. I was fighting a pretty severe bonk near the end, eating mainly caffeine gels to stay awake. I did manage to rally and overcome the bonk in the last couple miles to go sub-14, though, which ultimately I’m pleased with!
Overall, this is a very cool route. Navigation is difficult but doable.