Ashley Nordell ran the OHT on Oct 27 in 58 hr 46 min, starting at Fort Smith State Park at 4am Friday and finishing in Woolum at 2:46 pm Sunday. Had the help of Steve Kirk and Greg Eason, as well as three other people. Data on a Garmin Tracker we will download and submit, along with photos and trip notes.
Here are Ashley's notes from her run, photos are below:
Here are the people (witnesses?) who were out with me, crewing and pacing:
Start: Christoph Block, Steve Kirk, Greg Eason
Chris paced mile 0-18 (white rock)- and Mile 55-84ish
Steve paced Mile 38ish (Cherry Bend)- over Hare Mountain for approx 7 miles
I ran two solo sections 18 miles (at mile 18) and 12 miles (at mile 43ish)
Greg paced mile mile 84/5-104/5- we hit the 100 mile marker at 30 hours.
At mile 98, Faye McConnell joined the crew and saw me at a road crossing/crew point that showed mile 100 on the map but was closer to mile 98 on the trail markers.
Rachel Furman joined at mile 104/5ish and paced me the next long 20 mile section through Hurricane Creek Wilderness. It took forever- 7 hr 40ish min (Steve has exact amount) as my quads were struggling with the trail conditions.
At mile 125, Wanda Eason (Greg's mom) witnessed me coming into the next crew point (Fairview CG). She came by to cheer. At this checkpoint, Faye McConnell joined me for the final 40 miles. It got dark (second night) about 15 min before we reached Fairview and Faye had to run down and bring us lights.
Night two was very cold- both due to colder temps (in the 20s) and more hiking than running.
Steve, Chris, and Greg crewed us the rest of the way. It was broken into increments of about 11 miles, 8 miles, 7 miles, 14 miles- I have the names of these stops in our notes. The stop at Richmond Creek CG with 20 miles to go was by far the coldest. The sun wasn't up yet and temps has plummeted. The trail into and out of this Campground was so rocky it was hard to get a good rhythm.
We met our crew with 14 to go right at a jeep road intersection explaining the re-route around a slide. The final trail miles before hitting the 4 mile gravel road to Woolum were rough- very little tread, not much use, not as many white blazes. It took us both a lot of searching every few minutes to find which way to go. We saw a huge male Elk and then a herd a few minutes later..
We hit the Woolum sign at 2:46. Took group pictures and then hung out with a good sized group at the finish. Rachel came back to see the finish, along with Faye's boyfriend and his family, and two friends of Steve's. Plus of course, Steve, Greg, and Chris.