I began my adventure at a motel in Front Royal, VA on Saturday, April 8th. I was shuttled to the trailhead from my motel by Goldilocks who I had called around 7am. She answered and asked "When do you need a ride?" I replied "As soon as possible" She said "Ok, give me two minutes to throw a few things in my car, I'm going for a hike in Shenandoah this morning anyway. I'll be right there". We had the most delightful conversation during the ride. It was quite a serendipitous encounter and the perfect way to begin my FKT. Goldilocks dropped me off at the Overall Run Falls trailhead at 8:50am, snapped a photo and wished me well. I jogged to the intersection of the Tuscarora Trail and Appalachian trail, pulled out the food and gear I'd need for the day, and put it in my front vest pockets. I started my watch at 9:01:28am and was on my way.
In the spirit of the Fastest Known Time I planned to follow all laws, rules and regulations and only camp at legal campsites and shelters along the trail. As with my previous Mid State FKT, this complicated my route planning because the campsites are limited past mile 56, especially once you enter Pennsylvania. I only had options to camp at the Shelters until I reached Tuscarora State Forest. **Note: Per the official Tuscarora Trail association website I took an official detour due to private land trail closure on Doll Ridge section of the trail in George Washington National Forest. This added about 7 miles to the overall length of my route. Screenshot of the detour is included. I have to say, words cannot express how impressed I am with Sean Andrish's supported FKT in 2005. I cannot comprehend how he was able to run the first 50 miles (he headed South) at a 14:30/mi pace and continue the entire trail at such an amazing speed. It's truly an impressive feat he was able to accomplish. I also want to say thank you to Goldilocks for getting me to the start and setting the perfect tone for my FKT, to the Tuscarora Trail Committee Chair, H Shindle for his advice and encouragement and to all the volunteers who maintain the trail. It's really in remarkable condition. It goes without saying that I wouldn't be able to go on any of these adventures without my wife's motivation and encouragement; while also watching our two daughters on many early morning/all day training runs and being away for 6 days to attempt this FKT. Thank you!
Gear List: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1X5QDGNb1PM_GnhdjA_ZIVErkRIXbBeaVZp0…
Full Route: https://www.strava.com/activities/8890207695
Day 1: https://www.strava.com/activities/8863351894
Day 2: https://www.strava.com/activities/8863352069
Day 3: https://www.strava.com/activities/8879999480
Day 4: https://www.strava.com/activities/8879999147
Day 4 1/2: https://www.strava.com/activities/8879999028
Day 1 - 53.43 mi - Elapsed Time 15:25:13 - I made great time down Overall Run falls trail without pushing myself too hard. Made up some time on the road walk and entered George Washington National Forest. I was familiar with this section of trail because I had hiked the entire Massanutten mountain trail back in 2016. I made it up to Doll Ridge and this is where the trail began to become faint. I reached the intersection of the Tuscarora Trail and Massanutten Mountain trail and began the reroute due to private land closure. I reached the road and began a 14 mile road walk into Woodstock where I was able to run a significant portion. I made my way back into the forest, admired Woodstock from the ridge, dropped into a hollow and set up my tarp at a campsite next to Cedar Creek. My legs and feet felt great and I was excited to get to sleep to start the next day. I was very pleased with my 17:19 /mi for the day.
Day 2 - 54.72 mi - Elapsed Time 17:52:36 - Hours slept previous night - 4h 15m - I woke at 5:15am and was on the trail by 5:43am. I felt fresh and was ready to start moving. As I began hiking up Little Sluice Mountain I could hear a whippoorwill singing in the forest and it seemed to be following me. These are the moments I appreciate when on an FKT. Later on in my FKT I was listening to a FKT podcast with Jeff Garmire and Heather Anderson. Jeff said (and I paraphrase) "When I'm out there at night I feel so fortunate because most people are in their beds while I'm out here having this amazing experience". I could relate. I reached Pond Run trail and a group of backpackers were enjoying their morning coffee. Their dog ran at me excitedly and jumped up on me. I was startled and didn't realize my watch had beeped, indicating I needed to turn so I kept walking for about a hundred yards before I realized I wasn't on the TT. I turned back and said to the woman sipping her coffee "missed my turn". She replied "Oh, you're going down there? Someone came up yesterday and bemoaned it was brutal. 8 stream crossings and a heck of a lot of blowdowns." I replied "Welp, that's the way I gotta go, so..." She said "Your car that way?" I replied "Nope, I'm walking to the end of the Tuscarora in Pennsylvania. I'm trying to set the speed record on the trail." She laughed and said "why are you talking to us? GET GOING!" She was not wrong about the brutal blowdowns. My pace slowed quite a bit as I had to navigate around what appeared to be a microburst area. I proceeded up to the ridge and remained there most of the day. It was easy walking without many rocks but many views. I reached route 50 and began the 14 mile road walk and again, made up time jogging. The sun set as I was navigating the roads. Quite a few people kindly stopped, offering me a ride but I politely declined. I was surprised how many people were familiar with the trail. Back into the woods and up to Shockey's Knob. I was debating if I should push on another 3.75 miles to Wolf Spring Campsite but I decided to stay at the shelter to save about 20 minutes setting up/taking down my tarp. My pace had slowed to 20/mi but I was optimistic I could make up time the next day on the 22 mile road walk.
Day 3 - 62.00 mi (this includes a mile hike down to Reese Hollow Shelter) - Elapsed Time 20:40:10 - hours slept 3h 30m - I woke up feeling a bit stiff but nothing out of the ordinary for a 53 mile previous day. I spoke H Shindle on the phone when planning for my FKT and he was extremely helpful sharing his knowledge of the trail. He mentioned it was a woods road walk from Shockey's Knob past Wolf Spring, so I was very excited to make good time. I entered Sleepy Creek Wildlife Management area as the sun began to rise and enjoyed a delightful morning. I was feeling great and still keeping up with my intended pace. I entered the Devil's Nose section of the trail, which I thought was possibly the most picturesque area of the entire trail. I finally reached River Road and the start of a 22 mile road walk. H Shindle had warned me "this is the most dangerous road on the entire trail" and he was certainly right. Drivers were speeding down the road with essentially no shoulder. I'd occasionally have to jump onto the berm on the side of the road or switch sides of the road if there wasn't any room facing traffic. During this road run the soles of my feet began to ache. This happened to me on day 7, my final day of my Mid State FKT but I wasn't expecting it this early on my Tuscarora attempt. I pushed through the pain in order to get off River Road and then faced the two lane bridge going over the Potomac River. This bridge was an absolute nightmare. There was a small pedestrian walkway on the left hand side of the bridge but the barrier preventing me from falling into the river was only about waist high (I have a terrible fear of heights) with cars and 18 wheelers passing within feet going about 50 mph. After an agonizing 1/2 mile I reached solid ground and felt an immense sense of relief. I made my way to the C&O canal trail and began a pleasant jog where I hoped to make up some time. I left the C&O trail and started back onto roads. Again, many drivers stopped to offer rides. I explained to one or two what I was trying to accomplish and they provided words of encouragement. It was really nice to see so many people looking out for me and offering to provide help to a stranger walking on the side of the road. I finally entered my home state of Pennsylvania and the foreboding ridgeline of State Gamelands 124 I'd be walking for most of the night came into view. When I spoke with H Shindle he said "I've only made it to the PA section but I stopped there because of the rocks. I didn't want to navigate those giant boulders alone because it just isn't safe". I knew I'd be doing this alone, at night. I zig zagged across the ridge, following giant slabs of rock, going up and over knife edges while running into no less than 7 porcupines along the way. From the moment I started planning months prior I debated if I wanted to hike the mile down 800' to Reese Shelter or not. There's no water on the ridgeline and it's 17 miles from the start until the first water at Big Mountain Shelter. At 12:20am and 61 miles for the day my brain was fried, I was having mild visual hallucinations (seeing black stumps or rocks and thinking they were people, bears, signs, birds. Well, one was actually a bird on a log that I took a picture of to prove to myself later. Included above). I just could not handle navigating the giant rocks any longer and decided to take the 2 mile/800' penalty and hike down to Reese Shelter. I signed the log book (I guarantee it doesn't make much sense), blew up my air pad and went to sleep. As I closed my eyes I could hear voices in my head chatting back and forth with each other, some gibberish, some coherent conversation. The sleep deprivation had begun.
Day 4 - 46.32 mi - Elapsed time 17:14:26 - Hours slept 2h 45m - Woke up at 4am and was on the trail by 4:30am. I had 77 miles remaining and at this point, I accepted that my "A" goal of beating the supported FKT of 3 days 17 hours had slipped away. I would need to average 16 minute 45 second miles for the rest of the trail. However, with the extreme elevation and PA rocks, plus my exhaustion, I knew this was impossible. My new goal was to beat 4 days. I began the arduous 800' climb back up to the Tuscarora, which seemed much shorter going uphill after a bit of sleep. I resumed my rock hopping navigation and was happy with my decision to get some sleep. It was much easier and less of a chore to make my way across the knife edges. I reached Tuscarora Summit just as the sun was rising and enjoyed a beautiful view for a moment. Down to Cowan's Gap state park where a delightfully easy forest road run started. I was making really good time and was remaining positive. I reached Fannettsburg Pike and started the walk along the ridgeline. This is where the misery began. It appears the trail has been rerouted directly onto the ridge as opposed to where it was previously on an old woods road just West of the ridge. I was climbing up and over huge boulders, through blowdowns, getting torn by briars. The trail was in very poor condition and clearly not used frequently. After a very slow, agonizing 4 miles I made my way off the ridge down into a valley toward Spring Run. As I was running on the road (with a herd of cattle following me) a man in a 90's Honda with a giant cooler in the back seat stopped and rolled down his window. He said "You look like you're going to hike that ridge up there." and pointed to the 8 mile ridgewalk I was headed toward. I replied "Sure am." He said "I've got some property up there and was looking for mushrooms yesterday. I came across about a half dozen copperheads all around there. You be careful up there!" My heart sank. My biggest fear on the trail besides ticks is stepping on a rattler or copperhead. Not only did I now have to navigate rocks and ridges for 3+ hours, I had to be focused on not stepping on, or grabbing a snake when scaling the boulders. The man smiled, waved and said "Good luck!" as he drove off. I slowly made my way up the insane uphill climb to the ridge which was a straight up with zero switchbacks. I was optimistic the trail wouldn't be as rocky as the previous ridge, but I soon found out that wouldn't be the case. I was scaling boulders, navigating knife edges and jumping from huge rock to huge rock. Again, I could see a woods road about 200 yards to my left below the ridge where the GPS said the trail should be, but the new blue blazes clearly indicated the true trail followed the top of the ridge itself. After a brutal 8.5 miles over 3 1/2 hours (fortunately, zero snakes) I came down off the ridge to a forest road and into Tuscarora State Forest. I was familiar with this area because I hiked it in the past while training for my Mid State FKT. I found a spring at Hemlock Road and filled up my water bottles. First water in about 10 miles. I climbed down to Fowler Hollow shelter and noticed a tremendous amount of blowdowns had been recently cleared. Thank you Christopher Firme and your trail crew! I later saw on Facebook they had cleared this section about 7 hours prior to my arrival, along with earlier sections of the trail. I began my 3/4 mile, 900' climb up Amberson ridge. Once I reached the top of the ridge, my watch vibrated indicating it took me 34 minutes. I knew I had three more huge ridges to cross until I reached Cowpens road. That was the moment my goal "B" of sub 4 days disappeared. I accepted it and decided I'd try to get a nap somewhere in the near future. I reached Three Square Hollow road and entered a very pretty coniferous forest with a stream. I crossed a bridge and realized I had been at that exact spot about 7 years prior. I was on a leisurely backpacking trip and ate lunch at a campsite a hundred feet off the trail next to a fire ring. On that trip I thought "This would be a great spot to camp, but it's too early in the day". Well, I finally got to camp there....for 90 minutes. It was 10pm. I spread out my groundsheet, unrolled my sleeping bag and set my alarm for 11:30pm. While I was napping, I think I heard a huge tree fall, but I could have been making that up.
Day 4 1/2 - 36.46 mi - Elapsed Time 17:14:26 - Hours slept 1.5 - My alarm went off and admittedly, I snoozed once. I crawled out of my sleeping bag at 11:45pm, put on my shoes, quickly packed my gear and was on the trail by 12:05am. I felt "refreshed" and began yet another ridge walk. Somewhere along that ridge at 3:45am I was walking in my zombie death march state and my brain suddenly said "STOP!" I didn't really understand why at first, but then I realized I was standing about 3 paces from a huge 4' Timber Rattler with the girth of my arm, lying directly across the trail. It didn't rattle or move. I slowly stepped around it, said good morning, snapped a photo and kept moving. I reached Colonel Denning State Park and at this point, I was starting to fall asleep while walking. I was stumbling a bit and couldn't really walk straight. On the hike up toward Flat Rock Vista I stopped once or twice, leaned on my trekking poles and fell asleep standing up for a minute or two. It was still dark so my brain wasn't able to fight through the sleep deprivation. I made it to Wagon Wheel shelter, rolled out my sleeping bag and set my alarm for 40 minutes. I woke up to daylight and was relieved. My brain would be tricked into staying awake now. I quickly packed up and hustled for the final stretch. More ridges, more never ending rock fields. I'm from Pennsylvania and have hiked all of the major backpacking trails. I've never experienced anything like what I was going through on the Tuscarora. It was relentless and I couldn't do anything to improve my pace. My feet were destroyed from all the road running and the off camber rock hopping was agony when my feet would slide around in my shoes, or I'd stub a toe on a rock. Yet again, I could see a smooth forest road about 200' to my right but there were signs that said "Private Property. Stay on Trail" so I was forced to remain on the rocks. I was yearning to run but it was absolutely impossible with all the rocks, my exhaustion and feet. There is also no water up on this ridge. The last water is just past Flat Rock Vista. I was rationing as best I could, but I was extremely thirsty. I crossed Wagoners Gap where there was a water cache. Absolute torture I thought. I tried to ignore it and kept moving. Somewhere along the next section of trail, about 20 miles from where I last filled at a stream next to route 233 I saw a muddy spot beside the trail. I dug a hole and it filled with water. I was ecstatic. I kept digging and the hole kept filling with water. I was able to fill my 1 liter Katadyn and drank the entire thing. I then filled my Katadyn again for the remaining 5 miles. Finally the trail began to smooth out and I was able to run again. It felt SO great to be able to run and move faster than a 25/mi pace. I finally reached route 34 and knew it was the home stretch. As I jogged up the hill I watched my shadow and it was quite reminiscent of Forrest Gump running through the desert, haggard, hair astrew, . I made the turn back into the woods and pushed as hard as I could knowing I had only two miles left. I ran the final mile at a 13:42 pace. I looked at my watch and it said 0.7 miles to the finish. I saw two people ahead of me and I wondered if they were tracking me via my Garmin and had come to see me at the end. I ran closer and the man said "Excuse me, is the Cumberland Outlet near here?" I thought "OUTLET!?!!? You're looking for a shopping outlet?!" I then realized in my extreme exhaustion and sleep deprivation I misheard and he had actually said "outlook". I said "No, sorry" and kept running. I felt bad I was curt but I was so close to the end. All of a sudden, I rounded a corner and saw all the signs in front of me. I stepped foot on the Appalachian Trail at 4:01:40pm. I stood there for a few minutes, took a picture of myself and then opened the Uber app on my phone. 10 minutes to pick up at the bottom of the mountain. I had a 1.7 mile hike out on tha AT which seemed like a sidewalk compared to what I'd just experienced. I'd be able to make the 5:40pm Amtrak back to Philly in time to read my daughter her stories before bed.