I celebrated the winter solstice by chasing this FKT, with the goal of beating the fastest men's time to take the overall FKT (unsupported)! I wanted to finish in 10 hours, but I ended up exceeding that goal, finishing in 9:13:55! It was an unseasonably warm day for December, with a high of 81 at lower altitudes and a high in the mid-60s in Summerhaven. I started out with 2L of fluids and a mixture of gels and real food options for fueling. I also brought 2 Katadyn 0.6L filter bottles for filtering water along the way. By the time I reached the Crystal Springs Trail, I was almost out of fluids and made my first filtering stop here, filling one of my Katadyn bottles. By the time I reached Summerhaven, this water was almost gone and I stopped in the bathroom at the Community Center to get water from the sink, after confirming with the FKT folks that this is allowed for an unsupported effort (the water fountain is still broken, but the sinks work)! I filtered more water from Lemmon Creek along Wilderness of Rocks, filling both of my Katadyn bottles because I knew there would likely not be anymore water until Hutch's Pool and it was a warm and exposed section of trail. With this 1.2L, I was able to skip the stop at Hutch's and filter from the creek crossing about a quarter mile after Hutch's Pool. I just filled one bottle there to avoid carrying extra weight since I knew I could get more water at the junction of East Fork and West Fork, and again at the creek crossing on Sycamore Reservoir Trail. I drank a total of 5L. My fueling calculations afterward came out to 87g carbs/hour average, plus about 20g protein and a bit of fat. I still felt very hungry for the last 10 miles and at this point was out of gels and my mouth was too dry to want to eat the rest of the real food I had with me.
I was surprised by how few people were out on the trail on such a beautiful day and a weekend day at that! I counted 15 people total that I passed in the 43ish miles! And from the start at Gordon Hirabayashi all the way up to Wilderness of Rocks, I only saw ONE person on the trail (and his dog)!
There was snow and ice on the first section of Butterfly Trail; it was mostly ice, which made it slow-going for that first half mile or so, because it's a steep downhill grade and narrow trail, and I had to walk slowly and gingerly and get down and use my hands in some parts to avoid sliding off the trail. I still don't regret my decision NOT to carry microspikes because I don't think it would have been worth carrying the extra weight when they only would have been useful for a half mile to a mile total.
This was such a fun route! Thanks to Matt for creating this FKT route and inspiring me to go out and run it! I'd love to see more women try this route!