scott brockmeier and myself (carl laniak) ran its entirety on sunday, september 20, 2009 in the monsoon that was north georgia.
we met at lake winfield scott at 5am, and left my van there, then drove to three forks in the predawn deluge. at 7:15 we started up the AT to the the southern terminus of the DRT at longs creek falls.
it absolutely poured for all but about half an hour of the next 10 hours 45 minutes.....after 4 hours it was just comical how much water we were getting.....this storm caused major flooding and damage in the atlanta area.
the DRT is notorious for being dry once you are on the ridge, but lucky us, the trail itself was a water source, we literally filled our bottles several times by laying them on the middle of the trail and collecting the torrent.....untreated and tasty!
i got a yellow jacket sting just north of hwy 60, my first since before college. other wildlife included about 10 box turtles, and a 6" salamander.
this trail is easy to follow, but slightly overgrown. in the rain you get more briers laying down in the trail and ripping your shins, but it was much better than we anticipated.
coosa bald is a monster, especially when you've got 30 miles on your legs.
the DRT is ~32 miles, but the termini are about .75 and 4 miles from our vehicle drop points, respectively, so we figure the trip was 36-37 miles. the DRT portion took us 9:20. i would call it a strong leisurely effort. when we were moving we were moving, but we took a few extended pit stops to pull out the maps and let them enjoy the rain with us. i started with a bacon egg and cheese bagel in my pocket, which i finished before we got to the DRT, and then i ate 5 snickers bars and two $.50 packs of salted peanuts for the rest of the trip. i bonked a little bit the last 2 miles.....
anyway, it was a good day, enjoy the trails.
certainly this FKT is soft, but i figured i'd put it up here in case anyone else has done it.
carl