On Saturday August 29, I (Claire Luby) ran with my friend Brint Schwerbel, self supported, from the Munising Falls Visitor center to the Grand Sable visitor center (43.6 according to my garmin watch) in an elapsed time of 7:50:04. Here is the link to my GPS: www.strava.com/activities/382982952
Our splits were roughly (from memory):
miners castle-1:15
chapel rock-3hr
Beaver creek- 4hrs
12 mile beach campground- 5:30
Au Sabel Lighthouse- 6:20
We refilled our water bottles from the spigot at miners castle visitor center, filtered water from beaver creek, and from the spigot at 12 mile beach campground but otherwise we carried everything we needed.
We started around 7:45am and finished just after 3:30pm and had great weather. The temperature started around 60 and climbed to around 70 by the end of the day. It was pretty humid but since the route is mostly through the woods, we were sweaty but stayed pretty cool running through the shade of the trees.
While the trail was drier than when Jason ran it a couple years ago, we were still glad that we started from Munising as the trail is more technical over that half. The best views of the pictured rocks cliffs are also in the first half of the run when starting from Munising. We definitely had more energy for appreciating the scenery, taking photos and not tripping over roots or mud. The second half is relatively flat and open, which we appreciated by mile 35.
The views of lake superior and the cliffs and beaches are absolutely spectacular. We had a great time!