I decided to go for the first solo unsupported attempt on this route during this time of year, as the temperatures on the backside of the mountains are a bit cooler and there is running water in the creeks. Going unsupported in the summertime would be tough because there is basically no natural water sources flowing and it gets very hot.
The conditions on the day were pretty much perfect. Not too hot and blue skies. I got started at 4:17 am (wanted to start at 4am but was fashionably late). I made pretty good time in the first couple headlamp hours, making it to the bottom of West Fork trail before seeing the sun. I decided to filter water here because the source was good. But it took way too long. I’m an amateur at this.
I kept going along at a decent pace and made it up Romero Canyon to ECC under 5hrs. Dropping down the backside of the mountains is were I started to slow down. All the trails are just very overgrown and occasionally washed out. It was tough to keep a running pace with all the bushwacking. I let myself drink up all my water before filtering again at the bottom of Devil’s Canyon. I knew there was good flowing water here. Once again it took way too long, about 15 minutes.
The trail up Devil’s Canyon is particularly rough. Lots of washed out sections. After making it across Matthias trail, I connected with Arroyo Burro. Taking Christopher St. Jean’s idea, I crushed a caffeinated cola Neversecond gel and started running up the service road, although it eventually turned into a run/walk 😂
I took a sec to catch my breath and rearrange my pack before heading down the front side of Arroyo Burro. It was during this final decent my legs started to cramp. I had a couple really bad ones that caused me to stop for a minute. Probably my own fueling mistake. Eventually I connected back with Jesusita trail and ran it in to the finish.
My goal was to go under 12 hours and I got it, so I’m happy with the day. On Strava you can see I had an hour of stopped time. This is probably due to bad logistics for water filtering and refilling bottles with drink mix. I definitely learned a couple things I can do better. I would like to try this unsupported again in the future.
This run is dedicated my soon-to-be born son, Basil. Thinking about him got me through some low points during the run.
Someone else should go blow my time out of the water.