This one has been on my list for a while, so I was very excited to finally give this a go. I love the open course concept! I camped for the weekend at Ninemile lake campground outside of Finland. I got an early start to the trailhead and saw three moose on the drive to Cascade State park -- a good omen for the day!
Since this is an open course I decided to take a slightly more difficult route with more singletrack but similar overall mileage to previous FKTs. I brought 1.5 L of water with me for the journey and planned to take a gel and salt tablet every 25 minutes through the run. I also brought a spare water filter attachment and an extra snack for the hike down Eagle Mountain after. It was slightly cloudy, mid 60s, and there was a nice breeze to keep the flies away.
I started out from the Cascade State Park wayside watercraft access on the shore of Lake Superior and started up the east side of the SHT around 8:30 am. The farther up the trail I got from 61 the more overgrown the trail became. Sometimes I was crouching through a green tunnel while trying not to slip on a root or down wet stairs. The first few miles were slower-going than I would have liked. I kept waiting to hear the roar of hidden falls which would signal that I was approaching Pike Lake Road and the start of some gravel miles, but the falls were a trickle! I was glad to get on the gravel road and not have to deal with spiderwebs and stairs any longer. I hit cruise and enjoyed some scenic miles on the gravel roads. For being a lowest to highest point route I was pleasantly surprised there were still quite a few downhills and also pleased that there was minimal vehicle traffic. Initially I hadn't been so sure an FKT would be in reach considering how much slower the first 4 miles were than I had planned, but when I reached 10 miles in under 90 minutes I knew an FKT was in the works. I finally got to the Eagle Mountain Trailhead and turned down the trail into the BWCA. There were lots of rocks and roots but much less overgrown than the SHT and I still managed to split some surprisingly fast miles. The final kilometer had a steep rocky climb that was some type 2 fun to end with. I reached the Eagle Mountain Summit in 2 hours, 50 minutes, and 37 seconds. I took a few minutes to take in the views at the top and began my hike down to wait for my ride.