My dad (Jeff Leininger) and I (Hunter Leininger) set out to establish a Team Unsupported FKT on the Foothills Trail Out and Back! We started our journey at Oconee State Park at 7:11 am on 4/22/22 and made it to Table Rock State Park at 1:21 pm on 4/24/22 and turned around, making our way back to Oconee State Park at 8:05 pm on 4/26/22. Total trip time was 4 days 12 hours 54 minutes.
With only hearing about the Foothills Trail the day before we began I am extremely happy with the whole experience! It was surprisingly tough to tackle this FKT completely unsupported meaning I had to carry everything I needed from the start to the finish and couldn't pick up anything along the way. Also, it was a lot more challenging to do this as an unsupported team, since we weren't allowed to help each other in any way, we also couldn't carry each other's stuff if one of us started to struggle. So if one of us was feeling strong we couldn't help out the weaker person by taking some weight, it was definitely an interesting experience that made an unsupported team a lot harder than just doing it solo in my opinion.
I've been able to hike a lot of different trails and the Foothills Trail is up there as one of the toughest with over 70,000 feet of elevation change, but it's also the best-maintained trail ever, highly recommend it to everyone!!