I’d been looking at this for a few months now and after a little coordinating with Keith and Jero, who volunteered to crew me, I finally made it out to Sipsey to give it a go.
We started about 5:15AM so that I could try to avoid doing the final section after sundown, which meant I’d get to do the first leg in the dark, which seemed like a pretty good trade off. The morning started out pretty smooth until I came to the first river crossing just before mile 2. I’d done all the crossings on previous runs, but with the dark I was having a hard time finding the spot to cross. After a few minutes I saw the ladder on the other side, half submerged with no sand bar in the river and no bottom visible, a lot deeper than my checkout crossing. As I edged into the water, which had previously come to mid calf, I slowly sank to my knees, my shorts, and over my navel by the time I was through the deepest part of the freezing, pitch black river. Talk about being awake. The rest of the section was pretty uneventful and the sun was coming up by the time I met up with my crew Randolph Trail Head (TH).
I’d have another 2 water crossings during the next section so I set out in wet shoes on the next 12 miles and headed up toward Bunyan hill and the big tree. This section was pretty uneventful, though with the recent rain the waterfalls were fantastic all day. A few sketchy descents with wet rocks, a few close calls and I was back on 206 headed to Thompsan TH where my crew were ready with dry shoes, I felt like a million bucks headed up 208.
We knew there wouldn't be time to meet up at Brazil TH so I carried on down 210. As anyone who's enjoyed this section of trail knows it’s one of the older, harder to follow, and less traveled parts of Sipsey. I managed not to get too lost or do too much blundering through the undergrowth and made my way to the next resupply at the intersection with 208. It was a hussel for them to make it back up to the car and catch me back at the Borden TH. From there it was across the river for the last time and up 207. Keith and Jero caught me one final time at Gum Pond where I followed the road around and booked it along the 203 as fast as the trail and my soggy feet would allow. Making my way up the final climb to the parking lot, I checked my watch and saw I could squeak in just under 10 hours; I managed to touch the gate and stop my watch with 7 seconds to spare.
(Photos are me, Jero and me, Keith, and Jero)