--- James' Report ---
Finally completed the entire Zaleski Backpack trail with Michael! We both had been on planning to run it, but due to closures and other various reasons it never happened. Ironically, this rout had been made into an official FKT earlier in April, making it an even sweeter goal to complete.
We started at the Hope School house and made our way to the north where we took the lollipop connection to the typically elusive Northern Loop. We had some needed calories hidden in behind a tree where the trail crossed Rt. 56. It was a pleasant surprise to find the trail to be in runable condition with a few exceptions in the valleys/gullies. From there, we found our way back and on to the western section of the southern loop were we were met with soupy creek crossing after creek crossing of the same stream. Finally, we were home free and back onto some very familiar trail to head back to the school house.
Such an enjoyable run despite the consistent rain throughout the entire second half. The trails were in decent shape considering the amount of rain we received the night before. A tee shirt and shorts seemed to get the job done, but the falling temperature made for some numb hands near then end. Glad to finally check this one off the list with good company.
--- Michael's Report ---
James and I have talked about doing the full Zaleski Backpack Trail for a couple years now and found a good moment to do it. I completed the full trail in 2015 but that was prior to the new trailhead at the Hope Schoolhouse; I had started from other backpack parking lot, which makes the current route a few miles longer. With the recent uptick in FKT activity this route was first submitted on the FKT website earlier in the year, with the starting point at the Hope Schoolhouse TH, so James and I decided it was best to start our run from here as well.
For having rain in the past few days and overnight the trail was in really good shape, especially higher on the ridgetops. Some of the valleys were a bit mucky but nothing too problematic, or out of the norm with Zaleski. The forest was very pleasant today.
James and I enjoyed the run, and it really seemed to have gone by quickly. We had an extra bottle and some calories stashed at the first Rt. 56 crossing, at about mile 16. It didn't rain on us for the first half but there was a consistent light drizzle the second half. We were in shorts and short sleeves which seemed to work nicely, until near the end when we crossed through the creaky section on the far west side of the loop. Looking at the forecast later it looks like the temp. had dropped a bit, and with being wet, we almost got cold, but luckily warmed up once we started back uphill toward the finish. It was nice getting dry clothes on after, and if the run was any longer we would have needed to prepare better gear for the rain.
All in all I think we managed a really consistent pace throughout the day, enjoying the forest and the company. I really enjoyed the far North section of the loop, the Doolittle Preserve, and was pleasantly surprised with how nice the trail conditions were there. I encourage everyone to check out this lesser traveled section!