Drove down from Eugene on a Thursday night. Slept at Armstrong gulch TH for an early start. Didn’t sleep much and for some reason wanted to leave on the hour to make math easy, so didn’t really get an early start lol… Plan was to run it supported because my wife was there and it would be more fun. Goal was sub 7hrs and I had calculated about 35 miles. So nothing crazy just a nice chiller day out running. Left Armstrong gulch TH at 6am with my dog “Big Miles Benson”. Planning to meet Hannah at little applegate TH in 4 hours to swap some bottles and hit the last 15 miles of ditch. Did it clockwise to get the significant climbing out of the way early and to intentionally spend the later part of the run on the south exposure in the ditch tired, hot and grinding a little.. worked out great. The climb up and over Armstrong in the morning was epic! The whole jack ash trail was luscious and green to the top. The bomber downhill and the dirt road decent to little Applegate were just perfect. Rolled into little Applegate at just over 4hrs which was the right on pace. Very easy 21 miles, felt fresh, grabbed some bottles and a big smooch and dropped off Benson. Hit the ditch a little after 10 and started working back towards Armstrong gulch. Luckily I was anticipating some of the shenanigans the trail pulls leaving the ditch and climbing a bunch just to drop back down to the ditch (I’m assuming to avoid private land?) didn’t dampen the spirits. Made good time across the ditch and hade made up the time expected to be sub 7hrs. Hit 35 miles before 1pm but was nowhere near the TH. 1.6 miles later reached the van and Hannah back at Armstrong gulch. This was a super fun day out training and managed to keep it chiller and feel pretty fresh all day. Ate great all day but finished a little thirsty. I would highly recommend this trail to anyone. Especially the jack ash section from west to east. Thumbs up. The trail is young and the tread has some fine tuning to be prime but the route and scenery are dope. Encountered no less than 1 million ticks. I think this is a pretty soft time and could easily be obliterated if someone wanted to go out and give it a good push. Will be back to give the mine ditch out and back a go soon 🤙