Jason Hardrath, a prolific FKT’er en route to 100FKTs, and Ryan Tetz, holder (at the time of this writing) of Badwater to Whitney Duathlon and California 14ers by Bike FKTs, were the first to complete what is now known as the “Yosemite Picnic." They based this effort on the concept first thought up and applied by David Gonzales in the Grand Teton Picnic, adapting the concept to fit the best of Yosemite. The idea came from a self-powered triathlon Ryan had thought up starting in Bishop, California that he referred to as the “Bishop Bozo Ironman” and he had made two attempts on this version, without success. Then, upon getting in touch with Jason Hardrath to join forces, the two started to rethink the trip to follow David Gonzales’ original picnic format of “bike, swim, run, swim, bike.” With input from David himself and Luke Webster the final decision was to start down in front of the internationally iconic El Capitan in the Yosemite Valley. Thus, the Yosemite Picnic was born.
We started from the end of the El Cap Bridge at 4:18:05am
biked up to Tenaya Lake in 3hrs 9min
swam Tenaya Lake lengthwise in just under an hour (not counting transitions)
completed the Tuolumne Triple in 6hrs 3 minutes
Swam back into a headwind in just over an hour (again not counting transitions)
biked back down in 2hrs, 15min
Finishing back at El Cap Bridge at 6:54:55pm
Total time - 14:36:50
Note from Jason: I want dedicate this effort to my Aunt Joyce whose passing happened while I was staging for this effort. Your joy and enthusiasm live on, I hope others see the same explosive smile and exuberance for life that you exuded coming from me! Thanks you for a thousand smiles and kindnesses as a struggling little kid.