FKT: Javan Lapp - Art Loeb Trail (NC) - 2020-07-11

Started at 6am July 11th with Shiloh Mielke from the southern start at davidson river heading north towards camp daniel boone.  Carrying 1.5 liters of water and assorted gels in a vest.  Kept it pretty controlled till we got to the start of the serious climbing around mile 12.  We separated at that point alternating leads until shiloh pulled ahead up to around 7 min at the parkway.  We got refilled by support at the parkway crossing which was crucial bc we had drank all of our water in the first ten miles.  The start was unexpectedly humid for that earlier and warmer than we anticipated.  I suffered a bit after running out of water on the climb and not eating enough.  Was able to recover once I refilled with water and ate a couple gels which helped get through the brushy technical sections across black balsalm.  Used the Gaia GPS app to navigate so basically ran with phone in hand across black balsalm to make sure we were on the right trail because there are a number of false trails and drainage ditches and pirate trails up there that weave across each other.  Shiloh began to suffer across black balsalm and ended up taking a wrong turn up towards shining rock so i made the pass unkowingly when he was detoured.  After that he faded pretty hard to finish in 6:38.  I was able to keep moving through the narrows with only minor time lost following false trails to lookouts off the narrows ridge and had some trouble finding the trail down to camp daniel boone bc it was overgrown.  Had to bushwack around looking for it for a few minutes but was able to finish alright.  Its a difficult descent on tired legs and i ended up sprawled in bushes or running into trees a few times but finished ok in a total time of 6:14:29.