I completed this FKT push on Saturday Sept 3rd, with my Trail Dog, Remy with me the entire distance of the Trail end-to-end. My Husband ran with us the first 2 miles of the trail, and then he ran back to get the Subaru- and to drive to the finish of the trail. He then ran towards us, and ultimately ran with us for the last 2.5 miles of the Badger Creek Trail.
The air temperature was close to ideal at 70 degrees at the start of the trail, and then ending in the mid to low 60 degree F at the finish. No extreme wind, or precipitation on us that day, the weather was nice. I carried 1000 mL of water in my hydration vest, and I did have a filter- bottle and was able to stop and fill up at some good spots along the way, and let my dog have a good little swim to cool down. It was a beautiful day in the PNW.
The first 11 miles of this trail was very runnable and approachable. There were a few small logs and trees along the way, but nothing too bad through the main part of the trail. However, once you get North and West of Badger Lake on the trail, it is not as idyllic, after 11 miles on the Trail it becomes a Cross-Fit Challenge more than a run, with going over- and-under-and around- big trees. Due to Fire Damage, and wind blow down, that trail is not as peaceful and picturesque as the other parts of the trail. I recommend checking in with the Barlow Ranger District before running this trail as an e2e, and also make sure to check the Roads Table - on USDA - to check the status of road 4860 and advisory warnings, because that is a tough road to drive on, at the end, if trying to do a point-to-point run. https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/mthood/alerts-notices/?cid=stelprdb51911…