The three of us set off at 6:00am in the fog and the dark. Tony, Dylan and I all living in Bar Harbor we know the trails really well and had been looking forward to giving this Acadia Round a go. We were coming off a major fall storm the day before that dropped 24 hours of heavy rain and wind leaving the ground saturated and rocks wet and slippery. The 50 degrees (and soon 60+) was unseasonably warm and the day was fogged in until late afternoon making for a very humid day.
We hit Fabbri for water at around mile 7, water again at Jordan Pond (mile 13ish) and dropped water at the base of Norumbega's Goat Trail in advance. The fountains were turned off on the top of Cadillac but there is still a spigot on the exterior wall of the men's restroom that has water usually. The gift shop was closing up a few days later for the season so they only had $4 Animal crackers for extra snacks. We also refilled in Duck Brook stream after coming off Penobscot and out of the outlet from Bubble Pond. Definitely used more water than expected and in summer months you'd want to have some crew support or drop more water in advance. (Or bring a filter bottle as there are plenty of rivers to usually filter from when you can't find a fountain.)
The water from the rain really slowed us down despite being really comfortable on the wet rocks and knowing the trails so well. Someone else in dry conditions could easily shave off 90 minutes to 2 hours on just not having to navigate certain angles and be able to fly down the granite ridgelines without having to be cautious in the dangerous conditions. Otherwise we were not moving quickly through the first half just making sure we got a good route in without any mistakes for this first run and when we got to Norumbega we really started to push through the climbs. We hit Bald, Parkman, Gilmore and Sargent pretty steady, the meat grinder section to just get through as quick as you can. Penobscot to Pemetic and then powering through the sloppy wet West Face of Cadillac was a real grit test but the sun was coming out finally and we could see something beyond the trees for the first time all day.
Once we got to the top of Cadillac we knew we were in the home stretch despite a few steep sections down into the Gorge and the challenging rocky descent of North Dorr and the three summits of Kebo that always feel far more difficult at the end of an ultra than they are on the map.
It's a first time we set intentionally to give everyone attempting it a "baseline" and certainly can be beat. All three of us individually could have a few hours off it and one day that's exactly what we will do. This route would be ideal for someone to crew their friend/partner or a group of friends as you can bike or drive to many of these intersections really easily and provide aid. Given water is plentiful that simplifies so much and you could run with a simple bottle and pack nutrition in your shorts or a belt to really lighten the gear list. We carried all our nutrition for this in packs (minus some animal crackers...) and otherwise all wished we had run without it for speeds sake.
It would be better to run this direction, counterclockwise to not go down West Cadillac and Pemetic NW direction. It's just better this way and flowed really well. First two weekends of October are primo weekends to attempt this with better weather and peak foliage that is really unreal at times. Very pretty. Lots of tourists in sections around Jordan Pond that can slow you down so we minimize this by skipping the Bubbles peaks that are often very busy and otherwise of limited value for vertical gain. Most of these other trails are not really populated and overly busy compared to other sections of Acadia. You can certainly expect to run into hikers here and there but if you start early morning you'll miss most of them on Champlain/Beehive/Gorham and then it's really just Jordan Pond sections and running across Cadillac's summit. We didn't see a single hiker until Jordan Pond on this day, almost half way into the day.
The climbs are really tough and add up quickly mostly due to the rocky nature of the climbing, both up a steep incline of pure granite or giant boulder piles you're climbing up and over and around all day. It is a full body workout that really takes a toll compared to "regular trail running" if there is such a thing. It was nice to finish in the town and have some family there cheering us in for the last bit.
Already looking forward to taking a few hours of it on the next attempt!