I started from Pruitt just before sunrise. I decided to go upstream first because I knew the eastern side was going to be harder to navigate and the net gain going west would be better to hit first. Everything went about as smoothly as it could've. I missed the trail at one point, but turned back to find it. Navigating the fields on the eastern side was a mess. Once I got to Erbie, it started getting better and from Camp Orr (the Boy Scout camp) it was smooth sailing. Other than crossings, I was able to keep up a nice pace all the way to Ponca and back to Camp Orr. I thought I would be better off navigating from Camp Orr back to the start, but it was no easier, even with the GPS track of my first pass.
I carried all my own food and started with a liter of water. I had a filter with me and refilled in the river when I ran out. With so many crossings, I was never far from water, so a liter was plenty to have on me. I only had to stop a couple time on the way out to refill, but warmer temps on the way back meant many more stops. Was running low on calories on the way back, too, but managed to get by. Ideally, I would have had a better integrated filter, to speed up these refills, but my best option at the time was to fill a soft flask with water then squeeze it through the filter into my vest's bottles. This was pretty slow and difficult to do on the run, so definitely another way to shave time in the case of another attempt.
Conditions were pretty good. It was hotter than I'd hoped in the afternoon (in the 80s), but humidity was low and the river was nice a cool. The drought made the crossing much easier, with nothing over my thighs, and most not even past my shins. Lucky timing on a couple of the fields being freshly mowed helped, but still a couple full of briars was enough to cover my legs in blood and slow me down significantly. I'm not sure how to make this better, but if anyone figures out when the fields are all mowed, that will save tons of time and pain.
All-in-all I was happy with my legs and the effort on such a tough route. Kept up pretty good movement throughout when I could follow the trail, but navigation is a huge challenge on this route with the wide-open fields and 40+ river-crossings. I definitely think I could have gone faster if I had nailed the navigation; I probably lost over an hour trying to make my way through briar patches and across wide crossings. I know this route can go faster, but I think timing and scouting are key to sending it as fast as possible.