Jessica's TR is on Instagram, which includes several videos she made along the route:
Northern section of the lost coast trail, from mattole trailhead sign to the trailhead sign at black sands beach, solo, unsupported, carrying all my gear and food the whole way (25 miles), only obtaining water from a natural source and accepting no help of any kind from anyone I encountered. To my knowledge I am the first woman to do this whole section in a day, normally it's done as a three day backpacking trip, so I'm claiming the fastest known time on it. 10:51 AM to 7:17 PM, 8:26:02, 5/12/18.
My friend Mags dropped me off at the start and I headed off down to the beach. I felt really great pretty much the whole day. See my last post re: terrain. It was the perfect temperature, beautiful sunny weather all day, warm but with an ocean breeze. Almost the whole day felt like straight type one fun. The only very minor hiccups I had were my insole kept slipping so i stopped a few times to adjust my shoes, and I was scared to jump off a cliff at one point which wasted a bunch of time unnecessarily but eventually I did it, got a minor blister from having wet feet all day. Saw some sea lions and the ocean was beautiful as always and there was helllllla wildflowers. I really liked the boulder hopping sections, super fun. I timed the trip to start shortly after the tide started going out so I had all day until it came back in. Around mile 17 once I was sure I was not in danger of being trapped by the tide and I was going to make the end before sunset, I switched to much more walking than running, really walking in entirely most of the last miles. I did carry an emergency bivvy and a down jacket in case I got trapped by the tide or hurt and needed to overnight unexpectedly but luckily didn't need them. Yeah! My friends were waiting for me at the finish and it was rad to have them there cheering me in. Thanks y'all! I will maybe come back at the end of the summer to do the full 50 mile route once I get some more mountains in my legs. Def would recommend to others. A+. PS today is my birthday! This fkt was my present to myself this year. :)✨??♀️??✨
With as much walking as I did, this time is easily beatable. If anyone would like to also head out for a single day push, feel free to hit me up with any questions. I have a handy spreadsheet I can share that tracks six different paces against the tides where you can input a time at any mile and it will tell you what time you'll be past the impassable at high tide sections, color coded by danger level.