This route is a great multiday FKT. Within the last few years longer races have been gaining more mainstream attention. 200 mile and up races like Cocodona are being livestreamed, blogged about and there are many YouTube videos and podcasts about them. This has really gotten my interest after last year. I participated in the Jigger Johnson 100 and took 47 hours to finish that race. I was awake for more than 56 hours considering getting ready and winding down after the race was over. This fact along with the previous mentioned flood of advertising and information on the longer races got my wheels turning. Could I do something that long and would lack of sleep play an issue? I’m born and raised in CT. I’ve spend countless hours on the blue blazed trails in CT and participated in the CUT112 a couple of times as well.
Many an ultra-runner will be familiar with the idea of having a few pints with friends and coming up with ridiculous ideas to participate in. Thank goodness I have friends that are foolish enough to want to try ridiculous things as well. Tyler Tulloch is one such friend. Tyler and I talked over the idea and I proposed that we try to set an FKT on the NET, but we should time it so that the CT portion starts along with the CUT112 race on May 30th at 8 am. So we dug in and did some planning and research.
I’ve read previous reports on this FKT including Lee Stuart Evans and Deb and Scott Livingston’s. As far as the spirit and grandeur of such an effort, I highly recommend reading Scott’s report. Scott is very detailed and he and Deb took on absolutely the toughest way to do this trail (self-supported during the COVID lockdowns) . I’ve spoken to people that have attempted to do this trail and stopped for various reasons, it obviously was going to be a challenge.
On Wed. May 29th, we picked up a rented a camper van (Westfalia Sprinter) and gathered up some willing friends to take on the supported version of this FKT. Our Crew Chief Stefan Rodriguez offered to drive the whole time and meet us at predetermined trail heads. In an effort to keep this somewhat concise, I won’t list all the stops. If anyone is interested, I’m happy to share the document that Tyler constructed to help keep track and navigate. The CT portion of the stops comes directly from the document that Art Byrum put together for the CUT112.
There is almost no cell phone service for much of the northern and central MA section. Planning for fuel, food, rest etc. is crucial. We borrowed a Garmin InReach Mini to give our crew a chance to follow along with our trail progress and help with timing. Sharing this tracker publicly let others follow along with the adventure as well.
Day 1: We got to the Royalston Falls trail head in time to hike in for a prompt 11:00 am start on Wednesday May 29th. Great weather and good spirits made for a good first day on trail. The route and the white blazes in the first part of MA are fantastic! The trail is very easy to follow and well maintained. I would call this area mostly rolling hills. Mt. Grace provided the longest single stretch of uphill climb for the day. Not much in the way of vistas in this area, but the forest itself was beautiful. The sun shone on us all day and until evening bugs were not a problem.
At about mile 26 after coming across our first vista and a gorgeous rolling waterfall we exited the trail at Farley Ledges. Stefan (crew chief) noticed that the parking area was closed after 6 pm so he knocked on the door of the house to ask if it was OK for us to be there for a few moments. He explained our adventure to the homeowner, Harry. Turns out Harry and his wife are the local trail stewards for that section. Harry put on his NET hat (literally) and came over to offer congratulations on our adventure and ask us about of experience on the trails so far. He asked about blow downs and how we found the trail markers to be. Meeting Harry and hearing his passion for the trail and its use was one of the highlights of this whole trip.
Continuing on into the evening and dusk the bugs started to become more noticeable. We did make one small navigational mistake but only added about ¾ of a mile, right at dusk when the light is toughest to follow. Around 2 in the morning we encountered rain. That last hour or so of running was wet and cool. Fortunately the rail helped keep the bugs at bay but we would have wet gear to deal with going forward.
Day 2: After a few hours napping (total stop time apx 4.5 hours) we woke to more rain. We got on trail around 7 ish (maybe...) and it rained till almost 10:30. Many of these next miles were dirt road, gravel road and pavement with mixed trail in between. Not the most scenic area but we could make up time. We moved easy and smooth for the most part. As the sun came out in the late morning and we started to dry out things felt pretty good. We were still laughing and joking about things and carrying on normal conversations. We got to Harris Mtn road sometime around midday and I changed socks and shoes to get my feet dry and comfortable. We were about to embark on the toughest part of MA, the Holyoke range… (home of the infamous Seven Sisters race).
I have no words to describe the miles that begin with the Holyoke range and continue through mile 90. Ruthless, relentless, painful, frustrating, exhausting all don't really capture it. They have many beautiful overlooks to take in if you’re on a day hike. Unfortunately, we had no time to reflect on the beauty. Every minute we waste is potential rest time before the start of the CUT112 at 8 am the very next day. If you're looking for rocks, roots, boulders and trouble, you will find it during these miles.
One of the interesting points of traversing the NET is the 2 river crossings. First up, right after the Holyoke range is the CT river. It’s about 1.8 miles of river from Mitch’s Marina to the boat ramp at the oxbow. It’s NOT SWIMMABLE. My partner in crime, Tyler wanted a kayak but getting it to the river was proving to be more than it was worth, so we opted to use my inflatable paddle boards. Tyler had never paddle boarded before jumping on at Mitch's Marina. He aced it and we floated the nearly 2 miles to the boat ramp on the other side. Unfortunately, as good as Tyler was for the first 1.79 miles… he fell in with 3 feet to go! Thankfully our crew was meeting us at the exit and he was able to change socks shoes and dry off. We still had 1 more river to cross though.
Mt Tom and the next several sections were more of the brutal sharp rocky trails hangin out on the cliffs edges, turning in and out to make the trail “scenic”. These miles got really hard, mentally and physically. We were tired and it had been a long day already. Late that night we finally made it to the Westfield River next to Crosslight Church. As it turns out, after rain, in order to cross the Westfield river you need either a death wish or small personal craft. Thanksfully a friend of ours, Tom Starodaj had already tried to cross the river to join us on the final miles of MA. After wading up to his belly and using a stick and a flashlight, he turned back. We took his advice and decided we had to take the detour. We ended up running around on the roads adding 3.4 miles to the total. We finally got to Rising corners Rd around 3:30 am (foggy timing details here, long day). As previously mentioned, we wanted this challenge to coincide with the start of the CUT112 (trail event that starts at Rising Corners and goes to the sound (https://ultrasignup.com/register.aspx?did=112658). So the faster we moved on day 2 the more rest we'd get, waiting for the start of the "race".
Day 3: CUT112 and losing a companion. The energy of a large group of people getting ready to tackle about 112 miles of blue blazed trail made this morning the best of the 4. We were greated in our van by CUT creator Art Byrum with warm wishes and kudos for getting this far. Multiple offers of coffee and breakfast and lots of conversation. I started the day with a solid 45 mins of percussion massage on my hips and feet. We started at 8 am and were with a larger group of runners for a little while. Honestly, for the first few hours I was feeling GREAT! By the first road crossing, mile 7 of the CUT112 mile not sure what mile for us doing the NET, we were alone again. The day was sunny and getting warm. Our crew met us at all the CUT112 road crossing and added in a few (Tarifville gorge and Rattlesnake mountain parking on RT 6). Tyler started showing some signs of issues by late afternoon, he was limping and having trouble moving. Tyler had been experiencing some low knee, high calf pain for about a day now. At Prattling Pond Rd, after an extended break (about 1 hr) Tyler informed us he was pulling the plug. Because we're trail runners and of course friends don’t let friends make good decisions, we refused to let him. We plied him with ibuprofen, food and tremendous amounts of ball busting, till he agreed to continue till RT 6. These 1.8 miles proved to him that he needed to call it. Tyler has done a lot of running this year and even dropped a sub 3 marathon a few weeks previous. The miles must have added up. Tyler is a beast of a runner and the pain must have been pretty rough for him to call it.
I continued alone as it got dark. I picked up a pacer at Rt 372 in New Britain (Tony DiDomizio) and he stayed with me till I called it a night at Edgewood rd Berlin. It was about 3:30 am and at that point I had passed one of the runners of the CUT112 and was getting tired again. The past 7 miles and the next 30 or so are the toughest part of the CT portion so I wanted to have some rest.
Day 4 to finish: At 5:15 or so I heard someone outside and saw that runner getting ready so I figured I had enough "sleep" for the night and prepared to run again. Coffee, bite of food and I was on trail around 6 am. The center of CT from Rattlesnake through Lamentation are the most familiar to me because I live close and run these trails regularly. I moved well on these sections and even put on some music to relax my mind. Made good time through the next 20 miles or so. There were people at most of the road crossings and I started to catch some of the pack from the CUT112 druing these miles. Miles, heat and sun were taking their toll though, as I was climbing up Mt Higby I felt drained. When I got to the top, I sat down to adjust my shoe and promptly fell asleep on a rock for about 15 mins and woke to my own snore! The miles moved along, slower and getting sorer as the day went on. I had developed a few hot spots on my feet that morning. These spots turned into blisters regardless of what I tried to do to keep them at bay. Thankfully, someone had tape that I could use to bandage them up.
Getting to the climb at Stage coach rd, to get to Bluff head, I was thinking more about the possibility of keeping within the cutoff of the CUT112. Going down hill hurt quite a bit on my shins but going uphill caused no pain at all. So I grabbed my poles and proceeded to huck myself up the hills as fast as I could. Pretty sure at that point my uphill miles were faster than downhill. The last 16-ish miles of the Menuncatuck trail are known as very runnable. I was not in any condition to run at this point. Shuffle and walk was most of what I could manage. So the last miles down to the beach in Guilford were somewhat painfully slow. The summer sun was showing signs of life on the horizon as Art Byrum greeted us at the park in Guilford. A final touch of the Long Island sound and my journey was over. Total time 89 hours 45 minutes 18 seconds.
I’m ever grateful to all the people that did this first and laid a path. And even more grateful to my friends and family that sacrificed their time to help me secure a personal goal.
There are many many many more stories and tails to be told about this run… but they’re better over beer or coffee. Looking forward to sharing these with others over the next few weeks, months and years.
If I can help anyone else plan and accomplish this goal. Please reach out.
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