Summary:
Our goal was to complete the 530mi Blue Mountains Trail (BMT) main route (as launched by the Greater Hells Canyon Council in 2021) in a self-supported style, as fast as possible. We finished in 14 days, 17 hours, 22 minutes. Start and finish times were determined based on the Strava data and verified with photos (attached).
Whitney La Ruffa, Naomi Hudetz, and Mike Unger through-hiked an early version of the BMT in Oct 2020 in 32 days (with 2 days off). The 4th through-hiker, Renee “She-ra” Patrick completed another version of the trail in two sections (Aug and Oct) in 2020 in 28 days. She skipped the Wenaha River section.
To the best of our knowledge, we were the first to complete the final route as released in 2021 in its entirety (except section 3A, which was closed by the Forest Service) and in a single push. The “trail” was more remote, rugged, and challenging than expected. We only saw about a handful of people on the route.
Section 3A closure:
Trail #3225 on section 3A was closed by the Forest Service because of flood damage. We took the official alternate section 3B. To make up for the 1.5mi difference, we did a 2.6mi out-and-back in Tollgate (see Strava segment). An image of the detour and closure status is attached to this submission as well.
More details:
A very detailed report with pics, stats, data, tracks, etc., is available at https://www.christofteuscher.com/aagaa/report-self-supported-530mi-blue-mountains-trail-fkt
Movie teaser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=447NVOfT784