Far off in the distance, I could see a lone light on the beach. I ran toward it, probably for a mile or two. As I approached, I could make out figures around a fire, their shadows made it look like a cult gathering. I stopped to say hello, it was a group of three young men, drinking. One of them stepped up to talk to me, and I told him about my trek. Everything he said seemed profound, there in the middle of the night on the deserted beach. "What devil possessed you to do this?" he asked. I told him that for some reason, unlike other people, I wasn't content not doing things like this. I wasn't sure why, it's just the way I'm built. He ended the conversation with, "I hope you find what you're looking for."
This trip has given me a new appreciation for the utility of braids, trail mix, bungee cords
I am working on a full trip report. Here is a map I made of the route using my SPOT data:
Here is a link to my SPOT data from August 19th to October 4th, provided to me by SPOT. Note that I restarted the run on August 20th, so am using August 20th as my official start date.
drive.google.com/file/d/0ByHLbwinI0Rcd0U3Zl9jdi1URjBxbnhaTVZvY0RwdDA1UUVF/view?usp=sharing
The SPOT timestamps seem to be seven hours ahead of Pacific time. Looking back at my SPOT and FitBit GPS data, I began the run on August 20th, 2017 at approximately 12:10:58 and ended the run on October 4th, 2017 at approximately 06:51:07. This works out to 44 days, 18 hours, 40 minutes and 9 seconds.
The Wikiloc mapping program calculated 1,171 miles based on my GPS data, so I seem to have covered 26.1513 miles per day, nearly a marathon. There were a few boat rides and the Uber through Camp Pendleton was 20 miles, so I'm estimating that I ran/hiked roughly 25.5 miles per day.
A link to my Strava page, which shows my FitBit GPS data. My FitBit stopped charging about three quarters of the way into the run and I abandoned using it.
www.strava.com/athletes/2326452
When I had to cross rivers I usually took the official alternate route so that I wouldn't have to hire a boat. If I encountered a section during high tide I sometimes also took the alternate route. A couple of sections of the trail were closed, so I had to take the highway. I had to get an Uber through Camp Pendleton because they wouldn't let me run through, and I couldn't run on the highway -- I figured this would be an issue every runner would encounter and Uber/Lyft are available to everyone for this section. I swam across one small river near the border with Mexico, waded across another, and took public ferries across two others, I also hired one private boat as the trail recommended. There were small sections that were not well marked where the trail seemed to disappear, I did the best I could to follow it. There was also one section where the trail markers differed from the official trail maps, I followed the markers.
I did the trek solo, self-supported. I did not meet any family or friends along the route, with the exception of one person I knew who I happened to run into at a Whole Foods in Santa Cruz, she thought I had moved to the area and had no idea I was doing the run. I did not get in any vehicles with the exception of those mentioned above. I had to make detours along the route to buy supplies, shoes, a jacket, etc. and when I did this I tried to leave from and return to the same place on the trail. Per my research it seemed allowable to accept gifts from trail angels I encountered, so if offered supplies, free meals from restaurants, or free housing/hotel rooms I sometimes took these offers. Nothing was pre-planned and I had never met any of these people before.
I am compiling my trip report here: natalielarsoncct.blogspot.com/ it is a work in progress