At about 8:30am, I started on the AT at the Bear's Den Hostel. I ran down to Route 7, then back up and on to Route 50 and then back to Bear's Den. It was a nice, sunny, warm spring day. I started with 1.5L of water split into three flasks, two of which had filter caps. In total, I had to refill those two flasks three times from streams. As far as snacks, I believe I ate about 1300 calories, a mix of waffles, gels, and jelly beans. The run went mostly well. I had to hike a lot of the ups, and was close to bonking towards the end, but the thought of a veggie burger and beer from the nearby More Better Beer Garden got me through. Another highlight included seeing a black bear. Of course, I had to stop and take a photo. I've run this section of the AT several times but never before had I seen a bear on it. For a black bear, it wasn't as skittish as I'd expect.
This route always kicks my butt, which makes for a great adventure and training run. The benefit of starting from Bear's Den is there's a nice lawn that you can lie down on afterwards. I think it's possible for a woman to go under 6hrs and I hope someone goes for it and gets it done.