These notes are not really organized or polished, but there is plenty of detail captured. See photos in strava. I may add some more notes to my strava file too.
HUGE thanks to Barb Verhamme and her husband Mike for giving me a ride! They seem like really great people.
I knew going into this I was not fit enough to compete with the supported lake to lake FKT time. But with 23 miles to go, I had a 10:30 mile split that felt really good and I let my ego convince me to try to go for it. So stupid. I totally hit the wall and had to crawl for like 18 miles to the finish. But I guess that's good for mental toughness. I also forgot to pack a paper towel in a Ziploc bag so I could clean off my phone screen and use it for music at the end of the run. Great news is that I did not have any nausea or gastrointestinal distress.
Tried permethrin for the first time. I found two dead ticks where my tights met my shoes, so I guess it worked. The bugs weren't too bad, but I'm definitely glad I soaked my hair in deet.
Having never seen this trail before made it a little harder to ration water and know where I could filter. I looked at the map ahead of time and tried to ask some people for some beta, but I got some conflicting reports. After it's all said and done, there's definitely plenty of streams where you can filter, but there were a couple longer stretches without water. And once I filtered in super shallow spring and probably got a bunch of mud in the filter, but I was worried I wouldn't find more options and I really needed it.
I definitely took a few wrong turns, but the trail is honestly pretty easy to follow. One of the places or two of the places was because the digital map was a little bit different than the actual trail. My traps got really sore towards the end. Need to practice with a heavier pack.
Other than people in cars, and a few people in kayaks on the lake at the trailhead, I did not see a single person in the whole run. 😳 Wilderness (and "miles from nowhere")! There are definitely numerous other runs in Michigan that are more scenic. But being able to run from one lake to another, mostly on trails is what makes this route interesting. I thought it would be super easy terrain, but there were definitely some stretches where the horse prints made the trail super uneven/chunky. I was glad I had these softer shoes which can help Flatten out uneven terrain. 935 said 2300 ft, 955 said 2600 ft, Strava elevation correction says only 1500 ft, but I'm not sure how accurate Strava base map would be here since it is lightly traveled.
Before the run, I saw some big hills on the elevation profile in the last 15 miles, but I actually thought they were in artifacts. They were not. They were definitely some big hills in the homestretch. But overall, this is a flat route.
Because I didn't know exactly where the next water refill would take, I really started rationing fluids. I think that's the longest I've gone without urinating in a long time. Lol. I peed a few times in the first 10 or 20 miles, but I don't think I peed after that. One wag bag stop right before 2nd water filter break, which was right before "middle camp."
Some notes I shared w/ Equine Friends of Bay de Noc/Grand Island Trail (where I met Barb, who gave me a ride): The sunrise over lake superior was gorgeous, the swim in Lake Michigan at the end was super refreshing. I did not see much wild life. I loved listening to the wind blowing through the trees for much of the last ~15 miles. Some of the creeks were pretty. And I saw a guy paddling a canoe in Ackerman lake using a snow shovel. That was a first! To be honest, I would not say this is a top 10 Michigan trail for scenery, but it is remote and being able to connect the two lakes is really cool. I imagine you have the chance of seeing some unique wild life too if you get lucky.
More very unpolished notes
1. Deleted Tesla app on car ride to save battery
2. Start with 1 L of skratch in flasks and bladder filled with ice.
3. Fill bladder & flasks at Ackerman lake. (10 miles), then enter BDN. For 2.5 L total.
I started out with a bladder full of ice to keep me cool, and two flasks each with five scoops of super fuel and one Gatorlyte. I took quite a few of the salt capsules along the way. I also put the liquid IVs in the flasks, and I was grateful to have them. It was much nicer than drinking water. A little over the halfway point, when I decided to push for a faster record, I took my first caffeinated gel. And then I felt really good and decided to Keep pushing and took another caffeinated gel. I had a third one, but I never took it. Because I crashed and burned and I knew I wouldn't be able to set a fast time, so I didn't want to bother having the extra caffeine late in the day that would further disrupt my sleep.
The upper middle 18 lake would definitely have been good to filter. I stopped at a small stream just before middle trailhead. That was second filter after Ackerman lake. Haymedow creek is really good & ten dollar creek is also really good. There were some other smaller creeks that worked too.
Neck, low back, calves & shins, right hip flexor all felt good. Left knee/IT band said hello around mile 6 and I thought for a minute I would have to bail. But I started running in a way to really engage that weak spot on and off for the next 30 miles or so and then it was fine. but it did take a lot of focus to engage it just right. Right quad got quite sore toward then end. Because of my bio mechanics, or anatomy, it always takes more of the load than the left leg, which is why my left quad is always too weak.
Swimming in Lake Michigan at the end of the run felt so good.
Phone ran out of battery. At one point when I was trying to race, I played music from the phone directly, which drained a lot of battery. That was because I did not want to stop to get the headphones out of my pack. I turned it off when a little bit was left. I did eventually get my headphones out.
935 had about 20% battery left after this, but apparently I did not turn off the Optical heart rate. The 955 had about 40% battery left. Neither one of them froze this time, which was nice. Except, the 955 froze and restarted right at the beginning of the run. That was alarming, I've never seen that happen before. But better before the run starts then after it starts.
As usual, the 955 recorded extra distance (~1.5 extra miles), and therefore faster pace. I think the 935 is closer to the real distance.
I definitely let the fact that I was slower getting my head a negatively impact my experience, unfortunately. But because the final miles were so difficult, it did force me to be really present and I was grateful for that. In the last 15 miles or so, there was a nice breeze, and I loved listening to the wind blowing through the trees. I did not see much wildlife. A few deer. I tried deerfly tape on my visor, but I don't think I installed it correctly, and it fell off pretty early in the run. I can't find my favorite running hats. I've got to find them. I carried a permethrin, treated head net, but never needed it. There were a few times I thought about putting it on when the bugs were thicker, but I did not get a lot of bites, which was good. And the bug spray is the reason.
It's funny that the starting point in ending point both say no swimming or no beach access. Normally, I like to follow those rules, but in this case, I broke them. I was especially glad to swim in Lake Michigan when I was done. It felt so refreshing.
I got turned around a few times and lost some time there. One of the times is because at the end of the trail section I was really hoping I could run on pavement because it would be easier. But instead, there was a mile of sandy 2 track. I ran out to the pavement, hoping that was the right way, but my map told me otherwise. I was pretty deflated by that, so I walked a long time on the sandy two track before starting to run again.
There was a long stretch of a couple miles where the trail was parallel to a dirt road. I stayed on the trail.
My Caffeine tolerance must be WAAAYY higher than historical norms right now. I had two coffees the morning of the event, for a total of 250 mg of caffeine. Then another 200 mg of caffeine during the run. And I never felt like I was over caffeinated.
I did not carry that whole bag of scratch. I just had it in the photo because I had 10 scoops of that in my flasks.
Main sensitive spot on my feet is middle right toe. Big blister on the end. Middle left toe a tiny bit sore but not too bad. Maybe I need bigger shoes? 😂