Great Lake to Lake Trail (MI) - Women’s FKT Attempt Report by Sarah Porter
I set out to complete the “Great Lake to Lake” route that had previously been completed by John B. Adams Jr. on 2023-04-05. From what I could glean, there was no time for a woman, so I figured I should give it a go! I followed John’s route almost exactly (except for one area where one of the trails was closed for construction, which I will identify later in the report). His instructions were impeccable and I am very grateful for the care that he took in writing his report to make it easy for others to follow. If you plan to try this route, I strongly recommend having his report handy. The route begins in South Haven, MI at Lake Michigan and ends in Saint Clair Shores, MI at Lake Saint Clair. I broke up every day into 30-33 mile legs, which I knew would be manageable for me given the heat of July and the time I had to train.
I rented a Winnebago Solis to be my everything for this run: refueling, changing & aid station, and where I slept most nights. I had a rotation of family and friends driving the van as I completed the route, as they posted up at certain checkpoints along the route and always had my location via “find my” for safety purposes. We also kept a bike in the van so someone could reach me if necessary where the trail portions were longer, and for fun of course.
I tried to tackle each day in 10 mile increments for fuel purposes and would have snacks at the first 10, lunch break & change of clothes at 20 miles, knock out the last 10ish in the late afternoon in addition to fueling along the way as needed (gels at 5 and 15 miles). I also changed out my shoes around lunch time everyday, starting with ASICS Novablast every morning, and then swapped over to the lighter Saucany Kinvaras for the last part of the day. As the week went on and my start times got later, I had to start breaking for lunch before I hit 20 mi but it was an easy adjustment.
Official Start Time: July 23, 2024 - 07:27 AM
Official End Time: July 29, 2024 - 02:35:48 PM
Elapsed Time: 6 Days 7 hours 8 minutes 48 seconds
Day 1 - South Haven to Alamo (33.20 miles)
The pre-existing Great Lake to Lake route begins at South Beach in South Haven. It was a beautiful morning so I spent a little extra time warming up at the South Haven Lighthouse and watching the sun rise. I officially started at Water Street at 7:27 AM and my sister, Carly, ran the first 1.5 miles with me until I got on the Kal Haven Trail. The trail was very peaceful, and I only passed a handful of people the entire day. I made it to Alamo (stopping point was the Kal Haven Trail & N 6th St) around 6 PM, with a moving time of 6:55 hours but an elapsed time of 10:27 hours… We had an issue finding a safe place to park the van for the lunch break and also found an abandoned kitten that ate up some time (which my sister ended up bringing to a nearby animal hospital). My friend Coley came to relieve my sister of her van duties and we drove up to Yankee Springs campgrounds and spent the night there in the van.
Day 2 - Alamo to Springfield (31.08 miles)
Started off at 8:06 AM, which was about an hour later than I wanted to start. Unfortunately that became a trend for most days…it was hard for me to fall asleep at night and I tried to make sure I got at least 7 hours of sleep, so that often pushed back my start time, but luckily there’s lots of hours of daylight in the summertime. It had rained the night before so the first couple miles of the Kal Haven trail were flooded, but the trail cleared nicely as I got closer to Kalamazoo and transferred over to the Kalamazoo River Valley Trail (KRVT). The trail ended east of Kalamazoo in Comstock, and there was a lot of industrial road running after that. Augusta Dr has no sidewalk and a one foot shoulder (if you can even call it that), so you need to be prepared for more traffic-aware running starting here. Ended in Battle Creek Linear Park on the south side of the Kalamazoo River (stopping point N County Trail & S Bedford Rd). Spent that night at Tri-Lakes Trails Campground in Marshall.
Day 3 - Springfield to Albion (30.88 miles)
Sadly, this leg was one of the tougher ones for me (I say sadly because it was also my birthday!). I started the morning feeling punky and showing signs of dehydration. Luckily I was able to be smart with my fuel and hydration, not worry about pace, and I felt much better by late afternoon. However my slow morning led me to ending the day a few miles shy of my goal, but I made it up on the last day.
In addition to not feeling well, it was another long stretch on industrial road with no sidewalk after clearing Battle Creek. Verona Road was difficult to navigate with a lot of fast moving semi-trucks and a very small shoulder… so I spent a large portion of miles 5 -12 dodging traffic and trudging through unkempt road brush. But eventually the road opened up and it was a really fun and beautiful run for the rest of the day! Spacious farmland, rolling hills with lots of corn and wheat fields, very little traffic, and manageable weather. The official stopping point was on 29 Mile Rd just south of B Dr S. Decided to spend the night in a hotel in Jackson that night.
Day 4 - Albian to Munith
This may have been my favorite stretch, starting in Albion at 7:57 am. It was a very peaceful morning with very little traffic, beautiful scenery, and fun interactions with horses and friendly neighborhood Bernese Mountain dogs. After passing through Concord, the Falling Waters Trail and the Inter City Bike Trail made up the bulk of the daily mileage. I did have to reroute for a few minutes because the Inter City Trail was under construction between W Prospect St and Francis Street. My brother Alex came to tap out Coley and take over van duties, and also biked next to me the last 5 miles past the Parnall Correctional Facility up to Munith. I will say that for a moment we weren’t sure if we were on the right path because there were “No Trespassing” signs on either side of us… but it’s just signifying that the trail is the ONLY place you can be as it’s government property on the surrounding sides. It quickly opened up to open pastures with lots of cows and deer! We ended a little before 8 pm (stopping point was Lakelands Trail & Jordan) and camped at the Waterloo Campsite that was not far.
Day 5 - Munith to Hamburg
Definitely wished I would have started this day earlier, as it was hot and humid, but we powered through! The entire day was on the Mike Levine Lakelands Trail, which makes for easy and uneventful running without having to worry about traffic. Any time I needed something (bug spray, pretzels, water, etc.), my brother would come cruising down the trail on the bike and just absolutely came in clutch for me on this day! I did start to have a hard time eating this day, so I had to resort to a lot of liquid calories and bland food. But it was really nice to be immersed in the nature of the trails. We ended in Hamburg (at Lakelands Trail & Lemen Rd) at about 7:40 where my mom took over van duties, and we spent the night at my Aunt’s house in Brighton.
Day 6 - Hamburg to Farmington Hills
By far the hardest day. Temperature got up to almost 90, almost all direct sunlight running, soreness/tiredness in my legs… but I had a lot of friends popping up to encourage me as I got closer to home which lifted my spirits exponentially! A lot of trails also made for easy directions to follow, as I was on the Huron Valley Trail to Wixom and then the Michigan Air Line Trail through Walled Lake. My friend Coley stopped by and ran a couple of miles with me between Walled Lake and Farmington Hills. I was supposed to end in Beverly Hills (at 12 Mile Road), but I ended up cutting it a few miles short and stopping at 12 Mile & Drake Rd because I was running out of daylight and didn’t stop until almost 9 pm. Spent the night at Moms house in Warren.
Day 7 - Farmington Hills to Saint Clair Shores (27.53 miles)
My original plan was to only have to run 20 miles on this last day, but ended up with some miles to make up so I had to go a bit farther. Started my run at 6:50 am, but got stopped around 7:30 because a local news station called me for a zoom interview! The route for this last day was a straight shot east on 12 mile road, which was all familiar territory to me as I ended up running through two cities that I grew up in (Warren and Roseville). Both my sister Carly and brother Alex ran with me for about 8 miles from Southfield to Royal Oak. All my family was driving by sporadically so the whole day felt very celebratory. Had a bit of a downpour, but luckily I had a poncho in the van so, no worries! I finally made it to Lake Saint Clair around 2:35 pm, where my family and friends were waiting for me with a champagne spray at Champine Park (how could they not?!).
Last note to make - if you are a female solo runner, I would carry some kind of protection. I had mace with me most of the time. There were a couple of sections where I did not feel totally safe and we even had to call the police one day because a man kept approaching the van while we were in it and was acting strangely. Unfortunately these are normal occurrences but, just a reminder to keep yourself safe!