After the cancellation of the 2024 Eastern States 100 in Waterville (due to the effects of Post-Tropical Storm Debby), Debbie was looking to use her fitness and burn off some adrenaline. The race was literally cancelled 45 minutes before the 5:00 A.M. start. She was dressed to go with shoes tied and bib number pinned on. We were ready to walk the 1,000 feet from our tent site to the start when we got word that the race was off. It was an unprecedented cancellation, but weather always wins...especially when it comes to water. The flooding was intense!
We salvaged the day after the chaos of the morning. We decided to head east towards home and searched for a mid-distance FKT to tackle. The Pinchot Trail fit the bill.
See my blog post for a full report.
The Pinchot Trail loop is actually a series of other trails that connect. We still had to deal with the impact of one of the wettest summers on record. The trail, which is probably overgrown anyway at this time of year, was in rough shape. There was miles of knee deep water to slosh through, though not much mud. The water was just standing on the trail in low lying spots. There was a lot of trail debris and downed trees to scramble over. Thank you in advance to the trail maintainers who eventually take on the challenge of fixing Pinchot up.
We found the orange blazes to be maddeningly inconsistent (in color). Some of the lighter orange looked yellow and some of the darker orange looked red. There were red and yellow blazed cross trails, so that was challenging. We had one of the original .gpx tracks loaded on Debbie's iPhone, but it seems like since that 2017 track that the trail has been relocated in several areas including along a logged area. We chose to follow the blazes rather than the GPS, and we ended up with 22.8 miles, a bit more than the original track.
We saw a lot of day users, especially at the waterfall (Choke Creek) and they appeared to be happy but their feet were also soaked. I struggled with all of the rocks and roots, but Debbie was in her element. This would be a nice trail to return to in drier conditions.