I originally wanted to run the Lake Placid 9er Ultra as a test run before doing the Saranac Lake Six with the goal of making the NEU8 sky runner cutoff of 12 hrs but that somehow morphed into chasing the self-supported FKT. So much planning went into this from optimizing the order of peaks, planning out my pacing strategy for each peak and organizing my food and gear in the car to minimize wasted time. I had a cooler on the passenger floorboard full of soft flasks of electrolyte, bottles of coke and gatorade mixed 50/50 and Redbull if I needed a caffeine boost later in the day. The passenger seat was covered in carb-rich foods which I could eat on the go while driving between trailheads. The backseat was covered with carefully laid out clothes so I could change shirts quickly upon returning to the car after each peak, ensuring I didn't have to drive to the next trailhead in wet clothing. I also had my "cheat sheet" up front with me with notes on each trail so I could remind myself of my strategy before setting out each time. My nutrition on the runs themselves involved precision flow gel and their PH 500 electrolyte.
I ended up deciding to run the peaks with trailheads known for parking issues first. The order I chose was:
Cobble Hill, Mount Jo, Van Hoevenberg, Pitchoff, Baxter, Big Crow, Hurricane, Bear Den, Catamount
I stayed in Lake Placid close to the Cobble Hill Trailhead the night before and was up at 3 am. I had some PH 1500 to top up my electrolyte levels and a Precision Caffeine gel along with some banana bread. I had everything prepped the night before so it didn't take me long to get ready. I made it to the trailhead by 3:30 and managed to park at the small roadside pullout. This is a super smooth, runnable trail with a short climb at the end. I had heard there was a really steep section with a rope but I never encountered this so I'm not sure. I hit the summit and didn't have much of a view other than a few lights which could be seen from Lake Placid. I ran back to the car and started out for the Adirondack Loj.
I had been at the Loj last week so I already had my payment envelope and parking pass ready. It didn't take me long to get parked and I headed out to Mount Jo. A pretty common theme for the day was that most of these peaks started out with super runnable trails. The climbing wasn't so bad and I reached the summit before I knew it. I decided to out and back the short trail instead of making the larger loop to save on some distance and time. Got back to the car in short order and headed to the Olympic Sports Complex for Van Hoevenberg.
The East trail up Van Hoevenberg is a very well-engineered trail. It starts off with some elevation gain consisting of stone steps and then has a large middle section of flat, smooth trail before climbing up stone steps again just before the summit. This was a really quick summit followed by another quick run out and then I was off to Pitchoff.
I knew I'd arrive there around 6am and I was honestly a bit worried about the parking situation but I hadn't wanted to do it first and then have to backtrack to Van Hoevenberg so I took a chance and I'm glad I didn't. There was only one other car at the Cascade parking and I was able to park right by the Pitchoff Trailhead. This trail starts off quite steep with a lot of roots then gets much gentler and runnable in the middle before climbing again to the summit. The sun finally came up and I was able to ditch the headlamp. Nothing too crazy to say about it and I was even quicker than I expected.
Baxter was next and this was a really short, chill run. Honestly, the whole thing was pretty runnable. Not too much to say about this one, either.
Next up I made the drive to Crow Clearing to hit Big Crow and Hurricane. I decided to start with Big Crow and knocked it out really quickly. I did waste a little bit of time fiddling with my GPS as I wasn't sure I had actually reached the summit and was deathly afraid of missing it. Frustrating but better than the alternative. On the way out, I crossed paths with another trail runner which was the first person I'd seen on trail all day.
I moved on to Hurricane Next and ran the approach then power-hiked the climb. The summit was completely socked in with fog and there were zero views. On the way out, I passed the same trail runner who said she thought we had the same plan for the day. Turned out she was also working on the Lake Placid 9 Ultra. We wished each other good luck and I ran the rest of the way out.
I had just two peaks left now and the drives were getting longer. I was using my heated set to try to keep my muscles warm but I found I had really stiffened up when I got to Bear Den. I hiked this with my wife at the start of the year and I had remembered it being easier but I was just feeling shitty for most of the climb. I figured I maybe wasn't getting enough carbs per hour so I tried to eat a lot on this one and I ended up recovering. On the descent, though, I started getting some pain in my lower back and my calves began to cramp intermittently. I did my best to try and drink more electrolyte in hopes this would stop and I was able to run the rest of the way out.
Last up was Catamount, another peak I had hiked with my wife in the spring. My energy levels were much better (maybe it was all the caffeine I had on the drive from Bear Den) and I saw that finishing sub-10 and even taking an hour off the previous record seemed very feasible if I could hit my target time (which I had on all 8 peaks so far). The trail is very wide and smooth heading in so I was able to run a good pace. A lot of the climb is scrambling on open slabs which was fun and, with my excitement at finishing soon, I ascended to the summit pretty quickly. Unfortunately, I started having bad cramping in my calves again on the descent. I had to stop a few times and try to massage them until they would relax but eventually I just pushed through it as I realized my finishing time goal was still in reach. I dealt with the cramping and ran the rest of the way out to the trailhead, finishing the 9 peaks in a total time of 9 hr 43 min 11 sec. Few things to improve on for the next big outing but I'm quite happy with how it went overall.