Wanted to take a swing at my first FKT as I had a week off in-between jobs this past week, and decided to expand on Steven Lange's Delaware Water Gap - Buttermilk Falls 20 mile route and make it an out n back. Left my house in Long Branch, NJ at around 4 AM to get to the trailhead at Dawn. I departed on the AT at around 5:17 AM. Was a pretty nice morning, a bit cooler. Started off with a good climb to get up to the ridgeline adjacent to Mt. Tammany.
Sunfish Pond around mile 4 is a flat yet brutal section of big angled boulders. Tough on the feet and slow moving. Gorgeous though. Then the trail leads up to some beautiful ridge walking with expansive views of the Delaware River and surrounding forest. Perfect way to start the day.
Feet started feeling tender around mile 16. Popped the headphones in and kept moving. Buttermilk Falls descent was mentally terrible because I knew I had to turn around and come back up it. Think it's just under 1500' gain in 1.5 miles, after already walking 20. Put my head down and got through it.
Was absolutely cruising until Mile 32 where I absolutely bonked. Feet were destroyed, was starting to feel the heat although I was doing a great job staying on top of hydration. Realized then that I needed a microfiber cloth to cool my neck and forehead in the future. I had already transferred my last 3L into my bladder in my pack so it was difficult to douse myself with a water bottle for example. And water is surprisingly sparse on the backend of this 20 mile route so I couldn't really cool off anywhere. So my pace suffered as a result.
Sunfish Pond on the way back may as well have been Hell's gates. Absolutely punished my feet. Fought through it and got to the last 2 mile downhill stretch where I opened it up with everything I had. Overall very happy with the effort given the lack of training, especially lack of training vert. Psyched to have this be my first submission. I took a ton of videos along the route but see you guys don't have a way of uploading mp4s? I hope the .gpx, strava link and few random selfies are sufficient. Cheers guys!