I'm almost embarrassed to submit this attempt given it took me 10.13 miles to complete the 8.7 miles loop. But, I won't have another chance this trip so here it goes. I started at 8:37 AM and finished about 2 hours and 20 minutes later. The run started out great. I followed the gpx route, so I started near Pederson Hills Trailhead. I'd probably recommend starting at the North Country Trail trailhead near the visitor center for convenience. I didn't have a map and the visitor center was closed when I was there so I was trying to follow my watch (in hindsight, I REALLY wish I had the map). The first roughly 3 miles went really well with only one short wrong turn. In the middle section, though, I managed to take a few wrong turns. I always backtracked to where I left the course to try again. The worst was maybe around mile 5. My watch led me astray at an intersection, literally telling me to turn the wrong way. Then, no matter what I did, Garmin was telling me I was off course. Finally, on the THIRD try up the same trail, it told me I was back on course. I lost a lot of time and gained some mileage here. I have no idea what was going on with my Garmin!
All that being said, I really enjoyed this trail. I was raised less than an hour from here, but I was not a runner when I was younger and I didn't come to trail running until I moved to Colorado. When I was home visiting in the past, I was running a lot of straight, flat country roads. I'm very excited to try this route (without so many detours) again the next time I am visiting family.