I completed the 96.44 mile Lone Star Hiking Trail in 25 hours 35 minutes and 55 seconds traveling eastbound, beginning on 06/02/26 at 11:18AM and finishing on 06/03/26 at 12:53PM.I originally planned on a 3:00AM start, but I felt completely unmotivated the entire day before. I decided to sleep in and rethink the whole attempt. The next morning, I woke up and seriously considered postponing it. I dawdled around for a few hours before finally telling myself to stop being a wimp and just give it a shot. I knew I had come out here for a reason. I am so glad I did. With many difficult things I have found that the first step, committing, is usually the hardest. Sometimes, just taking that first step fosters the exact amount of resolve you need to keep going.
By 11am temps were already climbing to the 90s. I carried about 8000 calories and 2000g of carbs along with 4.4L water capacity for the long dry stretches, with a filter just in case but ended up not using it.
About two hours in the first of two thunderstorms rolled through and completely soaked me and my gear. My battery pack got wet and failed so I couldn't charge my electronics. I kept my phone sealed and stowed with Strava running in the background, and the storms caused a couple of short GPS dropouts.
My Garmin watch froze around the six hour mark which meant no time, no health data, no hydration alerts, and no watch GPS. I kept my AirPods stored to conserve phone battery and just had to trust it would last the full 96 miles.
The second storm hit after about another hour or two, just before dark. Had to run my headlamp on low to save battery which made depth perception rough, making it harder to read the trail than I wanted.
Although the storms did keep me feeling a little bit cooler, despite my feet being well conditoned, being wet constantly caused some blisters around 60 miles in. After taking a short snack break at mile 80, getting back on my feet I knew they were bad. I told myself I couldn't stop moving again until I got to the terminus.
Many thanks to the maintenance volunteers for keeping up the trail, and best of luck to those planning future attempts.