Tell you what, I am privileged to be the crew chief on this epic journey to set the Fastest Known Time for the Pinhoti National Recreation Trail. Some good company on the trail, not the least of whcih is the stud known as Rob Youngren. My man has spent six days executing the heck of out of our plan, and now after 5+ years of thinking about this journey, he is a mere 50K away!
We had a host of pacers today, not the least of which was Kathy Youngren. Eric Fritz spent the entire day with Robm while Joey Butler paced on-off through the day. And a warm weather day it was, temperatures rising to 90+ degrees in the open sun during the afternoon as the team ground it way through a 26mi road section across the valley between Dalton and Cohutta Mtns of the western portion of the Chattahoochee NF. The final daily mileage was 47.9, the last 4.8 of which was up Peeple's Lake Rd, the initial climb into the forest with 1000' net elevation (with plenty more to come)!
Start Location: Snake Creek Gap
Start Mile Marker: 257.3
Start Time: 0603 CDT
Major Waypoints:
FS207A, Middle Mountain Crest (264.6mi), 0812 CDT
Dug Gap Battle Rd TH (273.1mi), 1015 CDT
Airport Rd in Dalton, GA (279.0mi), 1136 CDT
Consauga River (284.5mi), 1248 CDT
Greeson Rd (284.5mi), 1311 CDT
Callie Jones Rd (287.2mi), 1328 CDT
GA-52 Alt (288.3mi), 1344 CDT
Vann House Trailhead (290.1mi), 1402 CDT
Smyrna Church (293.3mi), 1452 CDT
US-411 / Ramhurst (296.9mi), 1550 CDT
Peeple's Lake Rd / FS3 (299.4mi), 1640 CDT
Peeple's Lake Sign (301.4mi), 1733 CDT
End Location: Baker Branch TH, FS3/FS3A
End Mile Marker: 304.2
End Time: 1813 CDT
** [Keeping all times central just for use of calculation and record keeping]
Elapsed Time: 132hr, 13min
1 day and 50k of hard trail running to go. Tune back in on Friday, because this is it, the final assault on the Northern Terminus! It is officially epic!
Josh Kennedy
Crew Chief
bamapinhotiteam@gmail.com