Sixty five hours and 219 miles provided me a lot of time and opportunities to take photos of the Mason Dixon Trail. Here are the ones that didn’t make it into my trip report.
Mason Dixon Trail FKT Report
Seven years of dreaming. Five years of planning. Three failed attempts. One epic journey. The Mason Dixon Trail (MDT) is a 207(ish) mile trail from Whiskey Spring on the Appalachian Trail to Chadds Ford, PA. I always think of it as 10 sections based on the trail maps (2016 version), which is how I’m structuring…
Preview: MDT FKT Attempt IV – A New Hope
A long time ago in a county far, far away. . . Backstory I first heard about the Mason Dixon Trail (MDT) at some point during 2017. I have no recollection of the context, but as soon as I discovered it ended in Chadds Ford about 10 minutes from my house I began thinking about…
Moments in Time: MDT FKT Attempt
In May 2021, I made my first self-supported attempt to run the Mason-Dixon Trail. The hardest section of the trail arrives just east of Shank’s Mare Outfitters. The Four Sisters section is probably the gnarliest section of trail in PA. I was about halfway through the section, 65+ miles into my run, and it was…
For The Fun
This weekend I’m planning another attempt to run the Mason Dixon Trail. Or walk/crawl/shuffle as the case may be. I made it almost halfway the first time I tried it. And not quite as far the second time. I’m going into this attempt with a slightly different mindset. The first time I was 100% focused…
Failure Sucks
While my second attempt at the Mason-Dixon Trail FKT wasn’t a repeat of my first, it did rhyme. TL;DR – I gashed my shin on a rock after 70 miles and got picked up after 72 miles. It’s difficult to put into words how frustrating this ending was for me. I was in the middle…
If at first you don’t succeed. . .
. . . I guess I might as well try and run the Mason-Dixon Trail again. My first attempt back in May resulted in me quitting after 99 miles. Even though I wasn’t able to finish what I started, I had a blast out on the trail and was completely satisfied with my effort. The…
Serendipity
Typically about 95% of my runs start and end at my house. The other 5% are split between races, occasional long runs at Cheslen Preserve, or random vacation spots. It is very, very rare that I actually get in my car and drive for a run. This morning was one of those exceptions. My son…
Monticello FKT
After my failed attempt at the Mason-Dixon Trail fastest known time, I decided to take a run at the Monticello FKT. This wasn’t something that’s been on my radar, but the logistics worked out fairly easily as it was on the way home from a family vacation in the Great Smokey Mountains. When combined with…
Advise for Future M-DT FKT Attempts
If you’re the type of person that only looks to successful people for advice, then you can stop reading here. On the other hand, if you believe that more can be learned from failure than success, then here’s what I’ve learned from my attempt to run the entire Mason-Dixon Trail. Some of this is from…