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…
Great Smokey Mountains NP Trip Report – Part 2
My family spent a week in Gatlinburg, TN and we ended up hitting most of the trails closest to town. If you missed it, here’s Part 1 of our trip. Day 4, Wednesday Old Sugarlands Trail (Running) – 7.7 miles Day 5, Thursday Rainbow Falls Trail (Hiking) – 5.5 miles Any trail name with the…
Great Smokey Mountains NP Trip Report – Part I
My family is spending a week in Gatlinburg, TN and exploring the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. We were here three years ago and loved it, however I didn’t do any running in the park since I was still recovering from Laurel Highlands. Here’s where I’ve been hiking/running: Day 1, Sunday Middle Prong Trail (Hiking)…
0-3
Well, my last attempt to run the Mason-Dixon Trail ended the same as my first two: far short of Chadds Ford. This time I only made it to Wrightsville (mile 54) after getting almost halfway and 72 miles in my other two tries. It was pretty amazing how quickly the wheels fell off. I was…
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…
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…
M-DT FKT Attempt Trip Report
The shorter version This is not the trip report that I had mentally written over the last 6 months leading up to my self-supported attempt of the Mason-Dixon Trail. That one ended at Chadds Ford and not at mile 99 on Cold Cabin Rd. If you had told me going in this would be the…
M-DT Trip Report – Maps 1&2
I was able to get out last Saturday and knock out maps 1 and 2 of the Mason-Dixon Trail thus completing the full trail. Overall, it took me 6 outings over almost 2 years to cover the entire distance from the Appalachian Trail to Chadds Ford. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was getting myself…
M-DT Trip Report – Maps 3&4
I knocked out 2 more sections Saturday of the Mason-Dixon Trail leaving me with the just the 2 most western maps left to complete the entire trail. The temperatures were up into the mid to high 80s, but I had a great time. Map 3 Map 4 The next section of trail could have been…