How to thru-hike the Colorado Trail from end to end complete with a detailed and zoomable interactive map of the entire 486 mile long distance trail. Skip Navigation. Sleep Strategy on the Colorado Trail FKT. This article contains new, firsthand information uncovered by its reporter(s). Athletes must submit a GPX file of the proposed route, which is then approved (or rejected) by Burrell himself. Man Runs Across Country After Losing His Job, How This Mother of Eight Ran Off 100 Pounds, This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. The best time to thru-bike the trail is from March/April to the end of October. Worldwide, runners have snagged more than four times as many FKTs this year as last for the March 1 to July 16 time frame. Colorado’s list of FKTs includes 114 routes, some offering multiple variations of records, like ascent-only and descent-only or supported and unsupported. The mountain bike version detours Wilderness Areas, where mechanized travel is off-limits, and can be done any number of ways: from weekend warrior-ing it a couple segments at a time, to a supported through-ride with a sag vehicle, to bikepacking it unsupported in a single push. It’s just everybody.”. Morning Gloria trail: This easy-to-ride trail offers a meandering but gentle rise to the top of Emerald mountain. Seth DeMoor, the Buena Vista-born athlete who at the end of June claimed two FKTs on Mount Elbert (1 hour, 6 minutes, 42 seconds on the ascent; 1 hour, 42 minutes, 55 seconds round-trip, although that record was busted by 3 seconds the next day) appreciates how racing the clock for the fastest-ever time facilitates the ability “to be competitive in a non-race environment, racing against runners from other years and eras.”. Jeff Garmire hiked the 486-mile Colorado Trail from Durango to Denver last week in record time - it's the fastest recorded unsupported run. Whatever happens with the more traditional running-race scene, athletes like Mannhard are thankful for a new way to compete. Havent ridden a dirtbike in about 10 years. Instead the state will get 16,720 fewer doses. “For a very select group of people, races are about competition,” said Caleb Efta, founder of the High Lonesome 100, a century-long trail race that traverses the southern end of the Sawatch Range. I … The 5th edition (available June 2013) will has marked bicycle detours that match the CTR Detours. FKT, for those of you not familiar, stands for Fastest Known Time, and it’s quite popular in the running world. Bryan's amazing run broke the record previously held by Scott Jaime since 2013, and became the new, FKT (Fastest Known Time) for a supported run on the Colorado Trail. I finished bikepacking the Colorado Trail in the fall of 2016, and quickly became interested in the average trip length of other trail users. The 42-year-old Erie endurance runner crushed the supported record for the fastest known time, or FKT, running the Colorado Trail on his own in eight days and 30 minutes. Curtin noted that the route had been on his radar, but like Mannhard, he had “no intention to do it until all the races got canceled this spring.”. The 42-year-old Erie endurance runner crushed the supported record for the fastest known time, or FKT, running the Colorado Trail on his own in eight days and 30 minutes. “There are a lot more things you have to focus on.”. Fastest known times are exploding as runners use solo sufferfests to compete in the contest-killing era of social distancing, These are selected by the writer and confirmed by the editor. While it was a brief passing on the trail, Thompson recalled, “there was just a mutual respect between us and it was actually kind of nice to see someone else in the same boat.” Prior to his run on the CT, Thompson had gained notoriety for running 51 marathons in 50 days in 50 states, a year earlier than Dean Karnazes. Gear-obsessed editors choose every product we review. Remember that the Colorado Trail is hiking trail that simply allows cyclists to use it… if you dare Bikepacking is growing increasingly popular on the Colorado Trail. Here he is training on Quandary Peak. In this group test, we review 15 of the most exciting models of the season. Moved to Colorado two years ago and get a quarter chub every time I see dudes ripping through the campgrounds. Does that mean the popularity of FKTs will diminish when a vaccine is found and racers return to the starting line? Can I Hike the Colorado Trail With my Dog? It’s totally legal and totally safe to throw down and put your mark up.”. On September 21, Mike McKnight set a new men’s supported fastest known time (FKT) on the Colorado Trail while traveling west to east and by using the trail’s Collegiate East variation. The Colorado Trail stretches 485 miles from Durango to Denver and incorporates some 90,000 feet of elevation change. However, The Trailside Databook is a must-have for a breakdown of each segment with mileages and elevations. “You can’t race up Mount Rainier or the Grand Canyon, but you can do an FKT there,” Burrell said. Trying to limit the vast expanse of Colorado trails to just five selections is unquestionably a fool’s errand. November 10, 2020 Ben Delaney. Runner's World participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites. View maps, videos, photos,… I have experimented with two sleep strategies. He finished at 4:16 a.m. Tuesday at Junction Creek. But it also isn’t typical to hear of someone running the 490-mile Colorado Trail in record time, like he did. In June and July alone, Burrell’s team logged 450 worldwide records, accounting for nearly 20% of all the FKTs the site has tallied since 2017. Please check back every few weeks for the next edition. Cliff Bosley, race director for the Bolder Boulder, agrees, pointing to the tradition, ceremony and celebration surrounding the Memorial Day 10K, which also was canceled this year. Then “due to COVID-19” the Golden Gate Dirty 30 near Black Hawk followed suit. That effectively turns half the trail into a hike-a-bike. Dale Garland, Dave LaFranboise, John McAward and John Wolgamott ran from Durango to Denver in about 17 days. Divide Trail: Difficult to navigate, but incredible mountain biking trail. It offers some long distance scenery and begins with a 2,500 vertical-foot fire road ascend and turns to a middle ring double track to the trails high point of 10,877 feet. Support independent, Colorado-owned journalism by joining The Colorado Sun. “With an FKT, you’re pretty engaged with knowing where you are and knowing what to look for on your next turn. This bested the previous record, set by Olga King in 2018 at 15 days, 2 hours, and 28 minutes using the Collegiate East variation of the Colorado Trail. “It’s just a once or twice a year type of thing, not something I can do every weekend. The clock is always running, and the stress level is extremely high at all times.” Thompson suffered through nights of one, two, maybe three hours of sleep per night at the most. His time of 7 days, 13 hours, and 16 minutes bettered the previous record set by Scott Jaime in 2013 of 8 days, 7 hours, and 40 minutes. A University of New Mexico graduate student has shattered the fastest known time for a self-supported hike by a female on the 485-mile Colorado Trail. David Horton, the holder of a number of major trail FKTs around the U.S., made a run at the CT in 2009 and also had no more than three hours of sleep per night — and even then he wasn’t able to sleep. He quickly followed that up with a deeper reflection, “I am 40 on this day and I have just accomplished the hardest thing I have ever done in my life.” While Jaime finished a few days off the trail’s Fastest Known Time (FKT), by design finishing on his 40th birthday, the CT has seen a lot of activity in recent years with runners chasing Paul Pomeroy’s 2008 eight-day, 12- hour, 14-minute (8:12:14) FKT. The trail is posted with the flat brown flexible fiberglass posts and marked with blue and white Kokopelli stickers. This is one the few long-distance trails that allows bikes and provides for the necessary alternate routes when necessary (The Arizona Trail … This includes directly interviewing sources and research / analysis of primary source documents. The Munda Bindi trail in western Australia is 1,051km. As tough as the CT or any other multi-day run/hike is, for his part, Basham always comes away wanting to do more. His time of 7 days, 13 hours, and 16 minutes bettered the previous record set by Scott Jaime in 2013 of 8 days, 7 hours, and 40 minutes. Many of the FKT routes wind through national parks or wander through protected wilderness areas, opening the door to competition in places that could never sustain a commercial race. Colorado will receive fewer doses of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine this week than expected, Man arrested after discovery of bodies in San Luis Valley was seen killing missing woman, records show, It’s the time of year for barrel-aged beers in Colorado, but not all are turning to the dark side, (720) 263-2338 — Call, text, Signal or WhatsApp. Garmire’s time was verified by Fastest Known Time and a day-by-day account of his hike is posted on their website. “We’re a lot more than just a road race,” he said. Tackle a route but come up one second behind another runner? On Wednesday, March 27th at 7:39AM McElveen charged through the start line on his Orange Seal Off-road Trek Top Fuel Mountain Bike and sprinted deep into Canyonlands National Park for a near six hour sufferfest in an effort to break Andy Dorais fastest known time of 5:59:34. She just set the new female self-supported fastest known time (FKT) on the Colorado Trail in a blazing 10 days, 12 hours, and 36 minutes. 1) Mesa Trail in Boulder. Diamond trail: It’s between 8 to 10 miles long depending on the route you use and is rated as both easy and difficult trail depending on the rider. In order to claim an FKT, an athlete must either post documentation of their fastest ever time on a previously established route or create a new route themselves that’s “notable and distinct enough so that others will be interested in repeating it,” the FKT website explains. Support local journalism around the state.Become a member of The Colorado Sun today! I originally intended to analyze bikepacker trip length, but I created an online survey and 91% of the responses came from thru-hikers (59 out of 65 responses). While some supported trail runners can finish it in less than 10 days (the unsupported fastest-known time is 9 days, 12 hours and 32 minutes by John Zahorian [2] ), most thru-hikers spend about 4 to 6 weeks (28 to 42 days) on the trail. Burrell notes that interest in FKTs had been on the rise even before the pandemic struck. I originally intended to analyze bikepacker trip length, but I created an online survey and 91% of the responses came from thru-hikers (59 out of 65 responses). 6:40: Buzz talks about some of his own FKTs on John Muir Trail and the Colorado Trail. The physical toll is just too much to take on while also hammering in official races. The Grand Canyon double crossing, Colorado Trail (CT) and Appalachian Trail (AT) all have stout records, but the toughest is probably Basham’s Fastest Known Time (FKT) on the Long Trail (LT). Colorado is a hiker's paradise, and the Colorado Trail will let you enjoy all its beauty to the fullest. This is the second article in a series on FKTs. The mountain bike version detours Wilderness Areas, where mechanized travel is off-limits, and can be done any number of ways: from weekend warrior-ing it a couple segments at a time, to a supported through-ride with a sag vehicle, to bikepacking it unsupported in a single push. Yet still, still I get asked for a list of the best Colorado bike trails all the time. Boulder, Colorado, May 1, 2017 – Ultimate Direction, the leading brand in hydration and wearable gear innovations, today announced the four winners of its 2017 Fastest Known Time Grant Project.The grant provides aspiring FKT athletes with financial aid and premium adventure gear. Kyle Curtin ran the 171-mile Tahoe Rim Trail, unsupported, in 41 hours and nine minutes, setting a fastest-known-time record on the rugged loop around Lake Tahoe. The list of climbs and traverses range from Boulder’s beloved Mount Sanitas, a brief-but-brutal lung-buster that climbs 1,300 feet over just 1.4 miles, to the state’s highest peak, the 14,440-foot Mount Elbert. To claim the unsupported Fastest Known Time (FKT), Garmire will have to average over 50 miles each day. The fastest known time on the trail is 9 hours, 31 minutes and 14 seconds – if you’re keeping track, that’s a pace under nine minutes a mile for longer than the average workday! “But for most people, races are about community. He also works as a CPA and has run 2:29 for the marathon. September 22, 2020 September 22, 2020 Jeff Garmire. Hydration brand picks four winners out of 315 applications . You can still go run the High Lonesome course on your own, but it’s not the High Lonesome.”. – New Colorado Trail Race record set by Neil Beltchenko, as an ITT, Denver to Durango, lowering Jesse’s time by an hour. “There is simply nothing like pushing oneself to total exhaustion, knowing that you have reached your absolute physical and mental limit and still having to find more in order to achieve the goal.” That drive will likely have Basham back on one of America’s big trails this summer, chasing another FKT.Justin Mock lives and trains in Denver. On September 21, Mike McKnight set a new men’s supported fastest known time (FKT) on the Colorado Trail while traveling west to east and by using the trail’s Collegiate East variation. But this isn’t just a local trend. His time of 7 days, 13 hours, and 16 minutes bettered the previous record set by Scott Jaime in 2013 of 8 days, 7 hours, and 40 minutes. For the marathon FKT ), Garmire will have to average over miles. 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