Or is it?
And some times stories can best be told in little video snippets.
September 18, 2020 was the day I had chosen to drive out to the Smokies. This time the out come was going to be different. Little did I know how different.
I had made up my mind that SCAR was going to happen this year. The original plan had been to do it at the end of May like my second attempt, first north bound; but Covid put an end to that idea. Compounded with an abductor strain from running too many road miles and I wasn't in shape enough to do 30 miles on the trails let a lone 72ish miles on the AT.
For those of you just looking for stats scroll to the end for your data.
I realized I had gotten a bit tired of running races or big adventure runs in the rain, so I decided that I would pick a two week window and let the weather dictate the actual day of the run. After coming off the abductor strain I began to focus on hill repeats to get ready for the big climb out of Fontana Dam. I was going northbound, the harder of the two directions and doing it self supported.
About a month away from the run a couple of friends of mine introduced me to some private property on which I could show up anytime and get some serious climbing done. Depending upon the route I could grab 500+ feet in the first mile, the biggest gain came with a route which was not quite 400 feet in 1/2 a mile. Yup that's where I needed to be spending as much time as possible. SCAR has roughly 18,600+ feet of climb over 72ish miles. What I really needed was to get better at was descents. During the 6 weeks leading up to the run my weekly mileage had been averaging 50 to 60 miles a week. The closer it got to the actual run the more worried I got about being prepared physically for the run.
Two weeks before I went I was with the Dirtbags at our Thursday night run and I had planned on doing 13 to 14 miles that night. Brock with all his wisdom once he heard my plans was like 'Jack you and I have very different ideas about what it means to tapper.' We all had a great laugh at his statement. Well between miles 4 and 7 I realized how right he was. I was tired. I started having the conversations with myself that went like 'You can't get any more prepared than you are at this point. Killing yourself to get ready at this point isn't going to help you. It's time to really tapper.' Coming back in after only 8 to 9 miles and telling Brock he was right was one of the smarter things I had done.
At this point it became all mental. I had done this distance or longer many times before. I've never had a problem running through the night all night. At this point I had to chose that no matter what I was going to finish. I wanted to get done faster than I had going southbound, around 33 hours I think. I was hoping for around 24 hours. Getting from Fontana Dam to Clingman's Dome was going to be the hardest part. It was all mental.
So preparing for this run involves only two factors in planning since I was doing this self
supported. First self supported meant I carried everything I needed. I didn't stash any cashes of anything along the route nor did I have anyone bring me any aid while I was moving. So I focused on a weather window and nutrition. The Smokies get about 8 feet of rain every year; hence it is called a temperate rain forest, one of a few in the world. I began to think about the end of August through the beginning of September, no later than mid September. It turns out that September and October are the driest times of the year for the Smokies. So September became to go month with comfortable temps and lower than average chances of rain. So somewhere between September 5th and 19th became my window, now I just needed the weather to cooperate. The first weekend in September was gorgeous and I wish I had gone then, but lack of nutrition and training said 'No'. Then a hurricane moved through the area. My last possible weekend was fast approaching and I decided rain or not I was going. I had all the gear needed for a soggy run. By September 7th I got all the Spring Energy I was going to need. To figure out how much I was going to need I looked at how many calories Spring Energy packs into their 100 mile race package, then added a few more 1000 calories because I wasn't going to have any aid stations; they pack just over 6600 calories. So my plan was to carry nearly 10,000 calories for the 72ish mile run. My last attempt with my friend Keith I ran out of food before I reached Clingman's Dome, that wasn't going to happen again. In the two months leading up to the run I started carrying 70% or more of what I would carry on SCAR during my training runs, that really helped me mentally get ready for that weight.
Carrying that much gear required some planning and training with as much of it as possible. Since weather wasn't going to be a negative to plan for it lightened the load a bit, no need for rain gear. The center of my gear was around the Salomon Advanced Skin 12, a 12 liter pack/vest that I was hoping would provide enough room for everything else. When I first started training with everything I was going to carry I had to figure out how I was going to carry the poles, which were giving me fits on a regular bases. I had 2 basic options, one was vertically in front next to by bottles and the other was in the small of my back at the bottom of my pack. The small of my back I tried on a 15 mile run only to have the chaffing so bad that it not only bruised but also scabbed my whole lower back, well that wasn't going to work for 70+ miles. When I tried the vertical set up, even before I ran with that set up it was too uncomfortable so that didn't happen. The best and safest bet then became the Salomon quiver, the down side was that it wasn't truly designed for the Advanced Skin line of vests, it was designed for the S-Lab vests. Once I figured out how to attach it and get it working it was the best set up I was going to get for what I needed. Where the poles where going to be stored during the run was set, but I was getting some serious issues with them opening up all the way. I ended up sanding off the paint on one pole, adding a lot of WD-40 and loosening up a tensioner on both poles. I kept checking both poles right up until the hour I left to make sure they were going to work when I needed them to work. With that settled next up was packing the nutrition.
The last time I tried SCAR I had a 5 liter vest with my poles slung around my shoulder by a rope. I hadn't checked to see if all my food was going to fit in my vest and that time it was a really good thing that I always wear cargo shorts and had a fanny pack for my poncho because all my food didn't fit in my vest. I was hoping for a different experience this trip. In training I put all my Spring into a couple of zip lock 1 gallon bags and put those into the vest, after a couple of run in this set up I figured that when it was time to go this wasn't going to work. So I knew I was going to eat every 30 minutes and I knew I was going to be eating only 5 different types of Spring. I grouped my Spring into packs of 3 or 2 depending upon how many calories and the time of day. Once packaged into these smaller groupings all nearly 9,000 calories stashed easily in my vest along with my Electroride and other gear. The groupings ended up as follows (SpeedNut with Hemp, Longhaul and PowerRush) I think I had 6 of these, then 3 of SpeedNut with Hemp, Longhaul and Canaberry; somewhere between 6 and 8 Koffee and SpeedNut with caffine, then a couple of one off combinations. Outside of my Spring Energy I had 4 Mint Chocolate Cliff bars and Tanaka bison jerky bits, these two items got pair as 1 Cliff and 3 bison bits. I also brought 12 Electrorides for electrolytes to mix into my water.
To round out my gear I had one Garmin InReach which I wore on my belt, one waist lamp worn the whole time. My old Brooks wind breaker running jacket. Two head lamps, one primary and the backup. I started the run with the backup and wore it about 1/3 of the way. 7 - 1800 batteries for the waist lamp and primary head lamp. 2 USB portable charges for anything that needed to be recharged on the go. My watch is the Coros Pace that was at about 98%, so I knew it would last for at least 30+ hours without an issue. 2 - USB cables. My phone and 1 dry sack.
For water I had been doing a bit of listening/reading on the SCAR Facebook group page. John Borton who is the page admin had listed about 7 stops for water a long the route where you didn't need to filter. So my plan was to rely on my two bottles and carry a liter of water in my bladder as a backup. The stops I had planned on were Mollies Ridge, Derrick Knob, Double Springs Gap, spring on trail 1/2 way between Clingmans Dome and Newfound Gap, Icewater Spring, Tricorner Knob Shelter, and Cosby Knob Shelter. I had thought there might be an outside chance I would need to refill both bottles at each stop and would need electrolytes at each stop, so that was the reason for all the Electroride.
So for training and equipment that was it. I had done all the planning and prep work I could, the only thing left was to see if Keith would be willing to pick me up at the end and drive me back to Fontana Dam. I'm so grateful he agreed!
Time to run.
As I'm leaving Nashville, not a couple of miles from the house, my phone stops working. I can't text, make phone calls or listen to my Pandora station. The Google maps was tracking me well enough so after pulling off the road once I decided to not worry about it and push on. I hoped that this was the only thing that was going to go wrong on this trip. Then Joel's words of wisdom came rolling back into my brain, 'Something is likely to go wrong. So plan for something to go wrong.' While this is a paraphrase you get the idea. The drive to Fontana Dam was quite.
Upon the early evening arrival at the dam I scoped out the area, having been here several times before I had a good idea of where I wanted to car camp. This was the first time I had been able to drive over the dam, so I thought about sleeping on that side. I drove to the only spot where I could get Wi-Fi and tried calling Peggy, which after about 10 tries finally went through. A very broken up scratchy connection allowed me to let her know I had arrived safely and that the phone wasn't working properly. I asked her to pass that information on to Keith.
Keith and I have been running together for several years and the last time I attempted SCAR he came along for the journey that ended at Newfound Gap after 18 hours with some extreme chaffing and a lack of food. We had friends who had been waiting for us there for hours and they told us we were done, which was the right call. So needless to say I was very grateful to have him coming on Saturday to pick me up on Sunday and drive me back to Fontana Dam.
I slept really well Friday night, I really like sleeping in the back of the Outback. As I got up and made myself ready I spied a car pulling up, parking and getting a bunch of gear ready. They looked like trail runners by the type of packs they seemed to be putting on their backs. So I decided to hustle a bit as I thought it would be nice to start with a group of folks. As I moved my car closer to the visitor center I asked the group if they were doing SCAR, I think I got a 'Yes' from them. As I was finishing my prep they took off across the dam. I ended up about 5 or so minutes behind their start after which I took pictures of my start. It was still dark with sunrise at least an hour away. It took me about 10 minutes to catch up to them and we started chatting.
It turned out to be 2 guys and a son who was in middle school out for a training run. They were from Etowah, TN getting ready for CloudSplitter 50k in November. Having done the 100k there I told them that they had picked a great place to train and that it was a beautiful course. We arrived at the AT dirt trail head together, I should have had them take a picture of me there, oh well.
While I had some intermittent time goals those were quickly forgotten with conversations and climbing up the first section to Shuckstack Tower, 4.5 miles of climbing. I was so glad I had been out here last year just to train on the big climb section up to either Derrick Knob or Double Springs, I forget which. During the climb up a I had a great conversation with one of the guys about trail running, then he realized that he had moved a head of his friend and needed to drop back. I could hear them talking for the next 5 to 10 minutes, but by the time I had reached Shuckstack I had moved away from them and like that the tower was behind me and I was truly off. The trail between the dam and Mollies had some runnable sections. When I reached Mollies Ridge Shelter, I was in part surprised to be here already. Because it was still early in the day I hadn't really dug into my hydration yet, 1/2 a bottle of water still and 3/4 bottle of Electroride, so I skipped the water at Mollies in favor of the spring that flowed under the trail about 4.5 miles farther away. This spring and I have a history.
My first SCAR was southbound in the middle of the night with Becca Jones as a safety runner we come across this spring and decide to get water. After getting water I get up and start the 'drunk walk' just wandering around 1/2 out of it. Becca calls for a break and more calories. The second time is with Keith on my first northbound attempt my calculations had been a bit off so I didn't really know where the spring was located. My third stop here was as a part of a long training weekend last year. Now this year, having a better mileage estimate of where it was I easily located it and filled both bottles. My water only bottle was almost empty and my Electroride bottle was about 1/2 full. This stop proved to be better timing wise for me. Derrick Knob Shelter was now 7.5 miles away. My arrival at Derrick had me out of water in the bottle and almost empty on Electroride, I had taken one big drink out of my bladder not long before arriving. That section was tough and easily the hardest part of the day. If I had taken a water stop at Mollies I would have been dry long before I reached Derrick. After filling up on water I was off to Double Spring Gap for my next water stop.
So at this point I would be remiss if I didn't mention the weather. No rain, but the whole day was covered in clouds. Stops Keith and I had made 2 years ago with awesome view where not to be had today. Which was a good thing. I refrain from taking too many pictures, instead I opted for quick videos. At one point I remember thinking if it actually rains a little I'm screwed, because I didn't have any wet weather gear with me. I had checked the forecast SO many times that I felt confident that it wasn't going to, but what if? Thankfully 'what if' never came.
The folks I encountered along this trail had been great people. About 10 miles away from Double Springs I encountered a father and son team doing a multi-day hike on the AT. The son looked to be in middle school and I was so glad to see them taking this time together. At Derrick Knob I encountered a guy who about a month earlier had just had one of his knees replaced, he was out for a week or two. We chatted about when our wives expected u home. He didn't really believe me when I told him that I was expected home on Sunday meaning tomorrow. When he saw that I wasn't budging from my story he said 'Well I guess you had better get moving.' I never traveled more than a mile at the most 2 without encountering people, that helped the time to go by quickly. A group of about 6 hikers heading south who called me 'a fast day hiker', I attempted to tell them what I was doing only to get a collective 'Oooo, Aaawwweee'. As I moved off I thought oh well, I've got to go. Upon my arrival at Double Springs my first reaction was 'What? Am I already here?' I had to confirm with a couple that I was where I thought I was. I quickly filled up both bottles and added Electroride to the one bottle. I was really pleased with my progress up to this point and wanted to keep this pace up.
Next major mile stone was Clingmans Dome. I remember coming upon a traffic jam, one south bound hiker, a group of 4 guys doing a 20 mile loop starting and ending at Clingmans. If memory is right this was just before I hit Double Springs. We all kinda stopped at this intersection. I read the sign which stated that I was about 4ish miles from Clingmans, I was shocked. The guys about to end their loop had their phones out confirming the direction and distance back to Clingmans for them to finish. One of those guys asked me how I was doing and I stated 'I was kickin' ass'. It was STILL day light and I was almost to Clingmans!! Passing Clingmans brought the next challenge, find the spring that is 1/2 between Clingmans and Newfound. I checked with John Borton about its location and he assured me that it was easy to spot. I had written the distance down to it from Double Springs and so when I got within 1/2 a mile I slowed down so as not to miss it. Nailed it!
I'm in my favorite section of the AT in the Smokies. It's like something out of Lord of the Rings. Fangorn Forrest I called, a beautiful section of firs and hemlocks with ferns and moss for the under canopy. With wisps of clouds passing through. It was awesome!!
The amazing thing to me at this point was that it was still day light and I was passed Clingmans Dome! I was making my way now to Newfound Gap. I remember being a bit tired, but moving well, when I encountered a family. Grandparents on down to grand kids, a group of about 8 folks. The mom of the grand kids stops me and asks me if this trail goes down to the parking lot. I kept my first thought in my head of 'How should I know?', then I paused, recalled the last trail sign I had seen and confirmed for her that 'Yes, if you go the direction I just came from you will encounter another sign pointing you to the parking lot.' My brain was a bit fuzzy at the time, but I hope they made it okay. I was moving quickly and quietly through this section startling several small groups of folks too engage in their conversations to hear the world around them. Then I came upon this young, to me, couple.
They had to have been late 20's maybe early 30's and they were lost. When I let them know I was approaching them I scared the wife nearly to death. She was having an anxiety attack and asked me if I worked here and could I please get her out of here. They had been walking for 3 hours having left Clingmans for a little hike. This wasn't going to be an easy fix and it was going to mean I had to stop. So I first tried to reassure her that she was going to be okay and that she would get out and see her 2 year old again. She was genuinely upset. I sat down on a step in the trail pulled out my map, attempted to make a ruff estimate to the parking area that trail passed through. I told them that their options where were not going to be easy, that they were either going to have to go to Newfound Gap, a parking area that I couldn't tell how far away it was or turn around and go back. All were going to entail several more hours of hiking and likely hiking in the dark. I gave them my back up head lamp and told them I didn't know how long it was going to last. I also gave them Keith's number with the understanding that he wouldn't be able to get them right away once they came to the parking area. So off we went I was planning on picking up my pace to make up time, but we started talking about how close they were to the road and that if they really needed they could just cut through the woods to the road. After walking for 10 to 20 minutes we came across what appeared to be a side trail that had one of signs you see when you are entering a trail. We stopped and I checked it out, it turned out to be access the road. So I dropped them off there, got my headlamp back and suggested the see if they can flag down a passing car and get a ride back to Clingmans. If for some reason that didn't work to start walking can call Keith.
With the young couple safely deposited I attempted to pick up the pace, it was still day light at this point but it was slowly starting to fade. As the anticipation of arriving at Newfound neared I started into some run and fast hike segments. I had actually been able to do this most of the day outside of the one hard section mentioned earlier. I don't remember how far out I was when this headlamp showed up around a corner, but it was Keith who had come out to meet me and do a few miles with me. I had honestly bee hoping he would come do a section with me around Newfound Gap. I believe he said I had about a mile and a half to go. I was really excited because I was moving so well and in great spirits. We chatted about the tracker not working and how he was able to project my arrival at Newfound with a high degree of accuracy, his guys is amazing with stats and projections. He had mentioned that his arrival at Newfound had the area pretty full but by the time we arrived it was dark. I think we got there about 8:30pm, so 13 hours 50 minutes into the run. With Keith by my side I plowed right through Newfound and as I stepped back on dirt I realized I had planned on making a long stop here to get all my night time gear out and dump my trash. So we turned around and stopped at Newfound. Keith had cell service here so we called Peggy to let her know I was okay and I sent out a message on the tracker saying I was okay. I had figured earlier tracker issues had been because of thick cloud cover, skies were clearing so the tracker should work better.
So up to this point the only I had just started using my waist light and my back up headlamp. Now I pulled out my big headlamp which would carry me through the night with one set of batteries. I moved the rest of my food around to easier to get to locations. I'm guessing we were here for about 10 minutes. Off we went. Keith was only going to stick with me for a few more miles as Newfound after dark is not the best place to leave your car. I had done a really good job of distances between water stops and had a good idea of where Icewater Spring was located. I was so grateful to have Keith along for what ended up being about 5 miles in the middle of the run, it was great having a friend to spend some time with. Once Keith headed back the real fun began.
So a little note about my poles here. Sections going northbound between Fontana and Clingmans are fairly runnable. So I was putting my poles up way more often than I thought I would. Each time I wondered if they would come back out correctly and thankfully they did. the quiver was a bit frustrating as I tried to get pole in and out, but the quiver was a game changer as far as having a great spot for the poles. I used them way more in the last section of the run as you will read about later.
I came across a guy heading back towards Newfound he had come from Mt. LeConte. He had lost his car keys back at Mt. LeConte and couldn't get into some part of it to find them. He gave me some sort of woven lanyard thing and I told him I'd keep an eye out for his keys, but that I wasn't headed to LeConte. Then the wrong turn happened.
The intersection of the Boulevard Trail and the AT got me a bit confused. I was focused on finding the spring to refill my bottles with so I didn't focus on the signs. I recognized the plastic sign that gave the Covid warnings for the shelters and I just knew I wasn't going to a shelter so I went left instead. The only mistake of the whole trip and I didn't even know it yet. When I got to the mileage that the spring was supposed to be located at I couldn't find it, so I double checked my paper map and my watch and kept walking. It was at this point God's still small voice suggested I go back because I might be in the wrong spot. Yea, I didn't listen. Eventually I heard a spring and had to move a rock or two to get at the water, then moving on I came to a large stream so I dumped the earlier water and filled full here. I'm still very confused at this point because up until now all my water stop mileages had been spot on. I kept going. I came across two sections of cabled hand holds and I recalled thinking I don't remember these on this section of the AT. Not long after leaving the second cable section I came to the sign. My first thought at seeing the sign was what the heck!? This had to be wrong! How did this happen?? There where two pieces of wood, one said 'Mt. LeConte Lodge .7' with an arrow pointing off to the right. The other piece of wood said either Appalachian Trail or Icewater Springs 4.6 miles with and arrow pointing back the way I had come. This sign also said 'Newfound Gap 7.3 miles' again with an arrow pointing back the way I had come. I stood there dumbfounded for a couple of seconds, then shook my head and turned around.
This wrong turn had a cascading impact on the rest of the run. The first thing that came to mind was what Joel had told me years ago, something will go wrong. The second thing was an apology to God realizing then that He was trying to get my attention 4.6 miles ago. Now I just had to suck it up and get back. Now two issues raised up for me to deal with time goals and nutrition. Never did I think about not finishing by heading back to Newfound Gap; it was like in a race if you get off course you get back on and finish the race. On the way back I thought about all the shelters I had walked through during the day and shook my head at myself. I began to adjust my time goals realizing, sadly, that 24 hours was now out. I began to think I could swing 30 hours based upon how I had been moving up until this point. I was okay with that seeing how my first SCAR had taken me over 30 hours. The detour had added at least 9.2 miles, my watch has it at 10 miles, to my trip and at least 3 to 4 hours. I began to question if I was going to have enough food to last me the rest of the trip. Up until now I had been doing great with eating no problems at all, every 30 minutes like clock work. Now worried about not having enough food I stopped eating regularly, this one thing cost me as much as the wrong turn. When I stopped eating my stomach shut down making it even harder to take in calories.
Back on the AT and guess what the Icewater Spring was right where it was supposed to be, again I just shook my head filled both bottles and kept going. I'm still thinking at this point I can make 30 hours even with the extra time and my stomach shutting down. Next stop was Tri-Corner Knob upon my arrival there I was spent. The sun had come up and the struggle had become real. The sun had been up by the time I arrived here, I had rolled through Pecks Corner in the morning light. I had endeavored to every hour or so send out an alert on the InReach letting Peggy know I was okay since my wrong turn. Since my stomach had shut down I gave up on eating every 30 minutes and pick at my favorite Springs that I had left plus the Cliff bars and jerky.
The last 10 miles where the hardest of the whole trip first because I was supposed to be done at this point and then because the descents hit hard on my quads. I think somewhere between 10 and 7 miles from the finish a sight for sore eyes shows up, Keith had come to finish this out with me. The familiar face wrecked me as I was emotionally spent and my legs where dying a slow painful death. I was stopping every so often, like every 15 to 30 minutes, just wanting to be done. I understood why this direction is considered the harder of the two; the last 7 miles are technical irregular built step downs that drop anywhere from 1 to 3+ feet, not to mention all the normal roots and rocks. During a couple of stops I used my pole to rub out my quads, which helped and then Keith goes 'Okay Jack let's get this done.' I'm sure it was painful to watch my slow progress. The last 3 miles clicked off fairly well and I was moving quicker than I had for the past several hours. I found that planting my poles below the step down allowed me to land softer on my legs. These poles never failed me the entire trip. 33 plus hours later I was done. 83.97 miles covered.
We got into Keith's car and headed for food. On the trip back I remember telling Keith thank you for coming out many times and making statements like 'I'm not sure I ever want to do this again, let a lone run trails or even run.' He assured me that given a couple of days and I'd be right as rain and ready to go again. Keith and I had an on going conversation about my times and estimating my finish. He began to tell me all the data he had been able to pull off of Google Maps as he plotted my progress. After listening to him and seeing my actual finish time I realized that his estimations much like my mileage between water stops was spot on. So glad I had this guy to finish the journey with. After swapping stories on the ride back with a hearty thank you and a few beers given Keith headed back to Nashville and I drove to the other side of the dam for a nap. About 2 hours later I was on my way home.
Weeks later I realized a couple of things. One I'm not going to stop trail running. Two I'm gonna do a couple of races this fall with the hopes of bettering my finish times. Lastly I'm gonna have to do this again and get it right.
Having done this now several times, I will gladly help anyone who wants to under take this endevor. It is well worth the challenge, wrong turns and all.
Total time: 33:02:46
Total distance: 84 miles
Elevation: 21014 ft
Vest: Salomon Adv Skin 12 with quiver
Shoes: Hoka Evo SpeedGoat
Nutrition: Spring Energy - 9,000+ calories of: Speed Nut (both kinds), Power Rush, Longhaul, Canaberry and Koffee. When ordering Spring Energy use 'JackS' as check out for a discount. 4 Cliff Bars and 1 package of Tanaka Bison Jerky bites, which were an additional 1000+ calories.
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