Asheville Blue Ridge Runner: Following Scott Jurek: Update

Scott Jurek sets a new Appalachian Trail record in 46 days, 8 hours and 8 minutes. He reached the summit of Mt. Katahdin at 2:03 PM (local time)

Former record was set by Jennifer Pharr Davis (2011) in 46 days, 11 hours, 20 minute. She will retain the women's supported record. -iRunFar

Photo iRunFar

Update: 9:21am Sunday, Daicey Pond Campground 7.7 miles to go!

The next check point that I have available is Katahdin Stream Falls, which is 4.1 miles from the summit. The elevation change between the two is 3718 feet which gives a gradient of 906 feet/mile for the final 4.1 miles.

~7:00 am Sunday, He's on the move, 15.2 miles to the summit. (yes we did get out this morning for our own run!)

~approx 4:30 am Sunday, arrived at Abols Bridge. Looks like he's been taking a break there for a couple of hours. From this point, it's 15.2 miles to the top.

~We've finally been able to locate an accurate trail mileage chart (According to Delorme, Scott crossed Pollywog stream at approx 8:30pm Saturday night). Pollywog to the summit of Mt Katahdin is 32.6 miles. Scott has to be at the summit before 5:16pm Sunday to break the record...

Day 46: Saturday, Scott's first view of Katahdin

Photo: Aron Ralston

~10:00pm Saturday, it's slow going. Delorme is showing Scott's pace to be 3 miles per hour. The best we can estimate by the milage scale on Delorme is he has roughly 25 miles to go. Unfortunately, Delorme's scale is not consistent which is making it frustrating to follow, and we haven't had a Facebook update since Scott crossed Kennebec River. According to the record of Jennifer Pharr Davis's fastest time, she covered 60.2 miles on day 46 at 3 mph pace; however, she was traveling south bound...

~6:15 Saturday morning, Scott's not even close.

Bart read up a bit on the trail conditions of the final 100 miles between Monson and Mt Katahdin: The first half is extremely difficult with the second half, after Whitecap Mtn, being much better. Evidently the stretch between Monson and Katahdin is called the "Wilderness 100", and the first 10 miles has been the undoing of many hikers. This initial section is not so much a trail as it is a series of blazes and markers interconnecting a claimed course of travel through the rocky debris left by the last ice age.

According to the Delorme reporting system Scott has covered twice the distance in the first six hours of this morning than he did the evening six hour portion of yesterday. As mentioned, the trail conditions should be much improved from this point forward to Katahdin over what they had on the menu yesterday...

We're been having too much fun following Scott Jurek's attempt at the Appalachian Trail Fastest Known Time record. We won't know what to do with ourselves when Scott's done... I guess watch the rest of the Tour de France.

Based on our calc's, mapping and assumption, Scott Jurek has approximately 50 miles to go, and we're thinking he will most likely pull an all-nighter and arrive on Mt Katahdin at or about day break Saturday morning. Tomorrow will tell. In any event, he and his crew have to be "smelling the barn" and going deep into the well to put this challenge to bed.