We finally got on the right track at F60. Started off on Benton MacKaye again but heading towards the DRT this time. I went with Perry for this part and Kena drove down to Mulky to go the opposite way and find John who would be waiting for us.

BMT served it up right from the beginning. I had prepped myself already for 4 miles of climbing and that ended up being correct. I didn't realize that after that 4 miles, the rest of it was pretty much climbing too!

Very long initial climb up to Wallhalla Mtn but it is switchbacked. I'm not sure when we actually made it to the top - seemed like it never ended. I do know that we were hitting a steady 3mph pace...and that was working hard too. Walking the inclines and running the flats and downs.

Another climb to the top of Rhodes Mtn followed and we took a brief break here at a campsite on top. Shortly after Rhodes, the DRT begins. You can truly tell the difference because there were no more switchbacks. It was just up and down, up and down. The first two climbs were minor and I thought I would be OK. The next two were very long and steep. The descents were very steep and rocky and I became hesitant to run them after twisting my ankle at the marathon a few weeks ago. I was able to match Perry's pace on the climbs and then I would have to catch back up to him on the descents.

We caught up with Kena and John after about 7 miles and after 2:45 of hard work, I was so ready for a break. Everyone else was ready to forge on though because water was getting low. It was about 88 degrees and there was little shade or coolness offered by the DRT.

That last hour took so long and the up/down never stopped. Eventually it got messy in addition to being difficult. The trail was very, very overgrown after Fish Gap. I was running low on water and generally getting very annoyed with the whole situation. When Kena proposed that we stop at Mulky instead of tackling the last 8 miles, we were all cool with it. 11.4 miles took 4 hours and that includes maybe 5 minutes total of resting.

So not quite the run we planned, but an excellent training run anyway. 11 miles on the DRT with 3800ft of gain. Total for the day was 21.7 miles and 5800ft of gain in just under 7 hours. My first 50 miler had 6000ft of gain. I think I succeeded in doing the hilly 13 miles that my coach planned for me that day!