Massanutten Mountain Trail (VA)

[Peter Bakwin]

Keith Knipling holds the record, 14h46m30s, set Sept. 6, 2008

The Massanutten Mountain Trail is a National Recreation Trail. It is a 71-mile loop in the George Washington National Forest, on the ridgelines of the eastern and western ranges of the Massanutten Mountain. According to the Virginia Happy Trails Running Club (VHTRC): "The 'trail' is hard, rocky, and slow. Sections of the trail have been around in some cases for centuries, but the entire, uninterrupted, 71-mile Massanutten Trail was not completed until 2002."

With the close proximity of a very active group of ultrarunners (VHTRC), the MMT ring was run by Chris Scott and Anstr Davidson (27h51m) even before it was officially dedicated in 2002. Since then, VHTRC organizes a race of the route every September, and some fast times have been recorded. Here is a list of winning times for each year, from the VHTRC website:

2002	Harry Bruell	16h45m
2003	Ryan Henry & Randy Dietz	19h32m
2004	Sue Johnston & Scott Brockmeier	19h11m
2005	Jeff Wilbur	17h15m
2006	Event Not Held
2007	Mike Schuster	15h41m
2008	Keith Knipling	14h46m30s

There is also a reverse loop run organized in February.


photo from VHTRC

[Cory McArtor]

Is there an unsupported record for this trail? I've been wanting to backpack the entire trail for a while and have been thinking it might be fun to see how fast it could be done without crew.

[Dan Rose]

The problem with hiking this unsupported is there's no reliable water on the 71 mile loop, aside from the loop around Strasburg Lake. A winter attempt (with snow/melt to source from) would the way I'd go about it. Totally doable in the winter in less than 18 hours by starting with 4-5K calories...if you can get the H2O along the way.

[Bob Combs]

There is very reliable water at the spring near mudhole gap, also a reliable spring coming down from Powells Mtn into Edinburgh (or up depending on direction). I have used both these a number of times with no issues

There are also the streams at the base of waterfall and coming(leaving depending on direction) into Camp Roosevelt(Duncan Hollow) as well as Veach Gap.

So lots of water, esp March-May

Bob Combs

[Kathleen Cusick]

I am going to try a self-supported Ring this Saturday (6/25). I am planning to plant aid at 3 places along the route. I will start at Signal Knob and go in the clockwise direction. I'll use my phone, watch, and Garmin to record time. Happy Trails!