Quinnipiac Trail (CT) 18 miles

[Alex McDaniel]

hi all,
im new to the board so pardon any etiquette fails.

the Qunnipiac is about 18 miles of trails and road connectors in Hamden and Cheshire CT.  I know many people have run and hiked it but don't know of anyone who has tried to do it briskly. Anyways, in the next week, weather and schedule permitting, I'm going to take a crack at a brisk time which people can then improve on.

Ill likely start at rt 68, go through Roaring Brook falls, Brooksvale Park, Westrock and finish after going over the very technical trails in Sleeping Giant, cheers,

alex McDaniel

[Alex McDaniel]

Hi all,
A quick summary of my FKT for the Quinnipiac Trail. On Sar Aug 29th at 6:12am I started at rt 68 at the Blue sign, and started running south on the Q.

I reached the top of Roaring Brooke Falls in 32:30 and crossed rt 42 in 50:00. I went over my Sanford and reached Gaylord Mt road in 1:22. I crossed Brooks road in 1:50 and reached the intersection of the Q and Regiscides trails in 2:07. I crossed rt 10 Whittney Ave at 2:42 feeling great but bonked a bit going up the "Wall" in Sleeping Giant. I finished pretty exhausted in 4:07 on the East side of Sleepjng Giant which is just Kings HW. Sadly I then had to run 2.5 miles to my pick up. I was toast.

Obsviously someone can go sub 4, someone REALLY fast could run 3:30. Cheers.

Alex

[Neil Clauson]

Today I ran the Q in 2:50:21. My wife dropped me off in Cheshire near the water tower thing and picked me up at King’s Highway. This is kind of my home trail since I live in Hamden. It was a beautiful and sunny November day, although I could have done without the foot deep layering of freshly fallen leaves. The trail was bone dry, but there were just enough brook crossings to give water to my dog. I did not pause the watch at all, which I assume is a major rule for these FKTs (I’m new here). My splits are as follows:

Mt. Sanford summit- 41:09
Brooks Rd. crossing- 1:17:30
Whitney Ave crossing- 1:56:40
Sleeping Giant tower- 2:17:07

Before ascending the wall on the Giant’s head, I stopped the dog for drink in the MIll River and downed a caffeinated gel. I recommend ascending the wall along the far left to maximize height awareness! I must say that I took the red trail up to the base because my dog cannot handle a steep drop off on that section of blue. I’m quite sure the distance is the same though.

I am really glad that Alex started this FKT. The Q is a very adventurous trail that follows ridgelines nearly the whole way. There are beautiful views in many areas and the geography of the trail gives the feeling that you are always running above the rest of civilization.

[Anon]

Link to your data, please? Not questioning it, just needs to be posted. Thanks.

[neil]

Oh, okay... I think I figured it out with my GPS... mysports.tomtom.com/service/webapi/v2/activity/perm_U2cerMWy0EMN77dFyRaukqE6Vo9bbjQmNYw_aW3_C_sU1KVQ8IDscMmcNMukaSjJjcgWO-csYgDX2lqPIMZQpQ?format=html 

[anon]

I was able to change your format to a gpx file and open it in Runkeeper, that was the only way I could view it.  I see no issue going up the red trail vs the blue trail, but I did notice you started at the end of Cornwall Ave, where the road switches to trail, but Alex started at the actual start of the Quinnipiac Trail which is at Rt 68 and Chatfield Rd, shaving off about 8/10 of the mile.  Now of course you would've run that in probably 7 mins, so there's no doubting the FKT you set, I'm simply saying to whomever next goes for this FKT that they will need to either beat the current record from the actual start so that it's the "official" length, or will have the opportunity to start from the same starting point.  

[neil]

I went back to the run a proper FKT on the Q today. By proper I mean respecting Alex's initial trail documentation by starting at the sign at the end of Cornwall Street in Cheshire, not at the water tower where I previously thought the trail began. I am not sure why the "trail" begins at the end of the road but I found the road running to be a nice warm-up before the trail shoots up a nasty incline upon entering the woods. This added a bit less than a mile of road running onto the route, but I still managed to beat my old FKT by about two minutes. The trail had a nice coating of snow in most spots, but this didn't seem to affect my run too much. Actually the variability of the trail was very pleasant today.I would rather have the snow then loose leaves like I had last time. The only spot that was sketchy were some ice falls around the tower at Sleeping Giant where I grabbed onto trees and tiptoed over rocks to work my way down. I really like the way the trail ends on a super fast extended downhill section, which I really pushed knowing my time was close. The trail ends at King's Highway since the North Haven section has been closed with no maintenance.

Here are the splits: 

Mt. Sanford summit- 43:20
Brooks Rd. crossing- 1:18:28
Whitney Ave crossing- 1:55:18
Sleeping Giant tower- 2:17:29
King's Highway- 2:48:35

I am now on Strava and below is the link: 

www.strava.com/activities/809619353  

[Alex McDaniel]

Wow Neil,
That is SCREAMING Fast!! I'm super impressed. It's such a technical route in so many places. I know I lost 10-15 min in SG after cooking myself going up thr Blue trail headwall, but I think 3:40 is about as fast as I can imagine doing it.

And the start at Rt 68, weird right?! It's because the Q used to go farther north in Prospect. I hear there's an unofficial section on some Prospect Land trust land just North of 68.

I live in New Haven in Westville by Westrock. Hopefully see you out there Neil!

[jimmymac]

Hey gang,

My name is Jimmy McCaffrey and I'm going to attempt an FKT for the full out-and-back on the Q Trail (36 miles) on Sunday, July 23rd, 2017. From doing some research on the trail, this is CT's ORIGINAL blue-blazed trail, and that alone qualifies it for special status in my heart.

I'm going to start at the Eastern end (Hartford Turnpike) and do a yo-yo, going all the way to the sign at the trail's "end" at the intersection of Chatfield Rd. and Route 68 (Cheshire Rd).

I will be doing a few water drops the day before for myself but this will not be an unsupported run, as I will be receiving some support in the form of pacers/companions along the way- current FKT holder Neil Clauson has agreed to run some of the trail with me, as his knowledge of the trail has been invaluable to me the last few weeks while running together.

I'm targeting 8:00 (eight hours) as I will be using this run as my last long training run for an August 100-miler so it will be the capstone to a 100-mile week, so my legs will most assuredly be gassed at the outset. I plan on starting around sunrise (~5:30 am).

Upon completion, I will post all links to Suunto's Movescount and Strava.

I'm basically doing this run to establish an initial (out-and-back, or yo-yo, or double, or full- call it what you want) Fastest Known Time that will hopefully be lowered by the end of the year, because this trail is awesome in so many ways and it deserves to be run by someone that will do it justice.

Maybe I'll even go back and try it on fresh legs someday

[jimmymac]

Neil Clauson and I (Jimmy McCaffrey) set the initial FKT for the Double Q Trail today in 9:17:19.

Here's the Strava link for verification: www.strava.com/activities/1098306382/overview

Neil's watch died with about 4 miles to go but I can assure you he was there the entire way, as was his dog Bex- she now has the FLFKT (four-legged fastest known time). It was a lot tougher than I thought, I had been targeting eight hours and when we hit the turn-around at 4:26:xx I knew that we'd really have to hustle to get it done under nine. That didn't happen.

It's truly an awesome trail, ~6600 feet of climb made for a calf-quaking (and conversely a quad-shredding) endeavor.

...have at it, y'all! I'll be seeing Blue Blazes in my dreams tonight.

[Alex McDaniel]

Great job guys!

I had been thinking about doing a double Q, as a long training run for a 100 like you, but knew it would be 9-11 hours and rarely go over 5 in normal training. If I had to do it, I would do i"inside out" starting at Paradise Ave and do two out and backs from there.

Next spring I "might" take a crack at your time, but somewhat doubt I could beat the supported time. Maybe as an unspoorted attsmpt?

But great job guys! I'm in Westville if you guys ever want to hook up. I just did Nipmuck and Bimbler's this Fall with a few good ultras on the calendar for 2018

[jimmymac]

Alex, we've never met but I would love to help you out.

Would love to hook up for a run sometime and hash it all out, my e-mail is [e-mail]