Coastal Trail, Lake Superior Provincial Park, Ontario

[samholcomb]

My wife, Viktoria Koskenoja, and I, Sam Holcomb, set an FKT for the Coastal Trail—Chalfant Cove to Agawa Bay Campground—in 14:39:17 on September 5, 2015. Ours was a supported attempt in which we carried water and food, but took additional nutrition, as well as trekking poles, from our family at several points along the trail.

The Coastal Trail in Ontario’s Lake Superior Provincial Park runs 62.9 km (39.1 miles) from Chalfant Cove to the Agawa Bay Visitors Center. It is an incredibly technical trail, generally following the coast of Lake Superior, but venturing over many small mountains and difficult rock formations. It is generally completed as a 5-7 day backpacking route.

The original FKT, 27:47, was set in 2011 and was posted as a YouTube video, which can be viewed at www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwZ9DyLQjDs. The original single-push FKT was completed as a 68-km endeavor, which included the out-and-back trail to Devil’s chair.

For our attempt, we streamlined the route, making it a direct shot from Chalfant Cove to the Agawa Bay Visitors Center. We believe this is a more aesthetic route and will make future attempts at our route less confusing.

We camped overnight at Chalfant on September 4, and woke up on September 5 at 4 a.m. and were on the trail at approximately 4:30 a.m. Our family moved our camping gear from Chalfant back to the car at the Gargantua trailhead. We took lemonade and snacks from our support crew at Sand River, Coldwater River, Barrett River, and Sinclair Cove. We arrived at the Agawa Bay Visitors Center at approximately 7 p.m.

A photo documentary, compiled by Vik’s uncle, Marko Koskenoja, can be viewed at goo.gl/photos/htHaY7a9J73eY8Wf9.

A blog post about the trip can be viewed at thenorthjunction.com/2015/09/07/coastal-trail-in-14-hours/

Located only 90 minutes from Sault Ste. Marie, ON, 4 hours from Marquette, MI, and 2 ½ hours from Mackinaw City, MI, we feel that this trail is begging for additional FKT attempts. It is a very fun, wilderness trail with lots of access points and great scenery.

[samholcomb]

This trail, though not in the United States' Midwest region, would be a reasonable FKT outing for many runners in the Northern Midwest over a long weekend. Our report, taken from the Canadian Region's thread is posted below:

My wife, Viktoria Koskenoja, and I, Sam Holcomb, set an FKT for the Coastal Trail—Chalfant Cove to Agawa Bay Campground—in 14:39:17 on September 5, 2015. Ours was a supported attempt in which we carried water and food, but took additional nutrition, as well as trekking poles, from our family at several points along the trail.

The Coastal Trail in Ontario’s Lake Superior Provincial Park runs 62.9 km (39.1 miles) from Chalfant Cove to the Agawa Bay Visitors Center. It is an incredibly technical trail, generally following the coast of Lake Superior, but venturing over many small mountains and difficult rock formations. It is generally completed as a 5-7 day backpacking route.

The original FKT, 27:47, was set in 2011 and was posted as a YouTube video, which can be viewed at www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwZ9DyLQjDs. The original single-push FKT was completed as a 68-km endeavor, which included the out-and-back trail to Devil’s chair.

For our attempt, we streamlined the route, making it a direct shot from Chalfant Cove to the Agawa Bay Visitors Center. We believe this is a more aesthetic route and will make future attempts at our route less confusing.

We camped overnight at Chalfant on September 4, and woke up on September 5 at 4 a.m. and were on the trail at approximately 4:30 a.m. Our family moved our camping gear from Chalfant back to the car at the Gargantua trailhead. We took lemonade and snacks from our support crew at Sand River, Coldwater River, Barrett River, and Sinclair Cove. We arrived at the Agawa Bay Visitors Center at approximately 7 p.m.

A photo documentary, compiled by Vik’s uncle, Marko Koskenoja, can be viewed at goo.gl/photos/htHaY7a9J73eY8Wf9.

A blog post about the trip can be viewed at thenorthjunction.com/2015/09/07/coastal-trail-in-14-hours/

Located only 90 minutes from Sault Ste. Marie, ON, 4 hours from Marquette, MI, and 2 ½ hours from Mackinaw City, MI, we feel that this trail is begging for additional FKT attempts. It is a very fun, wilderness trail with lots of access points and great scenery.

[northwoods]

Paul Hagan, Greg McBride, Kristy McBride, and myself, Marcus Quintiliano plan on running the Coastal Trail next Saturday, July 23. We plan on doing an abbreviated 53K version of the trail versus the 65K that Victoria and Sam did last year. The 53K version eliminates the northern end of the trail where there is no road access. Our route will start at the end of the Gargantua Road (northernmost road access) and run south to the southern terminus at the Agawa Bay Visitor Center.

Our attempt will be self-supported. We intend to leave a vehicle at Coldwater River which is approximately the halfway point of the run. We will resupply food and water here. We also intend to get water from the Lake along the way.

We hope to finish in 10 hours but we have no idea how fast we will be traveling due to the unrelenting ruggedness of the trail.

The intent is not to set an FKT but to just run the trail and enjoy it. Hopefully our attempt will shed light on what it will take for others to run this section. I don't know of anyone having run this abbreviated portion of the trail.

Here is some video from my scouting trip a couple weeks ago...

vimeo.com/173571252

Hope to have video along with a trip report next week.

Marcus

[northwoods]

On Saturday July 23, Kristy Johnson McBride, Paul Hagan, and myself, Marcus Quintiliano, ran the Coastal Trail from Gargantua Harbor to the Visitor Center at Agawa Bay. Greg McBride ran the first 1/2 with us finishing at our stashed support vehicle at Coldwater River (25K). Our route covered 54.5 KM (33.9 miles). We climbed 4498'. And finished in 12 hours 21 minutes. Our pace was 21:50 per mile.

Here is the GPS data from the run...
www.movescount.com/moves/move115247650

The route that Viktoria and Sam completed last year included 5 or 6 miles of trail north of where we started. This northern terminus is not accessible by vehicle. We avoided the logistical hassle of the northern start. I just want to be clear that we did NOT run the entire trail but a slightly shorter version that made a crewless attempt more manageable logistically. I think that both the long and short versions will be attempted many times in the future. I know I will be back for both distances.

We hired a shuttle from Naturally Superior Adventures. Samantha picked us up at the Agawa Bay Campground at 6am and drove us 1 hour to Gargantua Harbor.
www.naturallysuperior.com

After a quick picture we started down the trail at 7:05. We finished at 7:26 and found someone at the campground gatehouse to snap a picture for us.

Let me just say that this trail is amazing, beautiful, challenging, and cruel all at the same time. Beautifully technical climbs and descents. Crazy rock outcropping scrambles. The coves covered in softball size and smaller rocks were a nightmare to run/hike on. The bowling ball up to huge boulder beaches were a lot of fun. The massive jumble of house sized rocks near Agawa Point was just mesmerizing. The trail just never lets up. Very little of the trail is runnable, you just have to grab quick runs when you can between scrambles and rock hops. The last couple miles into the Visitor Center was flat and fast trail. You really can't break focus the entire time. Between watching your footing, looking for handholds, spotting cairns and trail markers you will be fully occupied.

I would not recommend this route if you don't enjoy technical trail. But if you are looking for a technical challenge, you won't find a better trail. The route is remote, particularly the northern half. And with the difficult terrain, rescue would be extremely challenging.

The afternoon became quite warm and we spent a lot of time sterilizing/purifying water. We were drinking a ton after the hot crossing of the beach at Sand River. Having a crew to resupply at the numerous access points on the second half would have been helpful but this is how we set up our trip. We did resupply once at a car we left at Coldwater River. If you stash a car for resupply, don't park your car in the sun like I did. Didn't even think about it at 6:15. Warm gels and sandwiches were pretty bad. Yeah I felt stupid for that move. There is an old 2 track off the parking lot at Coldwater that would have provided nice shade. Also a cooler for our food and water would have been a great idea.

Here is a quick video that I put together from our day on the trail....
vimeo.com/176118250

[explorthebackcountry]

On June 10th I set out to run the Coastal Trail from Gargantua to Agawa. This was a solo, unsupported, unscouted attempt that required me to stash my bike at Agawa and ride back after completing my run. A grand 105km day, but perfect training for my upcoming race at the ARWC in August. Final run time was 10:47:49

Conditions deteriorated roughly 2hrs into my run. A un-forecasted rain storm blew in making footing treacherous. I fell on multiple occasions and manged to cut up my hand a few times (don't watch the video if you are uncomfortable at the sight of a little blood). My pace was slower than it should have been on this section and I was close to pulling the plug on the attempt. The skies cleared up and the rocks slowly dried out so I continued and upped the pace. I had some low moments on some technical portions towards the end. The sun was frying me and I was getting dehydrated. Coupled with some unforeseen gastro issues, I had a bad time before I rehydrated. Once that was fixed, I upped the pace for the final push. I got in with 3mins to spare before the visitor center closed and I made a mad dash for the ice cream and freezers inside. Spoke with the bewildered park staff, then hoped on my bike and had a leisurely 2hr ride back to my basecamp at Gargantua. 

Here's a link to a video from my run: www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_wKpCGq6Io

I used GeoTracker on my phone as I don't own a GPS watch. I find it's not the best app for accurately recording distance as it drops GPS connection every now and then. But it did a pretty good job tracking my run.

I'd love to go back on fully a clear day. I think I can best that time by a bit still, especially now that I know what the trail holds. 

GPS Tracks: drive.google.com/a/explorethebackcountry.com/file/d/0B26C7v8HqEvrR1g5cE1oOWw3NVU/view?usp=sharing

Some Stats:
 

[northwoods]

On Saturday, July 22 my friends and I plan to return to run the entire Coastal Trail from Chalfont Cove to the Agawa Visitor Center. This will be the same route that Viktoria and Sam ran 2 years ago (skipping the out and back side trail to Devil's Chair). We hope to set a new FKT for the trail. Rain moving into the area Saturday evening so hopefully we finish in our goal time so we are done before the rain turns the rocks treacherous.

We have 7 total in our group. Paul Hagan, Kristy McBride, Jordan Smith, and I will be running the entire trail. Greg McBride and Jake Hegge will each run 1/2 of the trail with us. Becca Hegge will drive the support vehicle south.

Jordan intends to carry his camping gear and food all the way from Chalfont to Agawa, without taking any aid from the vehicle. This will essentially make his run self-supported.

Marcus

[northwoods]

On Saturday, July 22, several friends and I ran the full Coastal Trail from Chalfont Cove to the Agawa Bay Visitor Center. Kristy McBride set a new women's FKT of 13:14:00. Marcus Quintiliano set the new FKT of 12:07:24. Our attempt followed the route outlined by Victoria and Sam. This streamlined route eliminates the out and back side trail to the Devil's Chair. Our attempt was supported.

In the process of running the full trail, Marcus also barely set a new FKT for the "short route" from the end of the Gargantua Rd to ABVC. The new short route FKT is 10:46:00. Brad Jenning's short route time of 10:47:49 still stands as the self supported FKT because our day was supported.

This video trip report has the story of our day including the rain that slowed us down and how hard I pushed at the end when I realized how close I was to Brad's time.

vimeo.com/226860813

This is the GPS page for the run from my Suunto watch.

www.movescount.com/moves/move167848425

- Marcus

[northwoods]

This thread has continued in the "Canada" heading where it belongs. Being here let's people knowthe trail exists just over the border. Amazing trail worth far more attention than it receives.

[IceHiker]

I hear the FKT was dropped to 7:51 today unsupported.

[northwoods]

I heard that too. I believe it was the short version from Gargantua to Agawa. That time is flying in that terrain. We probably would have been an hour faster without the rain that we encountered but 7:51 is crazy fast. Especially while going solo and trying to find trail markers that lead back into the forest.

[ratki]

On August 1st 2017, Ryan Atkins ran the Coastal trail from Gargantua to Agawa bay, Unsupported, in 7:51:40, setting a new FKT on the short route.
Conditions were dry, but hot and dealing with the heat and navigation were the biggest issues of the day. Lots of blueberries and overgrown trail, but it is such a beautiful route.

Movescount GPS track