East Bay Skyline National Trail, CA (East Bay hills)

[jimmymac]

Hi, my name is Jim McCaffrey and this upcoming Saturday, November 16th, 2013, my plan is to try to set a self-supported East Bay Skyline National Trail FKT. The trail traverses the ridge line above the coastal mountains situated to the east of Richmond, Berkeley and Oakland; and ends in Castro Valley. It goes entirely through the East Bay Regional Park system; Wildcat Canyon, Tilden, Sibley, Huckleberry, Redwood and the two Chabot parks. This is the eastern portion of the yet-to-be-completed Bay Area Ridge Trail.

My plan is to start around sunrise (~6:30 AM) at the northern terminus (Wildcat Canyon Staging Area in Wildcat Canyon Regional Park, on Park Ave in Richmond, CA) where there’s a short paved road that ends at the Wildcat Creek Trailhead and run/hike south. I will be carrying all of my nutrition from the start and will be using water sources along the way (there are three sources available; the first at Tilden Steam Trains, the second at Sibley Staging Area and the last at Skyline Gate). I believe that since these aren’t "natural" sources this run can’t be considered an unsupported attempt.

There will be no outside assistance of any kind, except of course a ride to the start from my partner Allyson Hurlburt and then a ride home from the finish (Proctor Gate Staging Area in Lake Chabot Regional Park, on Redwood Road in Castro Valley).

I will also be using the French Trail portion of the route through Redwood Regional Park; I believe it's marked so that hikers can use either the French Trail route or the West Ridge route. I however think that the up-and-down of the French trail (the "crown jewel" of East Bay trails, imho) along with its beautiful single-track (as well as being closed to bikes) adds some challenge to the 32+ miles.

I will use my Garmin 310XT to GPS my entire run and will use both Instagram (@therealjimmymac) and Twitter updates from @jimmy76mac every 5-7 miles as AT&T 4G service allows (I think I’ll have a connection for the duration of the run and this will allow tracking in real time.)

Trails used and mileages:
Wildcat Creek .44 to Belgum
Belgum 1.00 to San Pablo Ridge
San Pablo Ridge 1.28 to Nimitz Way
Nimitz Way 4.72 to Curran
Curran .27 to Sea View
Sea View 2.18 to Vollmer Peak
Vollmer Peak ~.55 to Lomas Cantadas (water)
Lomas Cantadas 2.55 to Old Tunnel Staging Area
OTSA .87 to Sibley Staging Area (water)
Sibley SA 2.76 to East Ridge
East Ridge .20 to Skyline Gate (water)
Skyline Gate .56 to French Trail (via West Ridge)
French Trail 4.04 to Orchard
Orchard .18 to West Ridge
West Ridge .62 to Golden Spike
Golden Spike .78 to Big Bear Staging Area
BBSA .25 to MacDonald
MacDonald 2.52 to Grass Valley
Grass Valley 1.48 to Brandon
Brandon 5.36 to Proctor Staging Area
Approximate distance: 32.61 miles

I've only been able to find available info from a few thru-hikers through their websites; here's one: gurmeet.net/hiking/hikes/East_Bay_Skyline_National_Recreation_Trail.html

I feel this trail is an under-rated, yet iconic gem of the East Bay (and Northern coastal California for that matter); both the Dick Collins Firetrails 50-miler and the Skyline 50k are two classic East Bay races that both use large (southern) portions of the trail. 

[jimmymac]

I set the initial self-supported FKT on the East Bay Skyline National Trail today with a time of 6 hours, 00 minutes and 9.52 seconds.

Garmin stats: connect.garmin.com/activity/405047984#

Strava stats: www.strava.com/activities/95484818

I had a really rough go of it; seeing as I didn't really taper I was woefully under-prepared. I more-or-less treated this as a long training run in lieu of running a 50k today in preparation for The North Face Endurance Challenge 50-miler in Marin on Dec. 7th, and having done a 24-miler and a 12-miler back-to-back last weekend I just didn't have the legs to really push the pace.

That being said, have at it! I'm probably going to attempt this again in January (hopefully after a rain fall; I would bring my Sawyer filtration device and go at it unsupported). I'm also thinking of eventually doing a south-to-north run on this trail and a yo-yo (63-ish miles).

I love this trail and hope to see the record lowered to around 4 hours; there's a lot of really great long trail runners in the Bay Area that could demolish my time.

I set the bar nice and low.

[nicoraffo]

My name is Nico Raffo and I will be making an attempt at the East Bay Skyline National Trail FKT this coming Sunday April 27, 2014. I will be starting my run from the Wildcat Canyon Staging Area at approximately 8:30am. I will be following the exact route described above by Jimmy.

I'll be running the course under the same self-supported conditions. I'll be running alone and will carry all my food and gear from the start except for using drinking water fountains along the way.

I will try to post a Garmin live tracking link, using my cell phone GPS, up on this forum when I start. However I will be using my Garmin 220 watch for the official time. I'll post links to the GPS route on Garmin and Strava on Sunday evening.

Cheers,

Nico

[Nico]

Live tracking link

livetrack.garmin.com/session/25a553ec-d886-48dc-8ed8-675a0f40b776/token/3104D9D50C8B0582FE84BDF55A581B7

Starting in 5 min

[Peter Bakwin]

Looks like Nico finished the route in about 6h40m, so no FKT but a solid effort. Hopefully he'll give us a report. Good job Nico.

[nicoraffo]

Peter you're too kind That didn't exactly go as planned.

I actually did not finish the route. My car was parked at the golf course a quarter mile from the official end of the route. I was fairly trashed and already 40 minutes behind the FKT so I DNF'ed at my car.

I also took a wrong turn around mile 21 and added an extra mile or so on the Golden Spike trail. So a bit more distance, a bit more hills but still a DNF.

GPS route on Garmin connect.garmin.com/activity/488685581
And Strava www.strava.com/activities/134968765

Approximate splits in the format My Time (difference from Jimmy's FKT)

Wildcat Canyon Road mile 7 - 1:12:07 (+0:07)
Steam Trains mile 10 - 1:47:31 (+1)
Pinehurst mile 15.8 - 2:55:14 (+3)
Redwood mile 22 - 4:27:15 (+16) After an 11 minute detour on GS trail
Brandon bridge mile 26 - 5:25:18 (+18)
Golf course mile 31 - 5:39:01 (+41)
Finish mile 31.5 - DNF

Those were roughly my planned splits for the first half of the run, and I was feeling pretty good. Jimmy had mentioned suffering a lot on the second half so I figured if I took care of myself and stayed within 5-10 minutes I'd have a fun chase on my hands during the second half.

That didn't quite happen. I felt good but looking at my heart rate monitor (something I never did during the run) I was pushing past my 50k effort level. Combine that with a bad nutrition plan and a decent amount of dehydration (ran out of water around mile 20) and I had nothing left in the tank for the last 10 miles.

A word for the wise: the French Trail is the epitome of evil. I'm just saying.

Jimmy mentioned how difficult it is to stay motivated when you're not in a race. I had the pleasure of being able to chase his split times, which was thoroughly entertaining. But at the same time when I knew I had no chance of catching him my motivation vanished into nothing. I ended up putting on the Giants game and walking back a good chunk of the last 10 miles. It was a great game!

So all in all... way tougher than I expected. If everything had gone perfectly it still would have been a iffy battle to the end. My long run fitness is not anywhere near where I had thought it was. That's the deal.

I'll be back for a second attempt this summer most likely. It's a stunning trail and a great challenge. The first 10 miles through Wildcat in the rainclouds was worth the suffering all by itself.

[Allen Currano]

I shaved 10 minutes off the FKT today - Started at Alvarado Staging area in Wildcat and finished at Proctor Staging area in Chabot 5:50:04.
Self-Supported/Unsupported (refilled water at Sibley and Skyline gate, otherwise carried everything myself, walked to Castro Valley Bart, took Bart and walked home, then rode my bike to pick up my car at Alvarado). It was tough as I was managing hamstring and calf cramping for most of the second half.
Someone will blow my time out of the water but it probably won't be me! Jimmy's "Low Bar" didn't feel that low to me, that's for sure...although I didn't really taper very well either - I skied 4 days in a row Sat-Tues then took a day off and went for it on Thursday.

I did take the French trail (vs the easier West Ridge variation) and as far as I can tell took the exact same route as Jimmy, and followed the "official" route as marked.

Strava link: www.strava.com/activities/241613735/overview

Allen Currano
El Cerrito CA

Attachments:

[jimmymac]

Nice work, Allen!

I'm psyched there's been a few attempts now on this awesome network of East Bay trails, this was my whole point from the get-go; to more or less "introduce" this amazing trail to as many people as possible and get folks out on it.

I'm going to take another stab at it in April as a training run for Miwok, I'll be in touch- would love it if you (and Nico, et. al.) would join me.

[Allen Currano]

Thanks Jimmy! Keep me posted as I'd love to do it again with you and Nico!
Sorry for the delayed response, I haven't logged in here in a while...
Allen

[nicoraffo]

Nice run out there Allen. I'm really itching to give it another shot this spring. Let's make it happen in April!

[Adam Stepanovic]

Hi All -- I'm planning on running this route Saturday, March 7th. It's a stretch to say I'm trying for the FKT, but here it goes. I'm planning on doing the same route as above, starting at ~8:30am. I've never been on any of the trails before. I've also never declared/attempted a FKT before! That could prove costly, depending on how well the trails are marked. And if my documentation is sufficient here. Any comments/suggestions? Would love company if anyone is interested in a 5:30-6hr outing. I'll take some pictures a long the way and post to instagram (gasteps). I will also post my strava route here afterwards from my GPS watch, which will run continuously.

Adam

[Allen Currano]

Good luck Adam! Do not underestimate the power of the French Trail to destroy you.

Also, last water is at Skyline gate so drink up and fill up there. [EDIT: actually there is one more water spigot on the Brandon Trail somewhere near mile 29 but you still have about 13 miles from Skyline gate to get there, including the French trail and the hottest/most exposed section of the route starting at McDonald Staging area.]

[Adam Stepanovic]

I didn't get the FKT, not by a long shot, but I sure had fun out there. Got a time of 6:52:05. Great trails! It wasn't feeling like "my day" from the get-go, but I gave it a good try. Was way hotter (near 80f) than I expected it to be, so I went through obscene amounts of water and had to reduce the pace a lot. Filled up my 2.5L hydration pack at Sibley and the Skyline Gate, then proceeded to go completely dry by the Big Bear Staging Area with 7-8 miles to go. A bit of a death march ensued until I got to a random godsend of a water fountain in the middle of nowhere on the Brandon Trail. Thought it was a mirage. I indulged like never before. Made it to the finish, and walked/ran to the Castro Valley BART station (THAT was fun). Yes, a filtration system would have been nice! In the future I will burn the engines a little hotter over the first 10miles to put time in the bank. Then at French Trail, awesome by the way, I'd use the slower terrain as time to recover, and get ready for the last 10mi. I only got lost a couple times and for fewer than 2 miles of wasted effort. Trail is wonderfully marked. Finding the trail after the train station was frustrating. Also I took an errant left turn down a path off the French Trail to add a nice 800ft of climbing in a u-turn.

Looking forward to the next time! Sadly, it will probably be after you guys demolish the record to a level that is even further out of my reach.

Strava track: www.strava.com/activities/264566325

[Brian Gillis]

I just stumbled across this thread -- I love this string of trails!

Back in 2011, we came up with the concept for the "Bart to Bart" traverse. El Cerrito del Norte BART to San Leandro BART. We've gotten a group to do it every December for the past 4 years and will likely be doing it again this December. It's great because you can do the whole thing without a car!

We haven't typically followed the exact route that Jimmy presented --
1) we start at the El Cerrito del Norte station
2) we typically hit the road for a quarter mile at Sibley Staging area and then link up with the Huckleberry trail (takes off some significant up/down)
3) we've taken the West Ridge to El Toyonal instead of the French Trail (although I do love the French trail)
4) we exit around the north side of Lake Chabot and head directly to the San Leandro BART station

Check out my Strava data for some of the years if you're interested:
2014: www.strava.com/activities/229559211
2012: www.strava.com/activities/30692969

Last year, I think we started with a group of about 20 and had at least 10 people do the whole thing.

Anyways, thought I'd share. At some point I'd like to make a go at the FKT!

-Brian

[Brian Gillis]

I finally got around to giving this a go! Great route.

Finished in 4:51:24. Here's my Strava activity: www.strava.com/activities/984933554

Started at 10:10am from the gate to the Alvarado Park service road on Park Ave. I'm pretty sure I followed Jim's list of trail directions exactly. (Had to stop a couple of times to confirm.) Jim's decision to hop on the French Trail instead of just continuing on the West Ridge Trail really ads some serious gut-punches right when things start to get tough! (I like it... although I was definitely cursing you at the time!)

Love this route - particularly the single track descent before crossing Fish Ranch Road around mile 13. It's really awesome that there's such a long continuous trail like this that's so easily accessible.

I carried two 500ml flasks - probably could have used a few more sips between Skyline Gate and the savior water fountain on the Branden Trail. Here's where there's water:
- Steam Trains at mile 10.4
- Sibley Staging Area at mile 13.9
- Skyline Gate at 16.7
- Random Spigot on Branden Trail at mile 29.6
(Warning - there's no water at the finish!)

For food, I had two servings of GU Roctane Energy Drink, about five GU Roctane Gels (from a soft flask), and one GU Stroopwafel.

I definitely think someone could go faster!

-Brian