A Venture Into the FKT Realm of the Sport
Carpinteria, California | 2019-12-28
I rolled around restless unable to sleep and simultaneously disrupting my wife's night rest. I decided to get up earlier than my alarm since i was not resting anyhow and was careful not to wake the other 2 kids in our room (the trickiness of vacation sleeping arrangements). At least I saved them all from the annoying alarm sound, right? I gathered up my remaining gear that i had not already set out and started to pack up the van.
05:00
Now I started heading out the door to the trailhead. I got to the end of the neighborhood street and as I was going over to ensure I had everything in my head, double checking, I realized I had forgotten...my shoes! Turned around and came back to get those, since a mountain run in my flip flops would not go very well. Back on the road. After locating the Carpinteria high school which was only about 20 minute drive I pulled into the staff parking lot which only had one other lone car in the dark early hours. Based on the trail description the trail started here and wrapped around the school. After parking and getting out I quickly saw the saw sign indicating "Trail -->" right there at the edge of the parking lot. In fact there was 2 such signs one on either end of the staff parking lot. Thus the school sign was the perfect starting point as it was right in the middle of these signs, mere steps from the dirt and start of the trail which was fenced off from the school yard itself.
I spent a good amount of time in my van getting everything in my hydration pack and sticking it where i wanted. Gathered up my warmer items in prep for the brisk morning hours. I probably took nearly 40 minutes of just sitting there fiddling around and whatnot before I was actually ready to start out. This was somewhat on purpose as so I could start out without a headtorch and prevent having to carry that one extra item.
Sunrise was impending now and I did one last check. Tied my shoes and walked over to the school sign.
06:41
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| Selfie at starting point - Carpinteria High School sign. 06:41 | 44f |
Out & Back #1
After my selfie photo for documentation, I was off, starting officially at 06:44 according to my watch (and confirmed by my STRAVA upload after). The first like 0.8 mi is a boring section that is like a dirt sidewalk that goes around the school and other facilities. Once past all of this the next 0.9 mi was very well used and windy singletrack that climbed to the first bench named
Frank's Bench (clearly a local viewpoint).
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| Climbing above Carpinteria, CA. Taken at 07:21. |
The trail is very well marked and opened up to a double wide jeep road type terrain from here until 5.2 mi. It is a more or less all uphill section with a few dips that did come back down briefly winding around a canyon corner only to climb higher on the other side. A good power hike to get the day going. At any potential intersection was a trail sign clearly marked (which even had mileage noted on them). This was very reassuring for someone who had not been here before. After following the double wide road up all the way to 5.2 mile. Here you need to turn sharply right and go up back on
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5.2 mi turn marker. The main double wide trail is parallel to my chest in this
picture. This photo was taken at 14:18 on loop 2 to show the turn. |
singletrack. The sign is small and not super obvious, however I recall this upon reading up on the trail prior. This is where I would consider the only tricky turn is on this side of the mountain. Of note, my GPS had the turn closer to 5.0 (but that's minor). At this point you have ascended about 2,000 ft+ up. But this is where the it all begins in my opinion.
After entering this singletrack it was very well maintained and extremely user friendly. The steepness really got going. You can see this from the
STRAVA segment someone has created called
Franklin phase III ascent (2.57 mi | 2,042 ft+ | 15% avg. grade). But once at the peak the views are well earned and very expansive in all directions. I took a couple moments for sure here to enjoy the view while trying to locate the trail heading down the other side. Except I could not find the trail. I started to get frustrated. I wandered in both direction on the
Divide Peak OHV trail at the top looking for the trail entrance. I could literally see the trail down below where I needed to go. Eventually I got tired of looking and decided to take the route I thought was most appropriate. It was somewhat bushwhacking and slow going, since it was off trail. But at last I made my way over to the trail. Once I stood on the actual trail again I looked up and saw it kept going back to where i was standing prior pondering how to get here. Trevor you idiot...that was stupid!
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| Explanation of my loop 1 mistake route finding. |
Finally back on some trail and on track. From here I could see if was a long descent down into the canyon where I knew the lake wouldn't be far away, after all it is only 2.1 mi from peak. The trail is a little different on this side of the mountain as there is clearly less traffic. For the most part it was a straight forward route all the way until i discovered a small camp. Later I found this was named the Alder Creek Camp. A nice little spot basically in the middle of nowhere. There was a lot of overgrown brush and downed trees here. I had a little trouble navigated the trail along the creek and at times found on the opposite side starring at the trail literally 25 feet away from me as I was hoping a tree or skirting rocks. Again this navigational issue was easily fixed once I learned the entire route on the first full trip "out". I guess this is what happens when you
on site something.
Rounding a bend in the canyon as I was up along the bank the trail was well above the creek at this point. I was concentrating on my footing so much I nearly didn't see how close I was to my end point -
Jameson Lake. The far end of the Franklin Trail was now within reach. I recall glancing down at my watch and noticing I was already at the prescribed 9.2 mi distance of the trail. I was skeptical of the distance to begin as someone noted on
AllTrails.com it was inaccurate. Once down to the very bottom of the canyon there was a lot of creek hoping beside an old gold mining site (or what appeared to be). There was a ton of downed trees here on the trail which was more or less recognizable again. Then all of a sudden the trail popped out onto a double track road which was about 0.3 mi long with a slight climb at the end. Here the road ended at a sign beside the lake. I recognized this all followed it down to the water edge - the boat launch. Took a quick photo and shot of my watch stats for documentation.
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| Jameson Lake boat launch (Out & Back #1). Taken at 09:40. |
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| Garmin stats at turnaround. 25% complete. Again this had ~0.7 extra mileage. |
Now I just looked up realized a nice 2,500 ft+ back to the divide peak lie ahead. Put my head down and headed back up the creek canyon slowly making my way. I did stop briefly at the camp and took a photo.
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| Alder Creek camp. Taken at 10:08. |
This 2.1 mi back to the peak was definitely slow climb. Once I got back to the power line tower, and to where my route mistake was on the way down, I continued back on the actual trail and was extremely shocked at to where it emerged at the peak. It was literally 5 feet away from where I was standing looking for the dawn thing for what seemed like forever. I had a little joke to myself in my head about this but let it go, as these things happen in trail running.
The peak had some awesome views again as I stood there catching my breath from the climb. Then adjusted my pack and gear and was ready for the 7.9 mi down to the start (7.5 mi of this was literally downhill - loosing ~3,750ft within this stretch -
STRAVA segment). I had a good section all the way back down consuming my remaining water in my soft flasks. I did stop to take some pictures of animal tracks I saw. At last I came back to school and rounded the fence-line back to the sign, where I pressed my lap button.
*This ended the Franklin Trail out & back 20.5 mi unsupported (05:03:19). I then self crewed myself and refilled my water in the parking lot. I had enough gels & chews with me so I was good on that front. The only other thing I did was sit for a couple minutes and roll out my legs. I got back up and walked over to the high school sign and pressed my lap button once more to capture the interloop time precisely. I was off.
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| Garmin stats back at the trailhead/school sign. 50% complete. | Out & Back #1 Complete. |
Out & Back #2
I had a moment of doubt sitting at the start wondering if I should just call it a day since the route was a lot harder effort than I had in my head. My grit got the better of me and I was on my way back up in no time. I only spent just over 10 minutes in the parking lot. At this point just after noon there were so many people out hiking, biking, and just wandering these lower trails. I noticed a lot of people looking at me oddly as they probably realized I passed them going down and now was power hiking going back up like some sort of mad man (which aren't we as ultrarunners in a sense?).
The long grind to the top seemed like an extra long venture this time around, even though in reality the splits were not all that different. Once I got to the peak I took no time at all to continue onto the trail where I had previously messed up on loop 1. My legs were feelings the miles at this point and the descent down the other side was slower going. I was already dreading the climb back out as I got closer and closer to the lake.
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| An old gold mining site? A cool thing to find along side the trail. You have to transverse under and around this structure to follow the Franklin Trail. It is only about 0.4 mi from Jameson Lake at the bottom end of the route. Taken at 14:51. |
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| Jameson Lake boat launch (Out & Back #2). Taken at 15:01. |
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| Garmin stats at turnaround. 75% complete (50 km done). |
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| Old truck way out in the bush near Jameson Lake. |
Once again I put my head down and started marching back towards the peak. My legs were actually starting to get minor cramps at this point. No big deal I just took gels a little more often to help keep this issue away, which it did. I knew my pace was super slow, but I also knew once I reached the top I would be done like 98% of my total climbing for the day. It was also daunting to know I had the major quad buster section to run down all the way to finish off the day. At the peak again I took a moment catch my breath and adjusted my gear for what I hoped was a fast-ish descent. I took off racing the sun.
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| Chasing the sunset over Carpinteria. About 5 km to go at this point as the sun was going over the horizon of the ocean. Taken at 17:02. |
I pushed the best I could all the way to the finish. The darkness was creeping in every step now. Rounded the school fence and got my phone out to document the finish.
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Garmin stats as I touched the sign to end the Franklin Trail - double out & back.
100% complete. Taken at 17:32. |
Walked over to my van which was about 100 steps away and started shedding my damp stinky gear. I took a moment for myself and just realized what I did. This reflection allowed me to be proud of my effort, even though it was more than I initially thought when picking this route. This would be my 50th ultra distance
Stats
My STRAVA results and overview can be found here:
https://www.strava.com/activities/2964026208
A total of 10.25 mi each way on the Franklin Trail results in:
- 20.5 mi, 6,500 ft+ for the single out & back, and
- 41.0 mi, 13,000ft+ for the double out & back.
- I posted a comment on AllTrails.com to provide feedback on the distance discrepancy
I created a
STRAVA segment (Franklin Trail out & back) of the entire round-trip for FKT purposes and so it has visibility for any other potential route runners.
- At time of this blog post my time is still only one synced as completing the entire out & back, leading me to believe mine might be the Fastest Known Time for the single as well.
- NOTE: only my loop 2 shows up due to my route finding experience on loop 1. I guess STRAVA's algorithm did not allow my loop 1 to make the cut with all my extra little mileage boo boos.
My Garmin finished reading:
- 41.77 mi (basically bang on! *recall it includes the 0.7 mi I was route finding on loop 1)
- 12,986 ft + (and 12,986 ft descent)
- 10:47:43 total elapsed time (see below)
- 4,210 calories burned
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| Franklin Trail (double out & back) -- elevation vs mileage profile |
I did not encounter much wildlife on the trail itself: x1 squirrel, a bunch of hawks flying above, x2 small rabbits, a few ducks at the lake. But here is the collection of photos of my wildlife trace evidence out there on the Franklin Trail:
The Franklin Trail Fastest Known Time (FKT) can be viewed here:
https://fastestknowntime.com/route/franklin-trail-ca. I am hoping my double (and potentially single) out & back attempts gets validated with verification in part due to this trip report.
Gear Used
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Sitting on back of my van with my Victory Sportdesign gear bags
getting ready to set off just before sunrise. Taken at 06:11. |
- Gear Bags: Victory Sportdesign - all my gear was in my Victory bags and it was all neatly organized in the various compartments these bags offer
- Jackets: rabbit vest, rabbit elements light jacket - did not use
- Shirts: rabbit long sleeve (rabbitELITEtrail edition)
- Shorts: rabbit smooth operator 7"
- Shoes: Altra Running TIMP 1.5
- Socks: Drymax Socks 1 pair (Speedgoat edition), Zensah compression calf sleeves (lego block edition)
- Headwear: Trail Racing Over Texas (TROT) endurance cap
- Sunglasses: goodr (TROT edition)
- Watch: Garmin Fenix 3 HR
- Headlamp: NathanSports Inc Halo Fire - did not use
- Hydration: Nathan Sports Inc VaporKrar 2.0 12L | 1.6L bladder & (x2) 20oz soft flasks
- Other: rabbit (BOCO) gloves, x3 headwrap/buffs, Columbia beenie - did not use
- Anti Friction: Trail Toes - applied once at beginning of day
- Nutrition: GU gels (x10) and chews (x1 pack) & water (about 3.0 L (100 oz) total)
Lessons Learned
Fastest Known Time (FKT) attempts are fun way to adventure and enjoy a route. I personally love the adventure of new scenery and trails and so this effort worked out perfectly for me to squeeze in on my vacation. Even though this was a very hard and tough day I am super happy to have accomplished the double out & back. I know for sure there is time to be bested here, but at least I can put a number on the board for someone to go after. If you have any questions on this route or my run, please reach out.
Thank you to my wife and my kids for allowing me to sneak away for the day to complete this adventure. Thank you to my sponsors for the continued support. Thank you to the
friends of Franklin Trail and everyone involved in maintaining this route as it was in great shape, and litter free. I imagine I may be back on my future visits to the Santa Barbara area, although maybe for a shorter run next time.
