Colorado Trail 2020 - Unsupported FKT Attempt

Hey guys!
This is part one of my 2020 Colorado Trail Unsupported Fastest Known Time attempt where I attempt to backpack the entire trail in less than 9 days, 12 hours, and 32 minutes (current record held by John Zahorian). In this video, I am starting at the northern terminus in Waterton Canyon and end around mile 132 south of Kokomo Pass. Part 2 is coming soon!
My Lighterpack link - lighterpack.co...
Music Provided By Epidemic Sound - www.epidemicso...
If you are interested in any of the gear in the video below are some links (some are affiliate) to help you find them.
Mountainsmith Zerk 40 - bit.ly/3bcFC9r
Nylofume Pack Liner - www.litesmith....
Thru Pack Fast Bum - www.thrupack.com/
Zpacks Pocket Tarp - zpacks.com/pro...
Zpacks Solo Groundsheet - zpacks.com/pro...
MSR Mini Groundhog Stakes - bit.ly/3lGW9q7
Leki Micro Vario Trekking Poles - bit.ly/3ySUiX0
Enlightened Equipment Enigma - bit.ly/34qFdwS
Neo Air Uberlite Sleeping Pad - bit.ly/2UCI4hA
Sea to Summit Aeros Pillow - bit.ly/2GkJmdh
Patagonia R1 Fleece - bit.ly/32Rmw5v
Gore R7 Shakedry Trail Rain Jacket - amzn.to/3bYXZil
Salomon Rain Pants - bit.ly/36iI9y61
Injinji Socks
Amazon - amzn.to/33wLS85
REI - bit.ly/3ckUfMb
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Gore R5 Running Shorts - amzn.to/3Vwb1KD
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Hoka Evo Speedgoat Trail Runners - www.hokaoneone...
Rayban Sunglasses - amzn.to/2H3SQKp
Chums Retainer for Sunglasses - amzn.to/2GTIrAL
Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate links in this video description as well as my gear lists. As an affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
-Juice

[@05chmps]

Beautiful trail and video, Juice ! Glad your spirits rebounded. As an emergency medicine and sports physician (and having been in your situation before with treks and the heat), nausea and fatigue were certainly due to relative heat exhaustion, as you probably know. Most people think they are just dehydrated, which really isn't the case ... yet. That humidity only made for inefficient sweating and heat release. Colorado hail, I hate it ! Earliest stages of heat exhaustion require decreased body heat production, decreased heat exposure, and external cooling. That buff you said you carry ... soaked and barely wrung out and applied while hiking to neck, armpits, groin frequently if possible will help. Then you use it like a fan briefly for convection to these areas, especially in high humidity. Your body in an effort to lower core temp will divert blood flow to your muscles and skin to eliminate the heat, but away from your gut. Now you can get dehydrated and get behind with calories because your gut won't absorb, which only makes you spiral down. When your skin starts turning pasty (that end of day 1 pic was classic !), that is class 2-3 shock:(( Maybe some tips from ultramarathoner / trail runners ? Bad luck with day 1 weather ! I'm sure you have figured out for the most part what you would do differently. Best of luck !

[@juicehikes5436]

Hey Greg, thanks for the rundown. That pretty much sums up what went down (I think). I've run quite a few ultra's and had my stomach turn on me twice before and both times the heat was over 90 degrees. What fixed it for me in the past was lots of salt, specifically chicken broth. Next time I'll definitely be bringing some packets of chicken broth concentrate that I can mix with water. Should have thought to bring them for this trip! Live and learn

[@beccakreidler8290]

@@juicehikes5436 That's actually a fascinating fix. Not what I would have anticipated at all. I feel like this would be a solid study for an exercise physiologist.

[@juicehikes5436]

@@beccakreidler8290 I'm sure it would be. The things that tend to help your stomach during endurance activities (besides the chicken broth) would probably make you feel worse if you had something like the flu. Some other go-to's ultra runners use are Coke and pickle juice.

[@FrancisColvais]

LOVE the end-of-day-animations! you handled the stomach issues well...great attitude

[@generalmartok3990]

I watched a few of your vids but this one made me subscribe. Sorry you had a rough start, but really appreciate the honest look you gave at some of the tougher realities of backpacking.

[@rgmALC]

So cool that you were able to camp and hangout with Darwin

[@juicehikes5436]

It was pretty fun, stay tuned for part 2 dropping this Thursday!

[@lovelandgirl1494]

Awesome fortitude, sir.

[@Truth-Seeker75]

Perspective - Your worst day is a fraction of my best day. Nice effort despite the hardships.

[@musthaveblues]

Thanks for sharing the adventure.

[@juicehikes5436]

Thanks for watching!

[@dancharles6942]

50 miles a day in that heat?! You're a beaver man than I am! I'm in the UK but would love to hike part of this trail one day 😭.

[@taull01]

Only thing that makes me mad about this, is that I can't make it out to Colorado to hike it anytime soon lol 😂 excellent job!!!

[@juicehikes5436]

You'll have to get out there as soon as you can! It's a great trail!

[@lauraborealisastro]

Glad to see you listened to your body instead of powering through for the record. “Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished” -Lao Tzu

[@juicehikes5436]

It was awesome to be able to slow down and enjoy once the record was out of reach!

[@sandracreatives]

I'll be running the CT in bits and pieces this year. Just finished segment 1 in 2 feet of snow and I was laughing at how much more fun it looked like even with your heat!! this had me excited for what's ahead of me this year!

[@juicehikes5436]

Awesome! There's not many things worse than extreme heat, at least for me!

[@TrailOff]

Looks like an amazing experience, FKT or not it’s still well worth it. Astonishing scenery.

[@juicehikes5436]

The CT is an amazing trail for sure! Glad I got the chance to slow down and enjoy it

[@kmcgoeshiking27]

Great effort , way to regroup and continue on!! Great video!! , thank you for sharing.

[@nunyabidness7368]

Looks like there's some serious weather rolling through Colorado today. I hope you and everybody else out on the trails are safe!

[@ASTHECROWFLIESHIKING]

Great video. Amazing attempt. Such an awesome trail. Crow✌️

[@juicehikes5436]

Thanks Crow! I wish the FKT would have turned out better but the trail was amazing!

[@ASTHECROWFLIESHIKING]

FKT would have been awesome. But, at least you got to slow down and enjoy the trail. That is cool you were able to meet Darwin at that campsite. I look forward to the next installment. Crow✌️

[@juicehikes5436]

Yeah it was cool bumping in to him. We have a mutual friend (Bigfoot) so we've known each-other indirectly for a while. I catch up to him again in the next video so you'll have to stay tuned!

[@FundsFanatic]

Just found your channel and really enjoying the content, keep it coming! The only suggestion I have is troubleshooting some of the wind noise. I realize it's probably no easy task but I would bet other and new viewers would appreciate it.

[@juicehikes5436]

Thanks for watching Josh! I wish there was something I could have done but unfortunately with the Colorado Trail FKT I only had a cell phone on me so there wasn't anything I could do about the wind noise. I have a good mic but it wasn't something I could bring on an FKT. In my most recent video kzbin.info/www/bejne/pWSVdaGnn9Rnps0 I use that mic and it's much improved.

[@Reskamo314]

Still a great journey \ video of yours. Don't know if you did any filming but would love to see your camp each night. Keep up the amazing hiking and filming. Cheers from Germany

[@juicehikes5436]

I usually do a much better job of filming but in this case I only had my cell phone and no tripod. I'll make sure to do better on the camp shots in future videos!

[@mathiasly4231]

Good job bro :) i want to go there some day

[@RalphReagan]

Home!

[@wujie_towinfreedom8767]

thanks for your astonishing video .cheers from China

[@stevebednarchik9390]

PBSKT “Personal Best Solo Known Time” it’s not easy to switch gears like that after all the planning. I created my own PBSKT mindset and have better enjoyed my hikes.

[@juicehikes5436]

For sure!

[@outdoorjunkie2483]

Nice hike you can’t beat a trail in Colorado! Great views. Are you kinda glad you had a camera to talk to? I don’t like having to walk along roads wither but sometimes you just have to.

[@juicehikes5436]

Thanks! It's taken a bit to get used to talking to the camera but it's kind of fun reliving some of these experiences and remembering how I felt. Thanks for watching!

[@jagerwayz5721]

You think the first couple days were from altitude adjustment

[@juicehikes5436]

No, the altitude really never affects me. I don't do well in high heat with extreme endurance challenges. I've had issues in the past during ultra marathons when the heat is above 90 and my stomach turns on me and I can't keep anything down.

[@garvinkelly]

maybe some THC would help with the nausea and appetite?

[@juicehikes5436]

That possibly could have helped but excessive heat does strange things to you.

[@christopherhaak9824]

AJay, you didn't talk much about how long you were at elevation before you started your hike, but heavy exertion if you aren't acclimated can easily give you nausea. Also, I'm assuming that you don't eat trail food like that at home, so if you make a change like that, it can add to the stomach issues. That is a bummer because you were all set with everything else and I think you could have gotten the FKT otherwise.

[@juicehikes5436]

It could have been a lot of factors, food and elevation included. I think it was more due to the heat in this instance. I've been at high elevation points many times in my life and have never had altitude sickness even when others in my group have had it. I have had my stomach turn on me during ultra marathons in extreme heat in the past but never while hiking. Although that's my assumption I can't say for sure one way or another. Have to give it another go next year!

[@baskets8429]

Cool cool !

[@nicktombs1876]

Beer and a greasy pizza, there wasn't that much wrong with your stomach.

[@juicehikes5436]

I slowed way down on day three since I knew the FKT was off right away in the morning which helped. By the time I arrived in Breck around 6 PM my stomach was feeling a little better. The warm food was a relief when you've been trying to choke down bars and throwing up for the last few days. Oh and it was root beer...

[@nicktombs1876]

@@juicehikes5436 Root beer! No wonder you felt rough! Nice film though.

[@nicktombs1876]

@@9yards333 dry toast yes, but fizzy pop? No

[@smileyhappyradio]

To do an FKT, does someone not have to witness your start? Did not see anyone in beginning, so I was wondering, if its just something you self report. Just found the channel, good luck on the fkt!

[@juicehikes5436]

Thanks! In this instance there was someone who was at the start, he filmed that opening shot and then I ran back and grabbed my phone from him. You do not have to have someone witness the start because you have to prove your route using GPS in combination with time stamped photos or videos.

[@irishman3375]

Looks awesome, I'm gonna bike it next summer. Let me know if you have any advice, thanks

[@juicehikes5436]

Slow down end enjoy as much as possible. Also August has the best weather if you can swing the timeframe!

[@irishman3375]

@@juicehikes5436 Yup, SE so i pick my own schedule. The wife will meet me every couple of days, looking at buying a campervan/class B RV soon, so she'll be my support. Some of my family lives in Lakewood CO, so I've got that covered. I'm looking for used equipment, 1 man tent, sleeping bag, cooking utensils, and bike bags. Any suggestions, or if you wanna sell some stuff, let me know. We did a small hike in GA Labor Day, Yonah Stae Park, totally got my juices/nature adventure adrenalin flowing. Love watching KZbin videos, see what others have to say. Great informative video you put out on what's in your pack, I'm gonna copy most of what you carry.

[@juicehikes5436]

Sounds like you've got most of the logistics covered. Unfortunately I don't have anything for sale but there are quite a few used gear sites out there that you can find some pretty good deals on. Once you get your kit together try and get as many miles/nights on it as you can to make sure it all works for you.

[@GrayMan7070]

You did filter all your water, right? With your Katadyn Filter?

[@juicehikes5436]

I did filter all of my water using the Katadyn filter, it worked great!

[@GrayMan7070]

@@juicehikes5436 ok cool! I was worried when you started having Stomach issues. Unfiltered Water can be the cause as you know. Cheers from CO!

[@juicehikes5436]

@@GrayMan7070 yup! In this case it was the 95 degree heat that made my stomach turn on me.

[@GrayMan7070]

@@juicehikes5436 I hope you get to try again!

[@dancharles6942]

How did you track your hike and upload it to Google Earth like that?

[@juicehikes5436]

Hey Dan, I tracked everything using my Garmin watch so I upload the GPX file to Google Earth and then put in waypoints. Once you have the waypoints in there's an animation feature where Google Earth will follow them in the order you put them in. Hope this helps!

[@dancharles6942]

@@juicehikes5436 that's perfect, rha k you so much. I hope to fly over and hike this one day, just maybe not 50 miles a day haha

[@johndepledge1811]

Does a bus, restaurant and a B & B fall within the definition of unsupported?

[@juicehikes5436]

It does not.... Once I decided to go into Breckenridge I was officially abandoning my unsupported attempt at around mile 104.

[@dbstewart4496]

Please, do not under any circumstances be taking a "dirt nap". 😯

[@shantkalaydjian7383]

Why not?

[@djkhelben4366]

100 ibuprofen for roughly 10 days? Man i wouldnt wonder about my stomach.

[@juicehikes5436]

That was a "just in case" stash. The plan was never to take that many. I only ended up taking around 12 the whole trail and didn't start taking any until day 3 or 4.

[@djkhelben4366]

@@juicehikes5436 Sounds better, cheers man!

[@jatsajatsa]

Massive respect to you fella. The fact that you “stop and smell the roses” puts you ahead of Mr Zahorian in my book, no matter who walked the trail the fastest. What’s more, to me, the whole notion of trying for a FKT in such a beautiful place is almost an insult to the trail and to nature. What are your thoughts as to the cause of the nausea and fatigue early on? Was it dehydration for example? Anyway, kudos to you, for keeping going and thanks for the video👍

[@richfuller]

It's wise to take at least 2 weeks to acclimate to high altitude BEFORE hiking insane miles. I don't mean in Denver I mean over 8000 feet at least. I'm guessing you didn't make it.

[@chillychill195]

Let's stay connected new subbie here

[@leedeschaine1315]

Less of the camera focused on you and more focused on natures' beauty!!!