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The Brandywine end to end hike is a 35-mile annual adventure through the rolling hills of Eastern PA and northern DE. The 2011 date is Sat., April 9th. I did this two years ago as a trail run and am planning to run it with friends again this year. Any SPer's interested in joining? BBQ and beer at my house after we finish!
Registration is now open: http://www.wilmingtontrailclub.org/Hiki ... fault.aspx

I have been wanting to do this for the past 3 years but am always busy. I was planning on running the Garden Spot Village Marathon instead, I'll have to think on it...

Do most people walk or run this?

There's no way I'd be running 35 miles, but I might be up for the hike. How long do most people take?

Vast majority are hikers of a speedy sort. Two years ago there were probably 10 of us running or run/walk and 80 or so walkers. Median finishing time for the hikers was probably 10-11 hours. They do have time cutoffs, and I think you have to average about 3 mph to avoid the cutoffs. You can navigate around www.wilmingtontrailclub.org and they have results posted from last year. It's very well organized.

3 mph I can do fairly easy, especially on what I imagine is pretty much a flat route. I'll be heading to Rainier first week in May so this might make for a good warm up.

I'm seriously considering this...as long as the runners don't drink all the beer before my slow ass gets there! I'll be more interested if any other SP hikers decide to join.

It mostly follows the river, but there are a handful of surprisingly steep albeit short climbs. Coming out of Downingtown there is a fixed rope ascent up a steep, muddy hill (I'm serious). It's a really fun trek. Much of the challenge is routefinding. Let me know if you decide to go and we'll definitely get together.

So I decided that I'm going to do this trail walk with my girlfriend instead of the marathon. Elichten your more than welcome to hang out and help navigate. I would like to meet up with Frank too but I'm sure will be eating his dust!

Hotoven: Excellent. I look forward to meeting you and your girl. Here is a trail map I roughed out from two years ago: http://www.usatf.org/routes/view.asp?rID=287648

I will PM you and elichten my contact info.

Sounds good. I'll be in touch!

Hey, I've been wanting to catch up with Hotoven and Elichten to tell you guys that you missed a fun day. The organizers did a re-route, which increased the total distance to 36.2 miles. The re-route, south of Downingtown, added some nice scenery. It was a decent day, started overcast, then the sun came out at about 10 or 11 AM. Several of us started running together. I was surprised to finish in front of everyone else in 5h51m. All in all there were 80-90 participants, perhaps 15 runners, the rest hikers. The event was well-organized and supported by the Wilmington Trail Club. My new buddy Marty wrote an excellent trip report that you can read at http://www.delawarerunningclub.org/pdf/be2e.pdf if you wish. Marty and Bruce cut a bit of distance off the full course 'cause they got tired but had a great time anyway. Hope to hike/climb with you guys some time soon!

I first ran the end to end in 2002. That year a young woman by the name of Morgan Windram was the first runner to finish and in a time of 6h 2m. That was the fastest finishing time that I'm aware of until your effort this year. Cool accomplishment in this the 50th year that the Brandywine Trail has been run and hiked end to end. Definitely, a unique event. Half road and half trail and constantly alternating between the two. Covered bridges, amusement parks, horses, fishermen, even an Ace Hardware store . . . the scenery just keeps on changing.

The only other race I'm aware of that has a similarity to this event is a half marathon held in Richmond, VA in September in conjunction with a big cross country meet. That course also alternates between road and trail as well as crossing the river (on bridges) 4 times. Quite a course.

Looking forward to Brandywine 51. Even the early am school bus ride.

wow I'm really pissed I missed it. My woman was mad at me for about 2 weeks! I will be sure not to miss it next year though. Hopefully there will be less on my plate by then. Thanks for checking in and letting us know how it went!

I'm registered to do the 2012 edition on April 14th. It's been a good motivator to try to keep in shape over the winter...even though we haven't had much of a winter. Please let me know if any other SPers are planning on participating and we'll hook up.

I just learned about this event - looks fun! I'll think about it, but I am already registered for another event on 21 April...