Ryan Brennecke / The BulletinKaren and Jon Gnass, of Bend, fastpacked the John Muir Trail in the Sierras in eight days earlier this month.

Perhaps the most frustrating part of fastpacking the John Muir Trail was all the false summits.

Jon and Karen Gnass would crest a ridge, then would realize they still had a 1,000-foot climb to reach the top of a pass.

“That was beyond frustrating,” Jon Gnass reflects. “We’d look at climbers way up on a ridge, and then we’d realize that’s where we were going.”

The husband and wife from Bend completed the John Muir Trail in California’s Sierra Nevada mountain range on Aug. 12, requiring just eight days to finish the 212-mile route. Fastpacking is a relatively new trend in which runners/backpackers aim to cover as much distance in as little time possible carrying only the bare essentials.

Competitive ultrarunners for years, the Gnasses — Jon is 59, Karen 52 — have recently switched their focus from races to fastpacking adventures. Last year they ran the Rim-to-Rim Trail in Arizona’s Grand Canyon National Park and the 165-mile Tahoe Rim Trail in California and Nevada.

This week, they planned to travel to Washington’s Mount Rainier National Park to fastpack the 93-mile Wonderland Trail that circles the Cascades’ highest peak.

The John Muir Trail passes through three national parks — Yosemite, Kings Canyon and Sequoia — and past countless craggy peaks and high lakes. Most of the trail is higher than 8,000 feet.

The Gnasses started on the north end of the trail in Yosemite Valley and finished at the south end with a summit of 14,505-foot Mount Whitney — the highest peak in the contiguous United States.

“The trail was a little more forgiving in the first couple days and then it got into the Sierra granite where the trail surface becomes a lot of waterbars and rocks,” says Jon, a freelance photographer.

He estimates that they ran only about 20 percent of the trail due to the rough terrain, compared with running about 60 percent of the Tahoe Rim Trail, which the couple finished in six days.

The Gnasses averaged about 26 miles and about 13 hours per day on the John Muir Trail. They enjoyed sunny, pleasant weather the first few days — and incredible alpine views.

“As you headed south the big mountains were more inspiring, they would rise up over the high lakes and it was pretty spectacular scenery,” Jon says.

The last few days of the trip was a mix of fog, hail and low visibility. The running tandem needed more than 20 hours to cover 34 miles on the final day, which included climbing up — and then down — Mount Whitney.

“That was actually harder than any 100-miler we’ve ever done,” Jon says of that last day.

He calls the 11-mile descent of Whitney the worst trail he has ever traveled.

“Just incredibly rocky, and we were in severe thunderstorms,” he recalls. “I started getting shin splints and a lot of swelling in my legs. The last 6 miles were the most painful I’ve experienced in years.”

Karen calls the Jon Muir Trail “an extremely challenging high-altitude trail.”

“You have to pay attention to your footing a lot of the time, given the rocky granite terrain and the endless waterbars,” she says. “Jon and I overcame our daily challenges with the breathtaking alpine scenery with endless high alpine lakes and mountains.”

Jon says his pack weighed about 30 pounds at its heaviest, and Karen’s weighed about 24 pounds fully loaded.

To cut back on water weight, the couple used LifeStraw filters — which filter water through a straw — to drink from creeks and lakes near the trail, rather than carrying water. For food, they packed energy bars, instant oatmeal and freeze-dried dinners. Their camping gear included lightweight down sleeping bags and a lightweight alpine expedition tent.

“People thought we were out day hiking, we had these small packs, and their packs were huge,” Jon says.

The Gnasses, who have lived in Bend for more than 20 years, got started in ultrarunning in the mid-1990s. In December 2001, while the two were running on a street in northeast Bend, a 12-foot-long, 2-by-8-inch unsecured piece of lumber protruding from a passing construction truck narrowly missed Karen, then struck Jon in the throat. The impact knocked him backward to the pavement and he struck his head.

He was hospitalized in Bend with a traumatic brain injury and was placed in an induced coma.

“It was one of those freak accidents that happens all the time,” Jon says. “I had skull fractures, three minor vertebrae breaks. Everything in my throat was broken and a lot of my ribs and chest. I don’t remember anything. I just got clotheslined onto the pavement and woke up 35 days later. I just remember waking up on a January day, sitting in a chair during a snowstorm, wondering what happened.”

Amazingly, Jon finished the 2002 100-mile Western States Endurance Run in Northern California just a few months later, running the entire route with his wife.

“The doctor said I’d be lucky to do a half marathon, so I don’t know how I did it. I told him I was brain dead so I didn’t know any better anyway,” Jon recalls with a laugh.

Lingering effects of Jon’s brain injury include dizzy spells when running or exercising. He dealt with that dizziness for an entire day on the John Muir Trail, which he says demanded extreme concentration and led to tunnel vision.

He says his cognitive abilities “come and go.”

“I still will wake up and not remember how to do anything,” Jon says. “It’s been a good learning experience. I’ve used it to better myself. My doctor said my running fitness is what really got me through all this.”

Karen helped Jon rehabilitate through running, and they began running more ultramarathons and fastpacking. They started and finished all their ultramarathons together, even the 100-milers.

“The people at the aid stations knew we were husband and wife because we were always arguing with each other,” Jon says with a laugh.

Jon estimates that he has completed 150 marathons and ultramarathons, but now he and Karen just cannot seem to get enough of fastpacking together.

“We’ve cut back on the racing,” Jon says. “Our friends are getting into the fastpacking thing too. After so many years of running, it’s kind of like, let’s go do something different.”

Now it’s on to a quick little 93-mile trip around Mount Rainier.

— Reporter: 541-383-0318,

mmorical@bendbulletin.com.