One 4.167-mile loop, started on the hour, every hour, from a corral beside the pavilion in the Riverside Day Use Area of Champoeg State Park. There are two loops of that same length and the race alternates between them: the day loop runs on the park's trails, wide bark-dust paths and hard-packed singletrack through the trees and along the Willamette, and is used for every start from 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM. The night loop is entirely on the paved bike path, an out and back to a turnaround cone, and is used for every start from 7:00 PM through 6:00 AM. Each 24-hour period is twelve loops on the trails and twelve on the pavement, and both are relatively flat.
There is no aid on the loop itself, because every loop brings a runner back to the start. In the pavilion there is a common aid station open between loops with cold and hot water, bananas, and Tailwind Endurance Fuel with and without caffeine, a first-aid station for minor injuries, and hot meals cooked on site by Clackamas Volunteer Search and Rescue through the first day, all included in the entry. Runners set up their own aid on half a picnic table under the pavilion, or in a reserved 10x10 foot canopy site beside the corral. Port-a-potties for runners only sit in the first hundred yards of every loop, and more are placed on course at about 1.5 and 2.5 miles so that they are passed twice on both the day loop and the night loop.
Two loops, both 4.167 miles, and the race runs twelve of each in every 24 hours. The day loop is trail: wide bark-dust paths, hard-packed dirt singletrack through the trees and along the river, and some asphalt bike path. The night loop is entirely paved bike path, out to a turnaround cone and back the way you came. Both are relatively flat, with perhaps 100 feet of climb over either loop. Two short stretches meet traffic: one where the bike path shares the road surface across Champoeg Creek, and one road crossing at a stop sign, both signed for runners and for drivers. Most of the course stays open to the public while the race is on, so runners share it with walkers and cyclists, particularly on the wide bike path.
Oregon's backyard ultra, run at Champoeg State Park on the Willamette River since 2022. Runners have one hour to cover a 4.167-mile loop, then line up in the same corral and do it again at the top of the next hour, for as long as anyone can keep going. Twelve loops of every twenty-four run on the park's trails and twelve on its paved bike path. The race ends when one runner completes a loop nobody else does, so there is at most one finisher and everybody else takes a DNF. In 2026 it went 78 hours and 325 miles.
The Banana Slug Backyard Ultra was first run in 2022 and was Oregon's first backyard ultra. It has been selected as a Silver Ticket race in the world championship of backyard ultras in 2024 and 2026, and is a Bronze Ticket race in 2027. The Banana Slug Backyard 24, a version of the same loop that ends after 24 hours, was added in 2024. The backyard format itself was invented by Lazarus Lake, who first hosted Big's Backyard Ultra in his own backyard, with his dog Big, in 2011.
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