The 25K starts in historic downtown Auburn and heads out to Robie Point and the Western States Trail, dropping down to and over No Hands Bridge, then up the famous Training Hill into Cool. From there runners complete a short loop before returning to the Cool aid station, then make their way back down to No Hands Bridge and up to Robie Point to finish in downtown Auburn. In 2026 it ran on the Friday evening.
Four distances on the canyons of the American River and the Western States Trail, all of them finishing on High St in downtown Auburn. The 100 mile and the 100K start high up at China Wall and run the trail down to town; the 50K and the 25K start in Auburn and go out and back. It is the spring race on the Western States course: the 100 mile and 100K are Western States qualifiers, and the top three women and top three men in the 100K take a Golden Ticket straight into Western States. Auburn calls itself the Endurance Capital of the World and closes its main street for the finish.
The race began as The Canyons 50k, an inaugural trail race through the canyons section of the Western States Trail run out of Foresthill on 3 May 2014 by race directors Charles Sheya and Tim Madden. It grew into a four-distance weekend based in Auburn, joined the UTMB World Series, and now runs a 100 mile, a 100K, a 50K and a 25K over one weekend in late April. The 25K moved to Friday evening for 2026.
| Mile | Station | Cutoff | Crew access | Bag | Pacer | Med | To next |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.00 | Downtown Auburn - Start | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | 3.50 |
| 3.50 | No Hands - 1 | ? | ? | · | ? | · | 3.00 |
| 6.50 | Cool - 1 | ? | ? | · | ? | ● | 2.10 |
| 8.60 | Cool - 2 | 6:45pm | ? | · | ? | ● | 3.40 |
| 12.00 | No Hands - 2 | ? | ? | · | ? | · | 3.50 |
| 15.50 | Downtown Auburn - Finish | 9:00pm | ? | ? | ? | ● | ? |
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