Is crew access allowed on the 50K course?

No, crew access is not allowed on the 50K course.

Are drop bags allowed on the 50K course?

Yes, drop bags are allowed on the 50K course. Only one drop bag per station. Keep drop bags to a small drawstring bag or a box of similar size. Drop bags must be handed over by 7am of race day. They sit in the open, rain or shine, so leave nothing valuable in them. Mark each with your name, bib and distance, and put it in the pile for the station you want it delivered to. Drop bags are returned to Start/Finish at various intervals through the day.

Are pacers allowed on the 50K course?

No, pacers are not allowed on the 50K course.

What is the cutoff time for the 50K course?

The overall time limit for the 50K course is 17 hours from the start. The race calls its cutoffs generous.

Ultras · US · MN

Fire Tower Trail Races

50K · 30.4 miles

On the calendar

The date is set. Entry has not opened. Registration opens March 15, 2027.

Race dateOctober 2, 2027

Start7:00am

Whenin 351 days

Who's going to Fire Tower Trail Races?

I'm running itPlan your weeks and your aid station times I'm crewingWhen to leave, where to park, at every stop I'm pacing or cheeringAsk your runner for their Out Here link

Free. You can start with nothing.

Official website Aid stations Notify me if this race changes

Free, and always will be. NavRun makes money from race-day planning for runners who want it, never from this. Ultras change constantly, sometimes the morning of. Always confirm with the race director and the official website before you rely on anything here.

Distance 30.4 miles

Climb not checked yet

Descent not checked yet

High point not checked yet

Time limit 17:00:00

Aid stations 7

Started not checked yet

Finished not checked yet

Finish rate not checked yet

The course

Where it goes loop · 7 aid stations

One lap of the park loop, with a climb of the historic fire tower partway round. A vertigo option replaces the tower for runners who would rather not go all the way up.

Single track, horse trail and gravel road. The fire tower is climbed mid-lap; the vertigo option is the first flight of stairs eight times in a row.

The race

What this one is

Trail races in St. Croix State Park near Hinckley, Minnesota, at 100K, 50K, 35K and 11K. Courses run on single track, horse trail and gravel road along the Kettle River valley, and runners at 50K and longer climb the park's historic fire tower mid-run, or take a vertigo option. The race is cupless, has camping at race headquarters, and calls its cutoffs generous.

Getting in

Getting in Entry, lottery and what the race asks of you before race day.

Lottery: not checked yet

Lottery opens: not checked yet

Lottery draw: not checked yet

Field cap: 130 firetowertrailraces.com

Registration: UltraSignup firetowertrailraces.com

Qualifying: not checked yet

Minimum age: not checked yet

Transfers: not checked yet

Deferrals: Yes firetowertrailraces.com

Running, crewing, pacing or still deciding

How NavRun helps with Fire Tower Trail Races Seventeen hours.

You are running it

You reach Overlook, mile 15.6, and you already knew this morning what time that would be.

An arrival time for all 5 stations, worked out from your own training.

Start free →

You are deciding

You find out Fire Tower Trail Races is months of work away, not years, and you start.

Put in a race you have already run. NavRun shows you where this one sits from where you are.

No account needed →

Crew access, pacers and drop bags

The rules that shape your day Anything marked "not checked yet" is a gap in what we hold, never a no from the race.

Crew allowed: No firetowertrailraces.com

Vehicles per runner: not checked yet

Pacers: No firetowertrailraces.com

Muling: not checked yet

Drop bags: Yes firetowertrailraces.com

Cupless: Yes firetowertrailraces.com

Course marking: not checked yet

Night running: not checked yet

Dogs: not checked yet

Headphones: not checked yet

Crew rules: Crew is only allowed for 100K participants. firetowertrailraces.com

Pacer rules: Pacers are only allowed for the 100K. firetowertrailraces.com

Drop bag rules: Only one drop bag per station. Keep drop bags to a small drawstring bag or a box of similar size. Drop bags must be handed over by 7am of race day. They sit in the open, rain or shine, so leave nothing valuable in them. Mark each with your name, bib and distance, and put it in the pile for the station you want it delivered to. Drop bags are returned to Start/Finish at various intervals through the day. firetowertrailraces.com

Cutoff philosophy: The race calls its cutoffs generous. firetowertrailraces.com

Aid stations

Every stop, and what you get there ● yes ○ no ? nobody has checked – does not apply to this race

Mile	Station	Cutoff	Crew access	Bag	Pacer	Med	To next
0.00	Start / Finish	?	○	?	?	?	3.50
3.50	Gate 31	?	○	●	?	?	5.70
9.20	Fire Tower	?	○	●	?	?	6.40
15.60	Overlook	?	○	●	?	?	5.00
20.60	Overlook	?	○	●	?	?	6.30
26.90	Gate 31	?	○	●	?	?	3.50
30.40	Start / Finish	11:59pm	○	●	?	?	?

Same race, other lines

Other distances and other years

Other distances: 100K (60.9 miles)
35K (19.6 miles)
11K (7 miles)

Other years: 2026

What it looks like out there

Somebody has been out there with a camera the tables say the climb is long. these say what long feels like.

2 people have been out there with a camera or a microphone.

Social account

firetowertrailraces (Instagram)

Social account

Fire Tower Trail Races (Facebook)

Social account

These are other people's work and we link straight to them. Watching costs nothing and needs no account. More of them: every race we hold, on film.

Add to this page

What you know every one of these is read by a person before it changes anything

Ran this race? Tell the next runner what you know.

Nobody sees it until we have read it. No account, no sign-in.

Which distance? Leave blank if it applies to the whole race.

Which stop? Leave blank if it is not about one particular stop.

Give it a short title: Optional. Something like “Cal Street, mile 62 to 78”.

What do you wish someone had told you? Write it the way you would say it to someone at the start line.

Were you there? Optional, and it decides nothing. It only tells the next runner where this is coming from.

What year? Optional.

Your email: Optional, and never shown on the page. Only so we can ask you a question about this note.

Website: Leave this field blank.

See something wrong or out of date? Suggest an edit.

This changes nothing on the page on its own. Somebody checks it against the race first.

Which detail? Optional. Filled in for you when you start from a specific line on the page.

What does the page say now? Copy it as it appears, so we can find it.

What should it say? The corrected value.

How do you know? Required. Where it came from: the race email, the runner manual, what you saw on the day.

A link that shows it: Optional.

Or a photo of it: Optional. A screenshot or a photo of the sign works.

Were you there? Optional, and it decides nothing.

What year? Optional.

Your email: Optional, only so we can come back to you about this correction.

Which distance? Leave blank if it is about the whole race.

Which stop? Leave blank if it is not about one particular stop.

Website: Leave this field blank.

Seen a course preview or a film of this one? Send it over.

Somebody watches it before it goes anywhere near this page. What we are after is footage of this course, on the ground. If it would be just as true of any other race, it is not this.

What does it show that the page cannot? Required. A line is plenty. Where the climbs are, what the footing does, what the last twenty miles look like.

Were you there? Optional, and it decides nothing.

What year? Optional.

Your email: Optional, and never shown on the page. Only so we can ask you a question about this one.

Where is it? A YouTube link, a race report, a photo gallery, whatever it is.

What kind of thing is it?

Who made it? Optional, and we credit them on the page.

Website: Leave this field blank.

Have the GPX? Send us the link.

We want the address of the file the race publishes, not the file. We download it from there so the page can say where the line came from.

Are you the race director? Get in touch and we'll make it right.

We read every one of these and we write back. Every fact here carries the source it came from, and the way a wrong one gets fixed is a person checking it against what you tell us.

Where this came from. Every fact on this page records its source and when we last checked it: 85 sources for this race. Hover a source link to read the sentence it came from.

27% of what we track for a course is filled in. The rest says "not checked yet" rather than guessing.

See something wrong or out of date? Suggest an edit
Ran this race? Tell the next runner what you know
Got footage of this course? Send us the link
Are you the race director? Get in touch and we'll make it right.
Anything else: [email protected]

Ultras change. We will tell you when this one does.

Cutoffs move, races get postponed, lotteries open and close. We read the race's own sources and record where every fact came from. Put your email in and we will send you what changed, and where we read it.

No account, and nothing to cancel.

What happens to your email. Nothing else. I do not sell it, and I will not send you anything except this race changing. One click gets you out.

I keep this catalog because the information is scattered and hard to trust. Telling you when it moves is the same job.