Free. You can start with nothing.
A single ~100.6-mile loop (per the marked/published mileage; the official GPX track measures ~100.1 mi) from and back to Lake Cuyamaca, crossing five areas: Lake Cuyamaca, Rancho Cuyamaca State Park, the Mt Laguna Recreation Area, the Pacific Crest Trail, and Noble Canyon/Indian Creek Trails. About 80% singletrack, 17% forest-service road, 3% asphalt. Climbing is front-loaded: 80-90% of total elevation gain is done by Penny Pines 1 (mile 59.2).
The RD's own framing: 'The race has been described as the biggest discrepancy between what it looks like on paper and how hard it actually is.' Elevations along the course range roughly 3,000-6,500 ft (FAQ states 3,000-6,000 ft; GPX-derived high/low points are 6,479 ft at Cuyamaca Peak and 3,639 ft near Blue Ribbon). Typical race-week temperatures range from the low 40s to mid-80s Fahrenheit, with near-freezing night wind chill possible and hot, exposed daytime sections, especially Green Valley to Sweetwater (mile 29.4-41.4), described by the RD as 'THE HARDEST SECTION OF THE RACE' and the section with the most drops. Climbing is front-loaded: 80-90% of total gain is complete by Penny Pines 1 (mile 59.2), after which the course trends downhill/rolling to the finish. Total elevation-gain figures conflict across sources by up to ~4%;.
A closed, largely-looped 100-mile trail race starting and finishing at Lake Cuyamaca, 9 miles south of Julian, CA, running through Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, the Mt Laguna Recreation Area, Noble Canyon/Indian Creek trails, and about 20 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail, on U.S. Forest Service (Cleveland National Forest, Descanso District) and California State Park land in the Laguna/Cuyamaca Mountains east of San Diego.
Founded in 2001 by Paul Schmidt; the 2002 edition was cancelled for fire danger, and the 2020 and 2021 editions were cancelled for COVID-19. The course was substantially revised for the 2024 edition. The race date moved from its traditional June slot to May 1-2 for the 2026 edition, and moves again to April 30 for 2027.
| Mile | Station | Cutoff | Crew access | Bag | Pacer | Med | To next |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.00 | Lake Cuyamaca | ? | ● | ○ | ○ | ? | 12.70 |
| 12.70 |
Trout Pond
4,644 ft
|
10:00am | ○ | ○ | ○ | ? | 7.00 |
| 19.70 |
Cuyamaca Peak
6,475 ft
|
12:45pm | ○ | ● | ○ | ? | 9.70 |
| 29.40 |
Green Valley
4,015 ft
|
3:30pm | ● | ○ | ○ | ? | 6.20 |
| 35.60 |
Blue Ribbon
3,651 ft
|
? | ○ | ○ | ○ | ? | 5.80 |
| 41.40 |
Sweetwater
3,997 ft
|
7:00pm | ● | ● | ● | ? | 8.10 |
| 49.50 |
Pine Creek Road
4,804 ft
|
? | ○ | ○ | ○ | ? | 2.30 |
| 51.80 |
Hammer's Hideaway
3,840 ft
|
10:15pm | ○ | ● | ○ | ? | 7.40 |
| 59.20 |
Penny Pines 1
5,453 ft
|
1:00am | ○ | ● | ○ | ? | 5.10 |
| 64.30 |
Meadows
5,483 ft
|
2:45am | ● | ○ | ● | ? | 6.30 |
| 70.60 |
Red Tail Roost
5,968 ft
|
4:45am | ● | ● | ● | ? | 5.00 |
| 75.60 |
Per's Cabin
5,831 ft
|
6:15am | ○ | ○ | ○ | ? | 5.10 |
| 80.70 |
Penny Pines 2
5,454 ft
|
7:45am | ○ | ● | ○ | ? | 3.90 |
| 84.60 |
Pioneer Mail
5,280 ft
|
9:00am | ● | ● | ● | ? | 7.00 |
| 91.60 |
Sunrise
5,002 ft
|
11:15am | ● | ● | ● | ? | 9.00 |
| 100.60 |
Lake Cuyamaca
4,647 ft
|
2:00pm | ● | ● | ○ | ? | ? |
One person has been out there with a camera or a microphone.
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.
Nobody sees it until we have read it. No account, no sign-in.
This changes nothing on the page on its own. Somebody checks it against the race first.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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I keep this catalog because the information is scattered and hard to trust. Telling you when it moves is the same job.
