Kara LaPoint, a professional triathlete from Truckee, hammers along a section of the Pacific Crest Trail, riding the Sierra ridge from Sugar Bowl to Squaw. She steps over loose, ankle-bending rocks, her face absorbing the sun and the wind. Eli, her vizsla, keeps company and trots at her heels. In the three hours the run will take her, she strives to stay loose and liberated, shaking off any self-doubt that a mountainous 16-mile run can stir up in the brain. It’s just breaths and a steady pace, one foot then the other, a slow and cathartic release of the day’s stress.
This is trail running in Lake Tahoe, and reaping its benefits doesn’t have to involve a strenuous three-hour run. With thousands of miles of trails, several running groups, and a race scene that includes everything from family fun runs to a 200-mile ultramarathon, there is a run on offer for everyone, from the green to veteran trail runner.
“The best thing is we have so much variety, the options are practically limitless,” said LaPoint, who competes in triathlons like IRONMAN and XTerra adventure races, among many others.
Compared to quick-thrill summer sports like mountain biking, running is slow, old-fashioned, and without specialized gear. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, participation seems to be thriving. Todd Jackson, director of Big Blue Adventure, a Kings Beach-based race production company, notes healthy participation in its Tahoe Trail Running series. “Our running races are growing and continue to fill up on a steady basis,” said Jackson. Big Blue Adventure specializes in trend-sport marketing, meaning the organizers stay on top of which sports remain relevant and promote those that are popular. Running has thus far stayed within the fold.
The sense of losing oneself in the woods also draws most Tahoe runners away from the road and onto the trail. “Trails provide a much better sense of escape,” said Jamie Johnson, a local runner from Truckee. “Even with something like an 8-mile loop you can feel you are far, far away from everything, whereas on the road there is usually constant cars, people, and noise.”
Pick a Trail, Any Trail
With virtually every region in Tahoe/Truckee boasting spectacular trails, the options can be overwhelming. For example, Truckee alone shows 1,090 trails on the user-created website mapmyrun.com (also a great resource to find trails near your backdoor). But there are some trails that, due to their views and easy access, must be visited.
The Tahoe Rim Trail (TRT), a 165-mile loop that circumnavigates the lake, is one example. It passes through about every running condition imaginable in the Sierra, and boasts wide and smooth trails on most sections. There are multiple trailheads at easy access points like 64 Acres in Tahoe City or Brockway Summit on Highway 267, minimizing logistical hassles and leaving only the challenges that long miles can provide.
In the Truckee area, the Tahoe Donner Trail System offers a 40-mile network of trails near Donner Lake. Signature trails are highlighted at tahoedonnertrails.com/trails that range from 3.2 to 9.5 miles. Near Northstar, the Martis Valley area offers a plethora of mellow trails, some of LaPoint’s favorites when she’s looking for shorter and easier runs. The West Shore provides access to rugged, mountainous terrain where the PCT overlaps with the TRT, and South Shore (search for 980 trails on mapmyrun.com) offers stunning terrain and generally less people than on some of the more bustling trails of North Lake. And the list goes on.
Meghan Hicks, an ultrarunner from Utah, ran the entire TRT by herself in July of 2013. Her favorite area was Dick’s Pass in Desolation Wilderness between Barker Pass and Echo Lake. “It will almost make you cry, it’s so pretty,” she said.
For lake views as well as easy access, Hicks recommends the stretch between the Mt. Rose summit and Brockway trailheads, and for remoteness she enjoyed the southeast side of the trail between Kingsbury South and Big Meadow.
Brendan Madigan, owner of Alpenglow Sports in Tahoe City, has the shorter distance runner in mind. “The 5-mile Ellis Peak Trail from Barker Pass is perhaps the area’s most scenic out and back,” he says. “Rubicon Trail is 6 flat miles from Emerald Bay to D.L. Bliss State Park and offers some of the most scenic swimming holes a runner could find.”
Just Do It: Clubs, Races, and FKTs
If all of the trail potential has your head spinning, there are a few local running groups that can be a great source of information as well as offer a social aspect to the oft-solitary activity.
The Donner Party Mountain Runners, out of Truckee, is a nonprofit running group that organizes weekly runs and staffs select races. The Trail Teaser series (open to anyone; a $3 donation is encouraged) is held on Monday evenings, exploring a new 3- to 4-mile trail each week. They also host Thursday Speed Sessions that introduce runners to time-improving techniques such as interval training and fartlek sessions (“speed play” in Swedish) — an unstructured training technique of running fast for short periods of time.
The Tahoe Mountain Milers (TMM), based in South Lake, brings together runners for weekly group runs and organizes races. Membership is increasing yearly with the younger up-and-coming crowd, and the group is organizing a Couch to 5K and 10K Training Group this fall to increase membership and allow others to find joy in trail running, according to club director Cheryl Surface.
“I really learned the art of trail running with this group of like-minded individuals,” she said. “From the casual trail walker to an age-group finisher, anybody is welcome as a Miler. Tall, short, thin, thick, it simply doesn’t matter.”
The main event for TMM is the Tahoe Rim Trail Endurance Run in late July, which offers a 50k (about 31 miles), 50-mile, or 100-mile distance on the East Shore.
At the highest competitive level is the Western States Endurance Run. Founded in 1974, it’s the oldest and most prestigious 100-mile trail run in the world, according to its website. Beginning in Squaw Valley in late June, the route climbs 18,000 feet and descends 23,000 feet before finishing in Auburn, passing through many microclimates and trail conditions. Thousands of runners who qualify for the ultra-run apply, but only 369 spots are awarded via a lottery system each year.
If 100 miles isn’t enough, the Tahoe 200, organized by the Tahoe 200 Endurance Club, will be held for the first time in September. It will be the first ever 200-mile (nearly eight consecutive marathons) single loop mountain event in the United States, according to its website, and starts and ends at Homewood.
Despite the large number of ultramarathons in the area, there is a plethora of races for the casual runner. Tahoe Trail Running, a component of Big Blue Adventure, puts on a race series from early June to late September. The events, which are mostly focused on the short to medium distances, go from flat 5k races in Incline Village to a 7.5-mile race in Emerald Bay to 50k events at Burton Creek and Spooner Lake. “People enjoy the simplicity of the events and the beauty of the courses and come from all over to participate,” said Jackson.
There has also been an increase in elite runners going for unsanctioned ultraruns, and the TRT has become an obvious locale. Some of these FKTs (Fastest Known Times) can defy comprehension. Killian Hornet, a professional runner from Spain, holds the record for running the TRT’s 165-mile loop in 38 hours and 22 minutes. On the women’s side, Jenny Capel of Reno completed the feat in 53 hours and 39 minutes.
The pace for Hicks, the Utah ultrarunner, was relatively sane. She did the loop in six days, averaging 28 miles per day, allowing herself time to look around and smell the wildflowers.
“Seeing that blue lake every day from a different angle was almost intoxicating thinking about what it would look like from another 10 or 20 miles down the trail,” she said. “It was unique, incomparable.”
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