According to Tim (Twietmeyer), we covered a total of 77 miles over all three days - this includes the "off-course" runs to and from buses and aid-stations not a part of the regular course. I woke-up Tuesday feeling great and figured it would be fun to do a few more!
The only part of the course we didn't cover is the first 30 miles - from Squaw Valley to Robinson Flat. As it was yet another beautiful sunny day in California, I decided to drive out to Squaw and do the first climb from the Squaw Valley floor (elevation 6,200 feet) to Emigrant Pass (elevation 8,750 feet), a climb of 2,550 vertical feet in the first 4.5 miles of the race. I need the hill training - particularly running downhills.
I covered the 9 miles - 4.5 up and 4.5 down - with plenty of lollygagging on the way up but a hard, non-stop run down. By the time I got to the bottom, I was ready for dinner at a little outdoor restaurant at the ski resort!
This brought my 4 day total to 86 miles covering all the major climbs and descents of the race. As I sit in San Francisco writing this on Wednesday afternoon, I feel surprisingly good!
Visually, the climb is daunting. You're literally running up a ski slope!
Aside from the occasional thigh-deep snow over the last mile or so, it was a beautiful and peaceful climb to the top. Somehow I missed the Emigrant Pass monument, but I did find a nice little FAA VHF retransmission station at a peak my GPS said was 8,881' so I figured I'd completed the spirit of the climb! :-) The geeky pilot in me later confirmed that I had indeed found the FAA's Squaw Valley RCAG (Remote Communications Air-to-Ground).
Rapidly melting snow provided several dramatic waterfalls along the way:
Looking down onto Lake Tahoe to the East (I had no idea that thing is 1,500' deep in the middle!):
The view to the West... The trail continues somewhere over there!
And finally the larger, snow-covered mountains to the South:
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