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Dick Collins Firetrails 2019 continues in our new home at Cull Canyon Regional Park, which is about a 5-minute drive from the old start/finish at Lake Chabot but on foot, it’s a spectacular climb on the Bay Area Ridge Trail that many never see! You’ll be up and over in a few hours. Because of this new start/finish area, the Bay Ridge 100k now turns around at Steam Trains. The net elevation of the new course is 11,000 feet.
As in 2018, the Bay Ridge 100k has a start location that is off East Bay Regional Park property. 100k runners will park on the road in front of Cull Canyon and we’ll check you in there. We will start the race at 5am sharp at the entrance to Cull Canyon. You can check in starting at 4am and park on the street in front of the park.
Maps 1 and 2: Cull Canyon
Click on Map to see (and print!) bigger version. Red is outbound. Blue is returning. Print in landscape for better legibility.
Bay Ridge 100k starts in front of Cull Canyon Regional Park. This is necessary so we can have a 5am start. The East Bay Regional Parks do not allow us onsite until after 5am. (Curfew is 10pm to 5am.) Bring your drop bags for the race and the finish and we will make sure they end up in the right spot.
Outbound: Start to Lake Chabot Staging Area. The race leaves Cull Canyon and runs out the front gate of the park. You bear left on Cull Canyon Rd and enter the Garin to Chabot Trail to the left right after you cross Columbia Road. Then you’re off on single track to the first aid station at Bellhurst Lane.
Bellhurst Lane will be a hydration- and gel-only aid station in the morning. At Bellhurst Lane Aid, runners will pass through stock gates into an area that contains horses, which graze there during the year. We will be feeding the horses in the morning to keep them out of your way. Still. be careful because they are animals and can be startled by your headlamps.
A course monitor will help with this gate on the way out. At the far end of the pasture is another gate. If a course monitor is not in position, runners will need to open and close the gate themselves.
Runners continue through EBMUD land, along fire roads that offer a panoramic view of San Francisco Bay and Contra Costa County on a rarely-run section of the Bay Area Ridge Trail. The trail descends down sharply and rolls into Lake Chabot Staging Area.
Returning: Race returns along the same route to Bellhurst Lane. On return to the finish line, runners will pass through the tunnel (Watch your head again!) and then bear a hard right out of the tunnel and up into the Festival Area.
Click on Map to see (and print!) bigger version. Red is outbound. Blue is returning. Print in landscape for better legibility.
Map 3: Anthony Chabot and Lake Chabot Regional Parks
Click on Map to see (and print!) bigger version. Red is outbound. Blue is returning. Print in landscape for better legibility.
NEW in 2019! On leaving Chabot Staging Area, runners will continue onto the Bay Area Ridge Trail, underneath Redwood Road onto the Willow View Trail. This beautiful single track weaves up hill to Brandon Trail, where you’ll make a hard left, down the hill and through the entrance to the Golf Course. At Proctor Trail, bear right.
Runners proceed to Ten Hills and turn right, then quickly bear right on Cameron Loop Trail, which runs by the streams and past the bridge that for many years was in the first part of the race. Cameron Loop becomes the East Shore Trail. Runners proceed into the Chabot Marina, the traditional start/finish of the Dick Collins 50 mile.
After aid, you’ll proceed out West Shore Trail and onto Grass Valley Aid, then down Jackson Grade to Brandon Trail and onto Bort Meadow. From Bort Meadow, you’ll proceed up and over MacDonald Grade to Big Bear.
You will return on this same route.
Map 4: Redwood Regional Park
Click on Map to see (and print!) bigger version. Red is outbound. Blue is returning. Print in landscape for better legibility.
From Big Bear, you’ll be in for a special treat, up rolling trails on Golden Spike Trail, then up to West Ridge, then down onto the Stream Trail which winds up a watershed under tall redwoods. You’ll enter Skyline Gate Aid at the top of the valley. This is the turn around point for the Dick Collins 50 mile, but not for you — keep going! Beautiful rolling trail and view await.
Map 5: Sibley Regional Park
Click on Map to see (and print!) bigger version. Red is outbound. Blue is returning. Print in landscape for better legibility.
Continue along the Bay Area Ridge Trail, through Huckleberry Park and into Sibley Regional Volcanic Preserve. Aid is in the Visitor Center Parking lot.
You will return on this same route.
Map 6: Tilden Park
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You will leave Sibley Park and head towards the Steam Trains in Tilden Regional Park.
You will return on this same route.