Race Course
Overview
Straight out and back. PCT runs North on the Pacific Crest Trail from Timothy Lake Area to Mt Hood Timberline Lodge; 99% on the PCT with a 5200ft climb. The course is shaded, with a few road crossings and about half the distance has roots and rocks. The other half is fast with good footing.
If you want all the details on the course go to the Course Photos page.
Course shuts down at 6:30pm. Consider the early start if there is a chance you will be over 12 hours.
Aid Stations
The table below gives the mileage to the aid stations.
| Aid Station | Dist |
Dist |
Drop Bag |
The first listing is probably a little off. The 6.1 corresponds to running along the PCT, into the Little Crater Lake aid station, the loop around the campground and back out to the PCT.
Click here for a write up on Aid/Crew Directions
Pace Chart
If you've got a computer that can read an Excel file then you may want to downlooad the PCT Pace Chart (right click and choose Save target as ... to save a copy to your local hard disk). This pace chart allows you to enter your desired finishing time and it then calculates split times through all the aid stations.Course Map
Course Map
Course Profile
The profile above was created using Delorme Topo USA. Overall it looks pretty close. Note you can click on the above map to download a higher resolution image.
Rather than depend on the Topo! program to estimate the cumulative elevation gain (something these programs are inherently bad at), in 2003 I ran the course with a watch altimeter and got the following cumulative elevation gains:
| 50 Mile | Gain |
Since 2003, this has been verified several times with multiple altimeters the total elevation change has always come between 5100 and 5400 ft. I don't have any measured results for the 50K, if anyone ran this with an altimeter, please e-mail Scott.
3D Course Topos
These pictures were also made with Delorme Topo USA.Note: Click on images for full resolution display.