California Sierra Trail Race 2016

[sportsmd]

Couple of questions...since I will be driving from Idaho, was curious where people park for a week (assuming that one can't/shouldn't park in the shopping center)...does the GPX file that I downloaded give turn-by-turn info...what is the cell phone coverage on the course???
Thanks

[Sean Allan]

Parking is not really a problem. I'll send out an email as we get closer. Cell service is mostly pretty good. There will be hours when you don't have it though. The GPX file doesn't decide on turn by turn directions, you and your GPS does. I personally wouldn't use that feature though. Just follow the line on the GPS. The curse is really easy to follow if you pay attention. There's only a couple of places where you'll have to do a little route finding to get to the trail. Getting lost has not been a problem so far.

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[Sean Allan]

So I rode about 90% of the route a couple of weeks ago. Some snow still at the high points but that should be long gone by the 29th. Water is good and shouldn't be a problem. The only sucky part was Soda Springs Rd. The county ran a dozer down it and it's a dusty mess, but it's only bad for a few miles spread across the length of it. Otherwise it's all in really good shape. The Tevis Cup will soften up the Western States section, but no worse than any other year.

If you're going to race, a signup sheet has been formed and a Trackleaders page is on it's way. Go here to send me an email for the sign-up stuff:

 http://californiasierratrailrace.weebly.com/contact.html

Cheers!

[Sean Allan]

Got the race off this morning. 7 of us including our first female, Alice Drobna. It's been brutally hot this week and the first miles were definitely warm bordering on hot. I've not sweated that much since well, work this week.... Blake Bockius is having a great race. Blake and I rode together off and on till I broke my shoe at about the 50 mile mark. A few racers are having issues with their SPOTS and Scott and I are trying to get that worked out. It looks like we may have a race at the front though.  from the sound of it, Joe Dengler and Blake are pretty close. Lots of climbing this first day, probably near 20,000' in the first 125 miles. I'm hoping for cooler temps this weekend for these guys and gal.

http://trackleaders.com/calsierra16

[Jon Cal]

Sean,

Been lurking and watching the dots all week. Any word on the other four out in the field? 

It's a great thing you do with all the time and energy you provide in orchestrating the logistics for this route.

Hopefully I make the Raley's lot next year.

[J_wowzer]

Alice said "its too easy to quit". I know she finished!

[Sean Allan]

Our one and only finisher, Joe Dengler finished yesterday about 8pm. I met Joe about 15 miles out and he was in great spirits and was super excited to have completed the journey. I'm glad he got to experience places both new and familiar to him.
 
It was a tough time for all the other starters. I ripped the cleat out of my right shoe at about the 60 mile mark. Blake suffered from saddle sores on the second day, certainly due to the hot temperatures the day before. Scott and Jeff underestimated the time it would take to finish and set about on their own adventure past Truckee, sounds like they had a good time and were off to Colorado this week for more adventures. Tony had some GPS issues, and since this was his first real attempt at navigating by GPS only was a little bit apprehensive about continuing on. Alice succumbed to some foot/heal issues on the second day and felt it was best to stop.
 
All in all a good showing. The race is hard, likely as hard as any of the other races out there. Many of us were just in the wrong place mentally due to work stresses to really take it on like one needs to take such endeavors on.

I'll take an honest and realistic look at whether the race continues on in it's current incarnation. There are options to shorten it and make it easier, whether that's the direction I want to go is unclear to me right now. I toured the route in a little over 5 days recently and it's just such a great route as a tour. Up it to race pace and it becomes a significantly different beast.

[blurltd]

Any chance of a mid or late June / early July start when the trails are so dusty, dried out, and hot in the Sierras.

[Sean Allan]

Any chance of a mid or late June / early July start when the trails are so dusty, dried out, and hot in the Sierras.

The possibility for a lot of snow has always made me put it out to middle/late July. Had we done it 2 weeks earlier it still would have been hot, we just wouldn't have had 8 days of 105+ temps to really heat things up. That's a hard one to second guess. The other problem is Tevis and Western States happen late June/early July. Lots of training rides and runs in the weeks leading up to those events has always worried me.

[ScottM]

Alice is back on course, for a redo.  Tracker is live.

[Sean Allan]

Well hell, she told me she was going tomorrow. I guess she couldn't wait for another chance. She'll do great. Hot and humid in the foothills today but cooler when I got home this afternoon. Looks like monsoon weather up in the high country today. Hope she stays dry!

[J_wowzer]

GO ALICE!

[blurltd]

Go Alice go! No Triple Crown finisher calls it quits that easily.

[Sean Allan]

Alice finished up her adventure on Tuesday afternoon. 5 days, 6 hours and 40 minutes for our first woman starter and finisher, also our first SS! Spent a little time with her as she rode by my house. She looked great. I think it was tougher than she thought it might be, a fair bit of walking for her on a single speed made for a tough go of it at times. Nonetheless she was glad to have done it.