BALLWIN, MO. – With everyone getting their “trail legs” back after week one last Thursday, we’re going to bump things up a bit for week two while we still have extra sunlight to work with before the end of the month.
This course highlights two of Castlewood State Park’s finest trails for running: Lone Wolf and Mountain Ridge (aka Love Trail). Race headquarters remains the same, but the start… as Bugs says, “It’s a lulu!”
Racers will head directly across the street and straight up the mountain bike trail. The steep, rocky climb gains more than 100 feet in a little more than a tenth of a mile (and 161 feet in just two tenths up to the very top of the climb on River Scene) where we’ll join the River Scene Trail for more than a quarter of a mile of rolling hills. Then we’ll turn right onto Lone Wolf and hang on for over a half mile of glorious single-track descent on one of Castlewood’s classic trails. (If we get rain, please watch your footing.) As we get down to the bottom of the valley again, the course will hit its first creek crossing as well, as we navigate across Kiefer Creek and join Grotpeter once again. We head East on the trail, towards the park office where our GU Energy Refreshment station will be waiting.
With you’re energy replenished (you’ll need it!), the second of our two main climbs looms ahead as we take on the Mountain Ridge Connector where we’ll meander our way up the hillside climbing almost 11 stories in one mile. We’ll hop over to Grotpeter Trail from a small connector at the top of the hillside and follow it clockwise all the way around back down to the bottom of the hill.
One more crossing of Kiefer Creek and you’ve made it to the finish line for the end of Course Two of the 2019 Alpine Shop Trail Run Series! Enjoy an Urban Chestnut beer, some hot dogs, and thanks to sponsor Altra Footwear, you may head home with a certificate for a new pair of trail runners from Altra!
The course map is below. Race HQ opens at 5 pm for on-site registrations and the race starts promptly at 6:15 pm!
