Week's worth of trail runs?

[IWR]

Hi,
I'll be in Palm Springs for 10 days from the 1st to the 10th. I'm an ultrarunner from Vancouver Canada and would love to know what might be the best trails to explore.

I'd hope to do a few 20-30k days with good elevation gain. Had thoughts to bringing microspikes and doing as much as was sensible of Cactus to Clouds on the 3rd. I'm very used to harsh mountain terrain and big vertical days, so 2-4000m vertical days aren't unreasonable.

if there are any groups I might join also that would be great to know.

I'm not at full pace just now but I'm putting together fitness again to do a 24h vertical race at Grouse Mountain here in Vancouver, and currently hold the record at 17 laps in 18hours for ~13400m vertical.

Regards and hope you can point me to some fun trails!
-Ian

Ian Robertson
ianwilliamrobertson@gmail.com

[Florian]

Hi Ian. I have a CalTopo map consisting of various GPS tracks i've saved that shows many of the local trails ..

https://caltopo.com/m/VSG5

Most of the trails out of Palm Springs and Cathedral city are easily accessible. There are also very good trails in the Indian Canyons that require a $9/person/day fee to drive in. Save your receipt as you can drive in multiple times a day on a single fee.

[zippetydude]

Hi Ian. I'm a trailrunner also, so perhaps I can offer a couple of good suggestions.
1. Skyline/Cactus to clouds is a great choice that you mentioned...but be careful if you attempt Skyline/Cactus to Clouds. I haven't done it this winter but there are reports of freeze/thaw icy conditions. Might be dangerous, might not, but I'm sure you don't want to slip and break an ankle and have all your training ruined.
2. The PCT heading south out of Snow Creek is awesome trailrunning country with beautiful views and enough incline to make it interesting but is still fully runnable throughout pretty much the entire way up to Fuller Ridge. You could do a 20+ mile out and back. The full loop up over the peak and back down the tram is great in the late spring and all throughout the fall if you're here during those seasons. It's about 31 miles, 25.5 of it uphill.
3. The PCT heading north either from the Cottonwood or Whitewater trailheads is also a good out and back. You can really move on this one, as it's not steep at all and in many places almost level, so it could be good speed work.
4. The Art Smith is fairly short, but when you get to the Dunn Road junction you could do a few extra miles in either direction. The trail is fairly mild except at the very beginning, where it's kinda steep.
5. It's been a while since it has rained/snowed so the Vivian Creek or South Fork trails up to the top of Mt. San Gorgonio are already broken in and probably largely runnable right now. Not sure on this one since I have been out in the desert most of this season.
6. If you don't want to do an out and back, there's a good 10 mile run that you could set up a shuttle with a friend, have someone pick you up and drop you off, or drop off a bike up at the top (I have done this). You'd go west on the I-10 and exit for the 243 towards Idyllwild. The road heads directly south, and just as you get to the base of the hill, it turns left. Follow the old road straight instead of turning. It quickly becomes a dirt road, and you just stick to the left all the way up. It's a steady, runnable uphill also, but you don't have to run back down if you don't want to.

Hope you have a chance to do some of these. They're all very nice, and with the exception of the routes on San Gorgonio you should be able to easily run # 2, 3, 4 or 6.

Best wishes and keep up the good training!

z

[IWR]

Hi Guys, thanks for the recommendations!

With Cactus to Clouds, I was thinking it takes much of the sketch out of play if one has a plan b to simply stop at the tram ... but are the conditions below that also often questionable?

I'm used to running North Shore Vancouver, which on a bike is essentially the most technical trails around, and running them isn't much better, and my experience with trails south of the border is that they are often much better made and graded and maintained than those here, but this is only me stereotyping your trails for the better ... also I'll bring microspikes with me and always have the 10 essentials so I don't think many things could suprise me, unless the trail is significantly burlier than it appears (?).

That map is great! Thanks for the link! Its great to see everything laid out in one place and not a bunch of found gpx tracks downloaded to movescount only.

-Ian

[Mountaingoat]

IWR,
24 hrs vertical Grouse Mtn.
17 Laps
18 hrs
13400 Vertical
Record
????????
In my eyes an ANIMAL!

Berne Mettenleiter aka the Mountaingoat

[IWR]

@mountaingoat Guinness record is 14km, so I'm close ... need grouse to stay open for another few hours. I paced my friend Brooke last year to match my record. 2019 =

C2C was good but I started at 11 so I stopped at the tram so just did Skyline ... snow 2 days before made navigation tricky for last 1500' ... a pair of tracks went significantly off route on the final traverse below the final climb about 500' below the pass ... I never saw the tracks rejoin so I hope they found their way!

Anyone know if it is a conscious decision to have the museum trail be very well blazed but not thereafter? Or just a function of nobody doing it? I was impressed how much work had been done to visually block off the shortcuts, but a bit moot under snow

[IWR]

How do you know about Multigrid anyway?

IWR,
24 hrs vertical Grouse Mtn.
17 Laps
18 hrs
13400 Vertical
Record
????????
In my eyes an ANIMAL!

Berne Mettenleiter aka the Mountaingoat

[Mountaingoat]

I have no idea what the heck you are talking about, but hope you had a good time in So Cal!