Dipsea Race
Matt Davis/Old Mine/Stapleveldt/TCC/Troop 80  - Loop
Matt Davis, Stinson, Steep Ravine Loop
Nora Loop
Mt. Tamalpais Loop
Kentfield to Phoenix Lake to Eldridge to Pumpkin Ridge  - Loop
Tennessee Valley

I moved!  I now live on the south side of Mt. Tamalpais on Throckmorton Ridge.  I now start most of my runs from the Mountain Home Inn on Panoramic Highway about one third of the way up Mt. Tam.  This gives me access to way over 100 miles of trails on Mt. Tam and in the Marin Headlands.  In short, it's a trail runner's paradise.   This page describes some of the trails in the area.  I will try to add more trails as time goes on.

Dipsea Race

Location:  Go to www.dipsea.org for all of the details.

Length of the run: 7.1 miles.

Run difficulty: As hard as you want it to be...

Description:  There are lots of descriptions of this course available, so I won't repeat them.  I just thought you might want to see the profile of the course.  I didn't wear my foot pod, so I had to plot this against time.  I also decided to include my heart rate so you will see why I think this is a pretty hard race.  My maximum heart rate is about 178.  Click here for the profile.  

 

Kentfield to Phoenix Lake to Eldridge to Pumpkin Ridge  - Loop

Location:  Starts in Kentfield loops up onto the eastern side of Mt. Tam in central Marin County.

Length of the run: 13.5 miles round trip.

Run difficulty: Pretty hard.  It's got some hills in it.  There is a little bit of drinking water on the loop, but I would suggest bringing some along if it's warm.

Description:  This is a pretty common weekend run for me.  It's got some easy flat parts, some steep and long hills, and some smaller hills.  It winds through neighborhoods, by two lakes, through meadows, and oak forests.  In my opinion, it's a classic run for my home turf.  

One of the great things about this trail is the wildlife.  It seems like I see at least one group of deer, a flock of turkeys, a snake or a rabbit every time I run this.  It's not unusual to see lots of deer and lots of turkeys if you run this in the evening.

The run starts in Kentfield.  There is good parking along Magnolia Avenue just North of Skylark Road.  I run South along Magnolia until I get to Bonaire (maybe .3 miles or so) and turn left on Bonaire.  Cross Corte Madera Creek and turn left on the paved trail.  Run about 2 miles until the trail tees with Lagunitas Rd. in Ross, turn left.  Run past the Ross Elementary school (this is where the movie "Jack" was filmed if you are interested in that type of thing).  Stay on Lagunitas, it curves left at one stop sign, then right after the next, run up through one of the most exclusive neighborhoods in Marin, past the tennis club, and onto the access road to Mt. Tam.  At Natalie .... Park, turn right onto the fire road and start up the hill towards Phoenix Lake.  At this point you are about 3.3 miles into the run.

Turn right at the lake and start going around the lake counter-clockwise.  The trail leaves the lake after about .2 miles and heads into the woods.  At the junction of three trails, turn left on the first trail (this is almost like a U-turn) and head up the hill on Eldridge.  The next 1.5 miles or so are up.  About half way Eldridge becomes a fire road, turn left when you get to this point.  
Continue to climb Eldridge (stay to the right when you meet other fire roads and you will keep going up) until about 5.5 miles into the run.  You will have just run up a very steep section past a water trough when Eldridge meets another fire road.  Turn right at this road to go down the hill to Lake Lagunitas.  Stay on this trail until you get to the dam, then go down the hill to the parking lot.  Cross the parking lot a pick up a short trail through the meadow.  

Hmm, this is hard to describe.  Basically, you are going run about .2 miles or so through the meadow to the road on the other side.  You will see a wooden gate on the other side of the road that blocks the paved road going to the water pumping station.  There is a trail about 50 feet to the left of this gate that takes you up Pumpkin Ridge.  This trail is steeper than you might think at first, but it soon levels out and starts rolling across the ridge through the meadows and trees.  Eventually, the trail will lead you down to Shaver Grade.  Turn right on Shaver.  

After a few minutes on Shaver you will see Elliot Trail branch off to the righ - it's markedt.  Take this and run down the ridge through the woods.  About half-way through the woods I frequently see a family of turkeys.  If you are looking, it wouldn't surprise me if you saw them too.  

Elliot eventually T's with Shaver again at what I think is called Five-Corners.  Anyway, there are several trails meeting at this point.  Stay to the right to head down Shaver back to Phoenix Lake.  When you get to the bottom of the hill, you have about 4 miles of easy running back the way you came to get to your car. 

Matt Davis/Old Mine/Stapleveldt/TCC/Troop 80  - Loop

Location:  Starts at the parking lot just south of the Mountain Home Inn parking lot.  From 101 take Shoreline Highway at the south end of Mill Valley to Panoramic Highway to this parking lot. Of course, there are other ways to get there, but this is the easiest way to describe where this run starts.

Length of the run: About 8.25 miles.  It usually takes me about 70 minutes to run.  

Run difficulty: Moderate.  Like almost any run on the Mountain, it's got some hills in it.  There is drinking water at the Mountain Home Inn parking lot, in the Bootjack picnic area, and at Pantoll.  You can get by without carrying water, but I always do. All three water stops also have toilets. Click here to see the elevation profile.

Description:  This is now my bread and butter run if I want to get a good workout in without burning out on long hills.  The majority of the run is on singletrack, with a few short sections on fire roads.  Most of the run is in the trees, with a portion of it in the redwoods of Muir Woods. 

The run starts from the parking lot and heads along Panoramic Highway for about .25 miles before bearing right on the driveway to the Throckmorton Ridge fire station.  This first .4 miles or so is some of the steepest climbing you will have to do on this run.  I normally run right by the station up the fire road, which is actually Hogback.  

Turn left onto Matt Davis trail right after the water tank by climbing a few railroad-tie steps.  About 1.5 miles up the trail (I'm guessing here) you will enter the Bootjack picnic area.  Stay on the trail through the picnic area.  You can either bear right and pass above the restrooms, or you can stay on the walkway that passes right next to the restrooms.  Matt Davis continues on right after this landmark.

At about the 3 mile mark you will break out of the woods onto a paved road.  This road leads up to Old Stage fire road if you go right, and down towards Panoramic Highway and Pantoll if you turn left.  Turn left, cross the highway, run past the buildings and bear left onto Old Mine Trail.  You could cross the highway and go straight down Stapleveldt, but this trail is quite steep going down and risks an ankle injury (I know from experience), so I prefer Old Mine.  Old Mine is fairly level and actually takes you past the "diggings" -- look for the trail marker.  

Old Mine pops out on Deer Park fire road.  Go down the hill and turn left at the top of Cardiac onto the Dipsea trail.  Run  down Cardiac and turn left at the first trail onto the other end of Stapleveldt.  Stapleveldt is relatively level, and meets the TCC trail at an intersection of several trails.  

TCC goes across the bridge.  It's pretty flat most of the way, so if you are either gaining lots of elevation or losing lots of elevation, you have turned the wrong direction.  Stay on TCC for 15 minutes or so until you arrive in Van Wyck meadow.  Cross the meadow (the trail is obvious) past the big rock.  Shortly after entering the woods again, another trail will T with the one you are on.  At this point you are on Troop-80 (I think this is where it becomes Troop-80 anyway).  There is a bridge out on Troop-80, but it is easy to get around the obstacle.   Stay on this trail for about the next 15 minutes.  You will pass through some really great redwood groves.  Most of the time you will only be a few hundred feet from Panoramic Highway, but you will be surprised how deep into the forest this really is.  After a fairly long downhill and a set of switchbacks, Troop-80 meets with Camp Alice Eastwood Road.  There is (almost) no traffic on this road, so turn uphill and let it rip.  You have about a half a mile to run to the top (and end) of the road.  You will come out at the south parking lot that you started from.  Now all you have to do is revel in the lingering endorphins... it's cool.

Matt Davis/Nora/Rock Spring/Old Mine/Staplevledt/TCC/Troop-80 - Loop

Location:  Starts at the parking lot just south of the Mountain Home Inn parking lot.  From 101 take Shoreline Highway at the south end of Mill Valley to Panoramic Highway to this parking lot. Of course, there are other ways to get there, but this is the easiest way to describe where this run starts.

Length of the run: About 9.5 miles.  It usually takes me about 80 minutes to run.  Click here to look at the elevation profile.

Run difficulty: Difficult.  This is a variation of the above run.  The addition is a steep climb up Nora that makes this a more difficult run.  Like almost any run on the Mountain, it's got some hills in it.  There is drinking water at the Mountain Home Inn parking lot, at the West Point Inn, and at Pantoll.  You can get by without carrying water, but I always do. All three water stops also have toilets. 

Description:  This is one of my favorite runs on the Mountain.  It's got great hills, awesome views, and great single-track trails.  This run starts out the same as above.  At about the one mile point take a right up Nora.  Nora is pretty steep (about 13% according to my Polar Altitude data), but beautiful single-track.  Nora ends at the West Point Inn at Railroad Grade.  Run up Railroad Grade about 100 feet and then turn left on Rock Spring.  

Rock Spring is not as steep as Nora and a bit more open, and it is also equally beautiful.  About 3.5 miles into the run Rock Spring reaches the Mountain Theater.  Run around the top of the theater and cross the the theatre access road going west.  Look for a gray electrical box to know you are going the right direction.  Continue through the trees (there is a trail, but it is more of a park-like area so it is not well defined) until you get to Old Mine.  

This section of Old Mine, in my opinion, is one of the most spectacular trails-with-a-view that I have run on.  At one point you have a 270° view of the ocean, beaches, San Francisco, and the bay - you will know it when you see it.  There is a big rock you can stop and take a break on if you are inclined.  Continue on down Old Mine until you get to Stagecoach.  Turn right, and run a 100 yards or so until you see Pantoll.  From here the run is the same as the rest of the Matt Davis Loop above.

Matt Davis to Stinson Beach/Dipsea/Steep Ravine; Old Mine/Staplevledt/TCC/Troop-80 - Loop -- This run is part of the Marin Headlands 50K course.

Location:  Just like the other Matt Davis runs, this one starts at the parking lot just south of the Mountain Home Inn parking lot.  From 101 take Shoreline Highway at the south end of Mill Valley to Panoramic Highway to this parking lot. Of course, there are other ways to get there, but this is the easiest way to describe where this run starts.

Length of the run: About 15.2 miles.  It took me about 2:23 to run this loop.  Click here to look at the elevation profile.

Run difficulty: Difficult.  This run starts the same as the Matt Davis Loop above.  After reaching Pantoll, you continue downhill to Stinson Beach and then return up the very steep, steep ravine trail.   There is drinking water at the Mountain Home Inn parking lot, at the West Point Inn, and at Pantoll.  There is also water at Stinson Beach.  You can get by without carrying water, but I always do. All the water stops also have toilets. 

Description:    This run starts out the same as Matt Davis Loop run above.  Instead of crossing Panoramic Highway to pick up Old Mine, continue across the Pantoll road and stay on Matt Davis.  For the next 1.5 miles or so the trail is fairly level, then from this point, about 4.7 miles into the run, you will start back down the mountain.  In the next 2.8 miles you will lose all of your 1500 feet of elevation.  

Matt Davis ends at the firehouse in Stinson Beach.  Run out to Rt. 1, turn left, and run a hundred yards or so up the road until you see the end of the Dipsea trail.  Run up Dipsea, over the "Moors", and then at the bottom of "Insult" hill take a left on the Steep Ravine Trail.  

Steep Ravine Trail is a beautiful trail that follows a small, cascading stream back up the mountain.  It is, as it's name implies, very steep in some sections -- you will even climb a 10 foot ladder at one point.  The trail pops back out at the Pantoll parking lot, where you will cross the parking lot and access road and turn to the right, back down Old Mine trail.  From here, the rest of the route is the same as the rest of the Matt Davis Loop above.

Mt. Tamalpais Loop

Location:  Starts at the parking lot just south of the Mountain Home Inn parking lot.  From 101 take Shoreline Highway at the south end of Mill Valley to Panoramic Highway to this parking lot. Of course, there are other ways to get there, but this is the easiest way to describe where this run starts.

Length of run: 14.3 miles round trip (approximate)

Run difficulty: Difficult.  Click here for the elevation profile.

Description:  This is another great run starting from the Mountain Home Inn area.  It takes about two hours to complete, and loops the entire upper part of the mountain.  Much of the run is at an elevation of around 1800 feet, so it can be 5-10° cooler than in the valleys below.  Bring some water and GU.  There are a number of places to get water on the run, but there are some dry stretches too.  You will be happier if you carry your own.

Here's the trail order:  Gravity Car fire road, Railroad Grade fire road, Hoo-koo-e-koo fire road, Wheeler Trail, Eldridge Grade fire road, Northside trail, Rock Spring fire road to Rock Spring trail to Benstein trail, cross the Rock Spring parking lot to Old Mine, Coastal, Dipsea, Stapleveldt, TCC, Troop-80, Camp Alice Eastwood Road.

As you can see, the last 40% or so of this run is the same as the Nora Loop, so I will just cover the first part of the run.

The run starts from the south parking lot of the Mountain Home Inn.  You could also start at the Gravity Car parking lot.  Run down Panoramic to the Gravity Car parking lot and head up Gravity.  The fire road is an easy grade, as you would expect for a road that was used for gravity cars in the past.  It's about a 4% grade.

At about 1.2 miles you hit Railroad Grade.  Turn left to continue the easy climb up the mountain.   Turn left and go up the hill.  At about 1.6 miles turn right on Hoo-Koo-e-Koo.   At about 2.4 miles you will see Wheeler trail branch off to the left.  The trail is in the trees, but it is well marked.  It's also steep.  

Wheeler seems like it goes straight up.  It's certainly steeper than Nora, and it's rocky.  An interesting coincidence:  It actually reminds me of the climb up Wheeler Peak in Great Basin National Park.  It's that steep.  Of course the low altitude makes it much more manageable.  My watch tells me the grade is 16.8%.   At the 3.0 mile point Wheeler ends on Eldridge Grade.

Turn left on Eldridge. Eldridge is quite rocky in this section of the trail.  It is like running up a dry stream bed.  (Run up this trail when it is raining some time and you will understand why it is like that.) Run up Eldridge a .7 miles or so (this is the 3.7 mile point) and then take a right where you see the trail split.  There is an old sign that tells you what is in the valleys below (Ross and Mill Valley), but the trails are not marked (at least I haven't found the signs).  After the split the fire road turns into a trail.  This is the Northside Trail.

Northside is a cool trail.  It's pretty level and not too rocky for most of the way.  You may notice a point in the trail where you cross about 100 feet of a rocky, treeless vein in the mountain.  If it is raining, this will be a wide, mossy, rocky waterfall.  It isn't deep or treacherous, just really cool looking.  If it's not raining, you may not even notice it.

At about 1.7 miles along Northside (this is 5.4 miles into the run) you will see Collier Spring.  Collier Spring is a little piece of redwood paradise.  There is a bench that you can sit on an shoot a GU.  I usually hit this point at about 45 minutes or so, so it's a good place to refuel.  Continue on Northside (it's the upper trail, the lower traila are Collier or Lower Northside).  Northside ends at Rifle Camp on Rock Spring at the 6.5 mile point in the run.

Rifle Camp has some outhouses if you need one.  There are picnic tables too, but this is no time to stop.  Run up Rock Spring fire road.  It gets steep after the meadows, but that is the last steep hill - it reminds me of heartbreak hill on the Dipsea though because it hurts so much..  When you get to the branch off of the fire road to Rock Spring trail trail (7.3 miles into the run), bear right.  About .5 miles later you will see Benstein trail (7.8 miles into the run).  Take Benstien which will take you out to the Rock Spring parking area.  Cross the car park and head over the hill to Old Mine.  From here, you run the rest of the Nora Loop.  The rest of the run is six miles of mostly easy downhill, so don't worry too much if your starting to get a bit tired.  You can make it.

On the other hand, when you finish this run, expect to be too tired to do too much else.  You will also know what it's like to bask in post-run endorphins.

Tennessee Valley

Location:  Southern Marin County Coast, about 5 miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Length of the trail: 4 miles round trip.

Length of run: 4 miles round trip.

Run difficulty: Easy

Description:  The Tennessee Valley trail is a popular walking trail through the Marin Headlands to the Tennessee Valley Beach.  There is no vehicular access to this beach, so the people you will see there got there the same way you did – under their own power. 

I have walked and run this trail many times.  It’s a slight down-slope with a short hill about 75% of the way to the beach, and then a slight uphill (except for the one hill) all the way back.  My wife and I have seen many deer (sometimes within 15 feet of the trail), quail, owls, foxes, rabbits, and we have heard many coyotes (including pups) while walking and running this trail.  In combination with the bucolic scenery, great beach, wild flowers, wildlife, and easy trail this is one of the most consistently beautiful places that I run.  How’s that for an endorsement?!

It is short, but the trail can be combined with other nearby trails like Coastal, Coyote Ridge, Fox (go up for a real leg-burner) and Miwok.  While I usually do combine it with another trail, it makes a great recovery or easy day all by itself, so don’t miss it.

The trail is about 2 miles from the parking lot to the beach and back.  I normally run the “high road” to the right, but in the summer and fall the hill can be avoided by branching left at about 1 mile from the parking lot.  The majority of the trip out is an easy downhill run and then the return is an easy uphill back.  There is a no-longer-occupied (I think) or operating homestead/farm about ¼ of the way into the run.  These buildings are used for something, I just don’t think anyone lives there now.

There is also a campground up the first trail to the right (.5 miles) that is a walk-in campground.  You need reservations to stay there.  Next run out that way I’ll note the information.  It looks like an interesting place, but I’ve never tried it.