Emerald Bay Trail Run - Rubicon Trail (El Dorado County, California)

I had the opportunity to hike part of the Rubicon Trail, which connects Emerald Bay State Park to D.L. Bliss Start Park along the shores of Lake Tahoe, with some friends last spring, but unfortunately, we got rained out and decided to turn back. With my new interest in running, I decided to combine a revisit to that trail with a seven-ish mile trail run organized by Big Blue Adventure.

Arriving at Emerald Bay State Park on a brisk Sunday morning, I made my way to the runner sign-in station and started getting some stretches in. The field of runners was pretty big for a single-track trail run (approximately 275), but everyone was in good spirits as we awaited the start of the race, which was delayed a few minutes, as the organizers made some last minute preparations.

Shortly after 9:00 AM, all 275 of us started up the steep paved road leading out of the lowest points of the park and winding around to the top of the ridge, where we left the road and started descending down the other side of the ridge on the single-track trail. The trail is rocky and requires some hopping and dodging. With my twisted ankle earlier in the summer, I was careful not to have a repeat, but I still tried to maintain a pretty good pace. Unfortunately, the narrow trail does not no offer many spots to pass or be passed and faster and slower runners are required to coordinate the timing of these impromptu 'passing lanes'.

The trail offers some amazing views of the jewel of the Tahoe basin. Emerald Bay with it's lonely little island is one of the highlights of any visit to Lake Tahoe and this run takes right along the shorelines as we make away around Emerald Bay and then north towards D.L. Bliss State Park.

I'm not overly used to trail running, which is something of a hybrid of hiking and running. It requires more focus than running due to the category 2-3 terrain, but more endurance than hiking as you are traversing the distance at running speeds. Add to that, this course had lots of uphill and lots of carved granite steps. It certainly wasn't my proudest performance on any recent run.

I did eventually finish with a time official time 1:31:56 for the nearly 7-mile course. Again, not a great time, but I'm not very good at running uphill and the steps kill my knees. I did manage to finish 120th of 272 participants though. It was fun though and quite beautiful. That said, I had to quickly catch the shuttle back to my jeep, as the rest of my 3-day weekend will be in San Francisco.