I parked at Pierce Point Ranch and began the hike/jog out to Tomales Point at 7am. I chose a particularly cool day for this effort and started at 8am heading back south.
The trail to/from Tomales Point was my favorite part of the whole day. I had never been out to that section before and all the Elk and wildflowers out there were stunning. I brought one 90 Carb gel and one bottle with calorie mix out with me with the plan to swap into my vest at my car when I came back through the parking lot around mile 5. I believe using your vehicle along the route is considered support or cacheing which is why I submitted this as “Self Supported” and not "unsupported". With the vest on I began the long road section. I was moving well and fueling a-lot, probably a bit too much. Since I had no more support I brought 5 more 90 carb Precision Nutrition gels and a bottle with 500mg sodium and the other bottle with another 300 liquid calories. I also brought an empty flask I’d use later. There is a lot of road early on and it definitely sapped my legs a bit. By the time I got off the road I was really excited to be back on some trail.
The climb up to Mt Vision looks worse on paper than it is. I found it to be pretty much runnable the whole way up. I reached the top and began winding along Inverness Ridge towards the Sky Trail. Personally this is my favorite trail out in Point Reyes so I was looking forward to this section the most. As I started up towards Sky Camp I noticed my hamstrings already starting to get a bit crampy which worried me. When I reached Sky Camp I refilled all of my bottles, included my empty third flask I brought, and continued on. The water at Sky Camp is the only available water source along this route so I was prepared to go the last 17 miles with the 3 flasks.
Once I had gotten off Sky Trail and descended down Baldy trail I crossed over Bear Valley trail to begin the Glenn Trail climb. My hamstrings had gotten worse and it felt hard at that point to run anything that was slightly steep. I was a bit disappointed my legs didn’t hold up better because I would say all the climbs along this route are extremely runnable. Once I had made it up Glenn and began running along the Ridge Trail I was basically fighting off cramps the rest of the way. The Ridge Trail feels a lot more remote and peaceful. I passed a group of hikers who had set up shop in the middle of trail to eat some lunch and they said there were surprised to see anyone out there. I shuffled along the best I could manage and made my way down onto the last few miles of road heading towards Bolinas.
My legs were basically toast when I got onto the road and getting over the last couple rolling hills was sad and painful. But once those were done I enjoyed cruising the last couple miles of downhill into Bolinas. I wasn’t sure exactly where the technical “end” of this route was so I ran onto the beach itself to finish. My buddy Jeremy was there to greet me and give me the drive assist back to Pierce Point Ranch for my car.
Overall I had a great experience on this route. I wanted to thank Josh, who ran the supported route, for calling and checking on the water quality/availability at Sky Camp for me. If you attempt this route I recommend confirming the water is on and drinkable there at Sky Camp before hand.
If you ever decide to attempt this route feel free to reach out to me on Strava for any thoughts or advice! Hope you decide to go for it!