Starting at the North Fork Sauk River trailhead, this route meanders along the river for a gentle 5 mile warm up before shooting up the ridge, gaining ~3000 feet in 3 miles to join the PCT near White Pass. Once on the PCT, head south, being sure to not trip over your bottom lip due to the jaw dropping views along the way. There are some highly runnable miles along the ridge as the trail rolls toward Dishpan Gap. Once at Dishpan Gap, take a right onto the Bald Eagle Trail for about 0.8 miles until you hit the Blue Lake High Route trail.

This aesthetic, non-techincal, off trail route traverses the highest, most rugged terrain of the central Alpine Lakes Wilderness. It is comparable to the famous Ptarmigan Traverse in the North Cascades, but is slightly longer, more rugged, and much less traveled. It starts on the PCT from Snoqualmie Pass, ascends over Chikamin Peak, down to Iceberg Lake, up to Overcoat Glacier, across to Summit Chief Pass, to Williams Lake, up to La Bohn Gap, over the summit of Hinman, to Pea Soup Lake, and over Mt. Daniel to the Cathedral Pass Trailhead. It totals to about 37 miles and 14-15k ft gain.

Torch Lake is a beautiful lake near Traverse City, MI.  Running its circumference involves about 42 miles of mostly flat roads.