The race starts and finishes at Rodeo Beach, Northernly end. We head down the beach and veer to the left and then go around the south side of the Lagoon. Near the East end of the Lagoon, we hop back onto the Road to cross the lagoon on the road you drove in on. Upon crossing the bridge you'll come to a dirt parking area in front of some warehouses. This is the begining of the Miwok trail. We'll go through the gate on the Easterly end of the warehouse parking area.
We follow Miwok as it climbs up the Wolf ridge ( this is the same ridge you'll climb at the end of the race) . It encounters the warm spring trail that heads down to Tennessee Valley. We take that trail and head down to T.V. We cross the Road that comes into Tenneessee Valley and continue on Miwok back up to the top of the Coyote Ridge.
As we climb up the first part of the Miwok, we hit a fire road. Stay to the left here as we are going to take a small side trail that cirmcumvents the little hill that has a bunch of Eucalyptus trees on it. There are a number of intersecting trails in this area and the key thing here is to basically veer left and you'll be ok.
As you go along this flat portion of trail, you'll come to an intersection with what appears to be a rutted, detour trail. Take it. Within 15 feet or so, you should find yourself back on a fire road - not continuing on a trail. When You hit the fire road you are actually back on the Miwok Fire Road/trail. Stay on this road. You'll come to a few intersections in this area but you'll want to veer right in these cases. Anything else will send you down the Coyote Ridge trail and you don't want that.
As you go down the Miwok Fire Road, it'll seem like you're not covering any distance at all. 1 mile will feel like two. The good news is, once you start to notice yourself going downhill, you're at the begining of a pretty long downhill.
Eventually this fire road intersects Highway 1. There is an aid station there. You'll follow a small side trail and quickly cross Highway 1 ( don't worry, unles you're really slow you shouldn't hit much traffic). Miwok meanders its way up to the Diaz Ridge. It'll be a fire Road. At this point you want to go to your left. You'll travel about a 100 yards and up and over a small bluff. Just past that you'll see the trail head for the next section of the Miwok Trail. Turn right and begin a long (2.9 miles +/-) gently sloped, downhill.
At the bottom of the hill, you'll come to a trail marker post. You want to veer to the right on this one. Within a 1/4 mile you'll hit the Franks Valley paved road. You'll cross that and begin your assault on the Second hill of the fabled Dipsea Race - otherwise known as "hogsback".
You can take the trail on this part of the race - or the fire road. (Whatever makes your boat float, man.) Eventually, you'll come to the top of the Cardiac - here you'll veer to the right and continue upwards - going into a forrested area. Once the road crests in the forrest, you should see a trail marker post on your right. That's the Old mine trail. Take it (it's prettier than running through the corporation yard of the the State Park folks).
Eventually, you'll find yourself @ Pantoll. There will folks there to help you cross Panoramic Highway and get back onto the Coastal/Matt Davis Trail. You'll run on this trail for about 4 miles or so. The first part will be fairly level and then after that, you'll head down hill for about 2 miles or so. And it's a beautiful, sometimes meandering and also precipitous downhill. Eventually, you'll wind up behind the Stinson Beach fire Department
From there, you'll head ( briefly) back up highway 1, cut the corner with Panoramic, cross Panoramic Highway and head back up the fabled Dipsea Trail as it traverses the Moors.
Upon leaving the Moors, you'll head down the fabled "Insult Hill" and back into the Steep Ravine area. From here you'll depart the Dipsea Trail opting to head up the bucolic Steep Ravine Trail. Grinding up Steep Ravine you'll eventually make it back to Pantoll, turn right and head back out the Old Mine trail to then finally get onto the Coastal Trail. If you're lucky or pretty slow, you should be in for some fabulous views of the Pacific Ocean and the S.F. Bay - with a sprinkling of the GG Bridge.
Near the bottom of the Coastal trail, you'll encounter a metal road gate. Here you'll turn left to head down the Heather Cut-off trail. Heather will wind you slowly back down to Franks Valley. You'll pass a horse coral on your right, slip through a run down picnic area and cross a springy bridge and finally come to a shabby volley ball pit. You'll head back up to the Franks Valley road to cross it and get onto the Redwood Creek trail. Heading kind of South to Southwest - you'll head over to Muir Beach. The trail will end dumping you out near and intersection of Franks Valley Road and Hwy. 1.
Be careful crossing here as there can be a lot of traffic in this area. You'll briefly wander down the Hwy 1 shoulder to turn Right at the Pelican Inn sign and take a left onto a Fire road that runs behind the Muir beach Parking lot. This Fire Road fronts some of the corrals that are part of the Green Gulch Zen center/organic farm ( in case you're interested).
You'll come to the Muir Beach Aid station, tank up and get back on the Coastal trail. The problem is, here it goes straight up. Grinding your way up the trail, again, if you're lucky -you'll be treated to more spectacular views of the pacific. About a 3/4's of a mile up from Muir Beach you'll come to a trail marker post - here you'll want to head right (Coastal). You'll go down a meandering, undulating trail that will work it's way down to near the Pirates cove area. Out of pirates cove is another brutal climb but, at least it's relatively short.
At the top of this climb, stay to your right and head down the Fire Road into Tennesse Valley for the second time ( you crossed the valley about 20 miles earlier and about a mile east of where you'll be crossing it this time). Enjoy the downhill because after crossing the valley you'll be treated to one of the most punishing climbs of the race. The dreaded "killer coastal" trail shows you why it earned that nickname in this next savage climb. The good news is - it's the last one. The bad news is, you have about a 2 mile downhill after that meat tenderizing uphill.
Near the top of the Ridge - you'll make a virtual U turn and start heading back down the ridge. Within a 100 feet or so of this turn - you'll hop off the paved road for a little roller coaster of a trail that prances along the descending Westerly part of the Wolf Ridge. From that point, you'll pick up another treacherous downhill after which you'll cruise through some old WWII vintage bunkers. Right after the bunkers, you'll turn right and stay on the Coastal as it snakes its way down the ramains of a large chunk of hillside that is working it's way back into the ocean. At some point, the course will hop onto a road and from there on - you stay on the road to you reach the long awaited finish!