Rocky Course

Rocky Course

Huntsville State Park map

Aid Stations

Course Picture Tour

Course Design
100mi	The 100mi has changed very little over the years, with minor changes at the turn-around points and aid station loications. It is 5 loops 20miles each.
50mi	The 50mi is also the same route as it has been the last few years. It is 3 loops 16.67miles each.

Terrain

The course is almost all dirt. There is one short 100 yard long section as you enter and leave the aid station at Raven Lodge. The entire course is within the park. The route switches between sections that are jeep road and single track. The single track is wonderful and the jeep road is bearable. There are numerous wood bridges. Most are very short but there are a few that are approx 100 yards. There are very few rocks on the course but there are quite a few roots. The course is entirely under a tall growth of pines and the trail is soft with pine needles for much of it. All of this land is in a low lying swamp like area that usually drains well, but when it does rain, there are sections on the course that are messy to get through. All in all, it has minimal amount of elevation gain and can be extremely fast.

Most of the names we use here where invented by us, but some actually belong here.
InterpretiveCenter	The building on the main park road where we cross the road going out and where we turn back into the final one mile finish.
InsideLoop	The main single track loop that avoids all the out and backs. Start and finish from the Interpretive Center
AmysCrossing	The low water crossing area on the jeep road where you leave the trail for the jeep road up to the highway. Again when you return, you cross Amys just before you turn again onto the next single track.
HighwayLoop	From Amys to the Highway Station and back again.
FarSideLoop	From the Dam Road to the Far Side station and back again.
LodgeLoop	From the Interpretive Center to the Lodge and back again
Raven Lodge	The Lodge at the start-finish-turnaround.
Site174	The aid station at camp site #174.
DamRoad	The aid station at the intersection of the perimeter road and the road to the dam
FarSide	The aid station at the end of the long out and back on the parks outer perimeter
Highway	The aid station at the end of the jeep road leading up to the highway access gate

Why the new changes

The 100mile course is much the same as it has been long before I took over. I felt there was a need for an aid station at the end of the long out and back, thus the Far Side station. It is painful to manage but well worth the pain. I did everything I could to make this course less loops, but with the limited trail distance, the best I could do was to make the 50 mile course one less loop by increasing the distance of the loop. Also, the 50 miler had an abnormal gap between the highway station and Site 174 on the old course. By backing up the old 3/4 station to the Dam Road, mostly to get it on higher and dryer ground. This also pulled all the stations closer together, thus making the gap between the stations less.