Consistency Wins: Hunter Lake Road

DB C&PP 75lb x 10 x 1
run Hunter Lake Road 12 miles 2:24:00 (3000 feet of elevation gain)

Hunter Lake Road is a dirt road behind Caughlin Ranch in Reno. It is 7 miles from the trailhead to the "lake" (more on that below). When you are in downtown Reno you can see Peavine mountain to the north and a random, nameless mountain to the south, which sort of serves as very extended foothills to Mt. Rose. Hunter Lake is up in these foothills and partially feeds Hunter Creek and the waterfall I ran to late last week.

It's not the greatest run (all rutted, rocky 4x4 road and the elevation gain is pretty serious for not too much scenery), but if you are interested in running it, you take Village Green Parkway to Pinebluff Circle and then drive up the dirt road about 1/4 mile to the power station.

Here are some pictures from the run:

South Reno from early in the run, just after the sun came up. You can see the burnt hills in the foreground from the same fire that nearly burned down my house.

Sunrise

Most of the run looks like this. 3000' uphill on a 4x4 road.

Peavine Mountain

"Dan Man" (check the license plate) is so screwed. The truck was abandoned - he had about a 4 mile walk out from this point.

Solid sheet ice (about 2 feet thick) leading up to the Dan Man Mobile. No tow truck is making it up here, so I hope Dan Man has a few buddies with serious 4x4's and come-alongs.

The farther up you go (about 5 miles from the car at this point), the crappier the road gets.

Nice terrain once you get up higher.

Hunter Lake in the distance (it's at the stand of aspens). I stopped about 1 mile prior to the lake. I didn't have time to go the whole way, and as you can see below, there isn't much to see anyway.

I took this 2 years ago at "Hunter Lake". I have no idea why they even call it a lake because it just looks like a marsh to me.

This shot is about 6 miles from the car and 1 mile from Hunter Lake. Hunter Lake is at the grey spot on the left. As you can see, there is a TON of country out here. You could run a 50 mile race in these hills (not very exciting scenery though).