Trail runs for the fun of it

If you’d like to expand your trail-running adventures farther up the coast, this site can connect you with courses and races off the beaten local track.

With a motto of “runs that aren’t races in beautiful places,” the website offers trail enthusiasts a choice of runs from Morro Bay to the Carmel Valley, organized by Pacific Coast Trail Runs.

The runs detailed here span eight to 50 kilometers astride some spectacular backdrops, such as Montana de Oro State Park, south of Morro Bay, through centuries-old redwoods in the Santa Cruz Mountains, to Muir Beach.

Courses are designed more for taking in the scenery than trophies and emphasize the accomplishment of completing the event. But the site covers all the key race details: handy aid stations, well-marked trails, accurately measured distances and the camaraderie of other enthusiasts at a relatively modest cost. Awards are given to the first female and male finishers.

But no matter where you come in with the group, all finishers get a hot bowl of soup or chili and a T-shirt to remember some hard-won landscape viewing.

-- Michael Koehn