Peralta Canyon Trailhead - Lost Dutchman Marathon

[Nighthiker]

Lost Dutchman Marathon is this Sunday and Peralta Canyon Trailhead will be restricted most of the morning.

[SuperstitionGuy]

Road to Peralta was graded today 2-16-06 all the way to the turn off for the Gold Mine Trail Head. Excellent condition until the next heavy rains.....

[SuperstitionGuy]

oops - forget the description of "excellent". With the traffic of the Lost Dutchman Marathon the road is now like a washboard. Perhaps they should have graded it after the Marathon!

[Dschur]

Well this year is the same date as in 2006. The road will be closed to traffic for the Lost Dutchman Marathon starting at 5 am... And will reopen about 8-9 I think... US60 is to have traffic lanes blocked as well as some other of the road in AJ.. check out their website if you want more info....

[Dschur]

So don't forget about the Marathon this weekend ... On Sunday

[trekkin_gecko]

lost dutchman marathon is sunday 2-18-24

https://www.lostdutchmanmarathon.org/

[FOTG]

@trekkin_gecko
Does that impact getting into Peralta?

[trekkin_gecko]

Yes, marathon route goes down Peralta canyon road.
Cluster until 9ish?
@fotg

It starts at Don's camp at 0700

[FOTG]

@trekkin_gecko
I found a course map for the race and some details on the page, do you have a link showing actual TH closures and etc?

[trekkin_gecko]

I don't have anything more than the link I posted above
@fotg
I'm just going to avoid the area tomorrow
Go west young man
Or north
Or south

[FOTG]

@trekkin_gecko
Figures we were going to backpack into the Supes from Peralta tomorrow, glad we restricting access to half a wilderness area for a fun run though, thanks for the heads up, never crossed my mind, until I saw your post…

[trekkin_gecko]

1000 start time might be okay
@fotg

[ShatteredArm]

@FOTG
I doubt the road is actually closed. Haven't seen any indication of that. It'll probably be really annoying trying to drive to the TH during a 60 minute window after the race start, though.

[chumley]

@ShatteredArm I had the same thought, but the videos from past marathons made me reconsider. I don't see how there could be vehicle traffic permitted to share that road with the participants in this event.

The race is limited to 400 participants, so it's not exactly the Boston Marathon, and the runners should clear the 6 miles in under 2 hours for sure.

FWIW, this has been a forum topic here on HAZ in the past, (not just farther up in this thread), with old skool regulars participating in the race and posting about it. I suspect that if the road was not closed for a couple of hours at the start of the race the firsthand participants might have commented.

It sure would be nice if the Pima Co Sheriff or Tonto NF posted something about it though. It might not be hugely impactful, but there are probably a couple dozen vehicles who might otherwise head out that way during the event.

[AZLumberjack]

Trying to get out to the Museum or the Ghost Town on the Apache Trail can be frustrating at the Hitching Post as the runners have the right-of-way on Lost Dutchman Rd. so traffic can get backed up pretty bad.

[ShatteredArm]

@chumley
Yeah, I actually heard from a friend today that they do close the road for a couple of hours. But I do think with under 400 runners, there shouldn't be a problem having runners stick to the right side of the road, while allowing non-race traffic through in the other direction. They never close forest roads for ultramarathons.

[FOTG]

We ended up just cancelling, I agree @chumley, I went to the forest service page for Peralta and not even a mention of the race. @Shatteredarm, when I drove by at 7:15 a.m. on the 60 there was def some traffic control things set up on Peralta and a police car, but I also saw a couple cars turn left on to Peralta too. So IDK, maybe we should have tried it after all. I just didn’t want to try it at 9 or 10 and then have to deal with the Renaissance stuff too. As it was, the 10 east and 60 east had closures, lol, what a morning.

[chumley]

@ShatteredArm I believe the issue here is that Peralta Road is not a forest road and is under county control (mostly state trust land). There’s some propaganda online about how much economic impact the event has for the local economy blah blah blah.

[ShatteredArm]

@chumley
That's an interesting argument, considering the economic impact of the marathon was likely a drop in the bucket compared to RenFest and the throngs of people I saw out at Tortilla Flat and Goldfield Ghost Town. And with how many people gave up and turned around while waiting for traffic to be let through on Apache Trail, a negative economic impact is a real possibility.