Big Pines Trail Marathon through San Gabriel Mountains brought runners out to test their endurance – Press Enterprise

Long before modern ultramarathon events became popular, The Big Pines Trail Marathon challenged athletes to a grueling 40-mile footrace over rugged trails in the San Gabriel Mountains. The course traversed towering peaks, ridges, and canyons, and had an elevation gain of more than 10,000 feet.

For perspective, the standard course for a marathon today is 26.22 miles and typically run on roads.

The first Big Pines Trail Marathon was held Aug. 22, 1934, and was sponsored by the Los Angeles County Parks Department, based out of Big Pines Park near Wrightwood

Big Pines Park was a 5,000-acre, four-season recreation area, opened in 1924, and operated by the Los Angeles County Parks Department.

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More than 20 athletes participated in the first race that included members from various Southern California Boy Scout Troops, boys’ clubs and trail clubs.

The course for the 1934 trail marathon was described in the August 1934, issue of Trail Magazine:

“The route — starting at Jackson Lake at an elevation of 6,000 feet, it leads over the Blue Ridge Range at 7,800 feet, down to the Big Rock-Vincent Gulch divide, 6,500 feet, up 4 miles by 38 switchbacks to the summit of Mt. Baden-Powell, 9,389 feet, back to the head of Big Rock, and east along the summit of Blue Ridge, over Lookout Peak, 8,505 feet, east over Wright Mountain to the Prairie Fork-Lytle Creek divide at 7,800 feet, over Pine Mountain, 9,661 feet, and Mt. Dawson, 9,551 feet, to the summit of Mt. San Antonio [Mt. Baldy], 10,080 feet. Turning back here, crossing again the saddle at the head of Lytle Creek to the Oak Canyon trail [today’s Acorn Trail], down through Wrightwood and up to Big Pines Park, where the finish line is at the Davidson Arch, elevation 6,864 feet.”

Several miles of the course were on trails that later became part of the Pacific Crest Trail, which runs from Mexico to Canada.

If running long distances at high elevations over precipitous terrain wasn’t challenging enough, each runner had to carry a pack that was 10% of his body weight, not including food and water.

The race started at 5 p.m. at Jackson Lake, at the western end of Big Pines Park. The course would have been extremely challenging in the daylight, and these runners would have to run most of the rugged trail alone in the dark, using heavy flashlights and equipment that wasn’t designed for trail running. As a partial offset, the sponsors scheduled the races on nights with a full moon.

Paul V. Engelhart, a 24-year-old assistant Scout master of Los Angeles B.S.A. Troop No. 123, was the winner of the first Big Pines marathon. He completed the course in 14 hours, 45 minutes, 15 seconds.

In 1935, the newspapers touted the second Big Pines Trail Marathon as “The Greatest Endurance Test in The West” and called the participants “leather-lunged.”

The 1935 mountain marathon started Aug. 13, 1935, and had a different, but equally challenging course. The marathon began and ended at the Davidson Arch, the center of Big Pines Park, on today’s Highway 2.

Runners left the starting line at 10 minutes intervals. Nine check-in sites with flashing beacons were set up so the runners could see the lights in the darkness.

With each passing year, the popularity of the Big Pines Trail Marathon grew. The Aug. 23, 1937, edition of the Los Angeles Times reported that “thousands of spectators watched the event” held the day before.

In the 1937 event, the runner’s progress was relayed by short-wave radio operators who set up remote broadcasting stations on Mount Baden-Powell and Mount Baldy. The runners had to check in at stations along the route manned by volunteers and the U.S. Forest Service.

A.L. Monteverde, veteran of 117 marathons throughout the U.S. and Canada was running the trail marathon that year. Engelhart, winner of the first three evenrs, was also running and hoping to break his record of 13 hours, 13 minutes.

At 6:10 am, on Aug. 22, 23-year-old Ray Ebel crossed the finish line at the Davidson Arch, with a time of 13 hours, 3 minutes. Don Wood of Alhambra was second, with a time of 18 hours, 23 minutes. Monteverde dropped out after a few hours, apparently unprepared for the rigors of high-elevation trail running.

Based on available records, it appears the 1938 Big Pines Trail Marathon was the last such event. In the late 1930s, Los Angeles County was struggling with its parks budget and activities at Big Pines Park were scaled back.

The fifth and (apparently) final Big Pines Trail Marathon started at 5 p.m. Aug. 13, 1938, at the Davidson Arch. The 40-mile course used a group of rugged trails from the arch at Big Pines to Crystal Lake, and back. This year the course did not include the 10,000-foot summit of Mount Baldy, and the highest point on the route was the 9,399-foot summit of Mount Baden-Powell.

Five remote radio transmitters were set up by local amateur radio operators working under the California Forestry Medical Corps, and they were able to keep a close eye on the runner’s positions throughout the course.

Only six of the 13 starters finished the 1938 race. Charles Melhorn, a popular member of the Big Pines Ski Club and third-place finisher in the 1937 race, crossed the finish line first with a time of 9 hours, 23 minutes. Wood came in second at 9 hours, 40 minutes; and Ted Baker came in third at 13 hours, 51 minutes.

A tragic fatality occurred in the 1938 race, when a trail worker fell 200 feet to his death near Mine Gulch, southeast of Mount Baden-Powell.

In July 1941, L.A. County turned over all facilities at Big Pines Park to the U.S. Forest Service. The Forest Service slowly closed and removed the camping and picnic facilities and much of the property was turned back to nature.

Endurance races are still popular in the San Gabriel Mountains. The Angeles Crest 100 endurance race, or AC 100, is held each year and it uses some of the old Big Pines Trail Marathon course between Wrightwood and Mount Baden-Powell. It’s one of only six point-to-point 100-mile runs in the United States.