Sharlie Shuffle

SATURDAY, JUNE 3, 2024. PONDEROSA STATE PARK  [MCCALL, IDAHO]  
2024 RACE REGISTRATION LINKS:
REGISTER HERE FOR IN-PERSON (JUNE 1)
​REGISTER HERE FOR VIRTUAL (JUNE 1-30)

IN-PERSON RACE DAY SCHEDULE:
12-hour: 7 AM – 7 PM // Check-in starts at 6:30 AM
6-hour: 9 AM – 3 PM // Check-in starts at 8:30 AM

As with all of our FUNdraising trail races, all proceeds go to local trails. This race is a fundraiser for Ponderosa State Park! Which means registration fees, donations, and any additional proceeds outside of permit fees and awesome aid go directly back to local Northwest trails, and specifically to Ponderosa State Park trails! Which also means you can feel doubly good about your registration fees and any additional donations you make being put to good use. (It also means we’ll give you extra high-fives of gratitude every lap you run.)

As McCall locals, these are Matt & Kerri’s beloved backyard trails, which means we’re very passionate about them, and extremely grateful for the opportunity to work with Ponderosa State Park to ensure these trails get the continued love and support they need to thrive.

WHY LOOPS?
Because they’re a blast! (And also deceptively tough!) In case you haven’t noticed from our other fundraising trail races–Cottontail and Carkeek (now in its 18th year!)—we really dig timed loop events. They’re ridiculously fun [ridiculously tough, too], minimize our impact on the trails and other trail-users, and we often have runners come out and run their farthest distance, simply because they’re having such a good time.

That’s the beauty of timed loop events: You can sign up and run for two hours, or four hours, or six hours, OR make our day and [be a total baller, and] run for all twelve hours. 

No matter how long you choose to stay and play, we’ll be there all day long to count your laps and cheer you on and motivate you with star stickers and awesome, locally-sourced raffle prizes, and feed you tasty homemade goodies and great ultra fare until your legs stop wanting to go out on more loops. [And even then, we’ll create a smaller loop for you to run when you run out of time for a longer loop, because perpetually encouraging you to run more loops is a job we take seriously.]

LEAVE NO TRACE 
In addition to being tough and F-U-N, our races are also low-impact. You won’t find any paper products at the Sharlie Shuffle, and we avidly support local businesses, which means prizes and awesome aid are frequently from McCall-area businesses. We aim to have less than ONE bag of trash at race-day’s end, and in all our years of directing races, that’s a goal we proudly hit every year. 

THE COURSE
4.79 miles of varied trail terrain, every single loop. Gain per loop is right around 640′. Trust us when we tell you it’ll hurt (so good).

With gorgeous views of Payette Lake, varied terrain [rolling trails, rocky trails, flat trails, stairs and boardwalks, lots of single-track, some double-track, and even some of pavement], and a festive atmosphere, we think this is a race you [and your family, and friends, and well-behaved, leashed dogs] will just keep coming back to, one 4.79-mile-loop at a time. Each loop has just enough gain to keep you honest and enough varied terrain to keep you on your toes, so this “race” will definitely challenge you. But we promise you’ll love it (even when you hate it). 

If this description of the event feels somewhat vague, don’t worry–We promise we send out more detailed info to all registered participants as we get closer to race-weekend. But if you’re looking for maps or an elevation profile, you’re not going to find that here. Or anywhere.

Part of the fun of the Sharlie Shuffle is how low-key and old-school it is, which means we like to keep the course a secret for participants until race-day, and we don’t sweat the small stuff (and hopefully you don’t either!). We hand-make our bibs and “medals,” count laps with star stickers, and we’ve worked with the Park to hand-pick a brutally beautiful and sustainable course for you to run, so basically we’re trying to tell you that you’re in for a really really FUN day. 
BUT WHY SHARLIE? 
Because who doesn’t want to run a race named after a mythical lake monster? By the end of the day, it’s likely you’ll be shuffling a bit, and you just may have seen Sharlie out there somewhere, too.

The Sharlie Shuffle is also GREAT training for any sort of tough and mentally demanding long summer or fall race (think: IMTUF 100, Bear 100, Run Rabbit Run, Western States, Hardrock, Fat Dog 120, Wasatch 100, etc.), for helping you run longer distances than you previously thought possible, and for making you feel simultaneously so proud and like you want to cry by the end of the day (it’s all very confusing, and very awesome). 

LODGING
One of the reasons for moving to the weekend after Memorial Day is that the campgrounds at Ponderosa State Park will be open and reservable. If you’re not excited about camping, you should also be able to snag some decently priced “off-season” rates at nearby hotels and/or Airbnbs/VRBOs. Definitely find a warm place to sleep the night before the race, because temperatures will likely still be quite cold in the mornings and evenings here in our beloved mountains, and there is no overnight parking/car-camping anywhere in Ponderosa State Park outside of the campground, where reservations are recommended.

WEATHER
Namely, there will be some. This is early June in the mountains, which means it’s likely to be highly variable, both temperature-wise and in potential precipitation. Bring solid layers (especially some warmer, waterproof ones), and you should be ready, come what may (unintentional pun!). Most years it is a nice mix of sunny and warm, wet and chilly, and for a few minutes at a time, we have even seen snow. That said, everyone on the course hardly noticed the somewhat tempestuous weather, and stayed plenty warm as long as they continued moving. The trails themselves should be in great shape, and mostly if not completely dry by race-day. (We don’t ever run irresponsibly on muddy trails, and if and when we need to, we’ll re-route our courses to avoid the potential of doing damage to any trails.)