Return of the runners

MCKENZIE BRIDGE: Determination, resilience, and the courage to start a 50k run combined to carry participants over the finish line of this year’s McKenzie River Trail Run.

During the day runners traveled a route that started at the Carmen Reservoir, traveled up the Waterfall Trail, and crossed the McKenzie Highway above Sahalie Falls, wound around Clear Lake on the McKenzie River Trail (MRT), then continued up to the Santiam Wagon Road.

The return route then backtracked down on the Clear Lake Trail to the lake’s outlet crossed back across the highway and the bridge above Sahalie, and down the MRT all the way back to the finish line across from the McKenzie Ranger Station.

June 8th marked the event’s 37th year and its placeholder as Oregon’s oldest continuous ultra race.

Winners this year in the men’s division were Ian Fuller, 1st place at 3:56:33, Torrey Lindobo, 2nd at 4:02:18, and Zachary Holloway, 3rd at 4:07:16. The first woman across the finish line was Megan Myers whose time of 4:20:54 qualified for 8th place, Rachel Bainbridge’s 4:25:47 for 12th, and followed by next place runner Michelly Donnelly’s time of 4:26:52.

As in the past, all net proceeds from the event are donated to non-profit groups in the McKenzie River Valley.