Thunder River

Thunder River starts and finishes at Marine Park in Cascade Locks, on the Oregon side of the Columbia River Gorge. The 50K is a lollipop: through town, under the Bridge of the Gods onto the State Historic Trail, then along the Gorge 400 Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail out to an 11.5 mile loop on newly built trail toward Wyeth, and back the same way. It covers 31.3 miles with about 4,500 feet of climbing, past Pacific Crest Falls, the Herman Creek pinnacles and Thunder Island.

The race is generally runnable, with short steep climbs and long open talus slopes where the trail turns rocky. A 25K runs point to point from the Wyeth Trailhead the same morning.

The first edition was in November 2025. Daybreak Racing, which also puts on the Hood Hundred, Backcountry Rise and Perpetua Coast, runs it as the last race of its year.

A lollipop loop from Marine Park with four aid stations, two of them open to crew. Mostly rocky, somewhat technical singletrack with smooth dirt sections and some intermittent paved path in the back half connecting trail segments. The loop uses recently constructed trail toward Wyeth. The race is cupless, and the Forest Service requires every runner to use the boot brushes at check-in for invasive species.

Open sign-up on UltraSignup, priced in three tiers from May 1, with no lottery and no qualifying standard. The race publishes no field cap. Elite entries are held back for professional runners who write in.