Returning Spring of 2025! (Dates TBD)
In 2024 we will be taking the year off from the wild n’ wonderful Wandering Idiot Festival of Hills 6, 12, and 24 Hour Trail Races. As sad as we are to defer this unique and wonderful event, we are grateful to make some much needed improvements and additions to our one-of-a-kind hill festivities for 2025!
This is like no other race you have ever run! This is a loop course featuring hills, wildscapes, festivities, food, camping, and inexplicable goings-on... all in one of the most beautiful settings you will ever run in... a window into California as it once was. Stay tuned for news and updates, and we can’t wait to see you in 202
Hills x N, where N = the number of hills.
We are so excited to welcome you back to Wonderland Running’s wild n’ wonderful Wandering Idiot Festival of Hills 6, 12, and 24 Hour Trail Races. This is like no other race you have ever run! This is a loop course featuring hills, wildscapes, festivities, food, camping, and inexplicable goings-on... all in one of the most beautiful settings you will ever run in... a window into California as it once was.
Taking place on a stunningly beautiful 6,500-acre Coast Range wildscape preserve and farm animal sanctuary in Northern California, The Wandering Idiot is truly like no other race you will ever run.
Nestled beneath Snow Mountain Wilderness and Mendocino National Forest, you will run through pristine wildscapes with ancient oaks, seldom-visited valleys, and vast, breathtaking views. The course features an 8.2 mile loop with almost 2,000 feet of vert... because it’s a Festival of Hills!! Each loop begins and ends at a spacious, fully equipped hall with showers, restrooms, food, drink, and comfortable sleeping facilities. This race will dazzle the senses and stir the soul. There will be costumes, light tunnels, music, and mysterious goings-on that can only be experienced, not explained.
Your registration includes unlimited camping, a full pre-race dinner, fully stocked aid stations, showers, whimsical finishers awards, inscrutable shenanigans, and hills.
There will be cash prizes for the best costume as well as cash prizes for the winners of the women’s events! There will also be a best mystery achievement, which is dubious at best.
We are oh so excited to see you this coming April in what promises to be one of the most unique beautiful, unique, and memorable races you will ever run… so bring your endurance, your costumes, your sense of humor, and your sense of wonder to one of the most memorable races you will ever run!!
These races take place on the ancestral lands taken from the Nomlaki and Patwin peoples, who lived upon and cared for these lands for thousands of years.
Outline of Events:
Friday, April 28, 2023:
1:00 PM: The ranch and camping opens for runners and crew
2:30 PM: Runner check-in & race packet pick-up begins
6:30 PM: Race overview & a PowerPoint presentation about stuff
7:30 PM: Dinner begins (taco bar!!!)
8:30 PM: Fire and Air Ceremony
10:30 PM: The Ranch Hall and Wandering Idiot Facilitators go night night... and maybe you should too!
Saturday, April 29, 2023:
6:00 AM: Ranch Hall is open, along with breakfast yummies and the costume photo booth!
7:45 AM: 24 Hour pre-race briefing
8:00 AM: The 24 Hour Race begins!
10:45 AM: 12 Hour pre-race briefing
11:00 AM: The 12 Hour Race begins!
1:45 PM: 6 Hour pre-race briefing
3:00 PM: The 6 Hour Race begins!
9:00 PM: Finish line cut-off for the 6 Hour Race
11:00 PM: Finish line cut-off for the 12 Hour Race
Sunday, April 30, 2023:
8:00 AM: Finish line cut-off for the 24 Hour Race
9:00 AM: Wandering Idiot Awards & Closing Ceremony
2:00 PM: Runners must be out of their campsites and departing
Awards:
Best Costume Award:
There will be a cash prize for the best costume! Go ahead and be as whimsical, wild, or weird as you wish! To qualify for the best costume prize, you must wear your costume while on course for a minimum of six (6) hours.
Top Women’s Finishers Award:
This year the Wandering Idiot Festival of Hills will have cash prizes for the winners of the women’s events. Speed off now up a hill or three. You're fast... congratulations!
Mystery Achievement Award:
There will be a relatively useless prize for the best mystery achievement! The Mystery Achievement Award will be done by Wandering Idiot Facilitators via secret ballot upon the conclusion of all races. You will never be told why you won the award, though there is a very decent chance you might know in your heart why you earned it. Best wishes to all aspiring prize-getters from the Wandering Idiot Facilitators!
All Finishers:
Anyone who completes at least one loop is a finisher... run, walk, dance, or crawl!! Yes, you are a finisher! Nice job, Wandering Idiot! All finishers will receive something you'll be proud to wear, and something else that you almost definitely don't want to wear. You're welcome.
The exact amount of the 2023 Wandering Idiot Festival Of Hills cash awards will be based upon final registration totals and will be announced at a later date. Best wishes to all aspiring prize-getters from the Wandering Idiot Facilitators!
Event's current local time: 5:55 AM PT
