In the fall of 1991, a notice appeared in the back of Ultrarunning magazine advertising the emergence of a new 100-mile run through the San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado.
The man behind the ad was Gordon Hardman, a Boulder resident whose enthusiasm for the event was unaffected by his relative inexperience in the region. He roped in Telluride local John Cappis to develop a route that connected the four major mining towns of Silverton, Telluride, Ouray, and Lake City, mostly using historic mining trails and paths. The event was conceived as a “postgraduate” level run, requiring years of mountain experience, hard-earned fitness, and previous 100-mile finishes.
By January of 1992, a preliminary route using USGS survey maps was born, as Charlie Thorn of Los Alamos, New Mexico, joined the team around the time they received permits for the route. Six months later, in June, Thorn and Cappis, as well as Rick Trujillo and Dale Garland, began to scout the route, testing its viability and tweaking the course. While they were excited about their passion project, they had no idea what it would become.
“It was never our…
