Goat Maps Web map
Sunrise over layered ridges of the Blue Ridge from Arnold Valley Overlook
Zach Plank / Unsplash

Hellgate 100K course map and aid stations

A point-to-point run through the Blue Ridge in December that starts one minute after midnight and that the organizer calls 66.6 miles.

December 11 to 12, 2026 Natural Bridge Station to Fincastle, Virginia

Hellgate starts at 12:01 AM on the second Saturday in December, at the Big Hellgate parking lot by Big Hellgate Creek, the northern end of the Glenwood Horse Trail. From there it runs southwest through the Blue Ridge, crossing the Blue Ridge Parkway at Petites Gap, Floyd's Field, Bobblet's Gap and Black Horse Gap, and finishes at Camp Bethel near Fincastle. David Horton started it in 2003 and still directs it. The 2026 race is the 24th.

The race calls itself 66.6 miles. The aid station miles in the 2026 application reach Camp Bethel at 62.5, and Horton's course map puts the finish at 62.4 "Horton miles". The map here uses the application's figures, so expect your watch to read more than the table.

You run the first six or seven hours in the dark. Expect orange blazes on the Glenwood Horse Trail, and reflective streamers at the tricky turns. The application calls National Geographic's Trails Illustrated map 789 the best map of the course. Download this map too: GPS shows where you are on it without a signal.

This is an unofficial guide: Goat Maps isn't affiliated with Hellgate 100K++. Check the official site before you enter or race.

Hellgate course map

Every course's aid stations on the Goat Maps topo map. Each course has a map of its own further down.

Download the Hellgate map to your phone

Save it in Goat Maps for a recce or race day. GPS shows where you are even without a signal.

Open in web map

Hellgate courses

CourseDistanceClimbingStartTime limit
100K++62.5 mi (101 km)Sat, Dec 12, 12:01 AM18 h

Hellgate 100K++

Big Hellgate to Camp Bethel on the Glenwood Horse Trail, gravel roads and the ridges either side of the Parkway.

Distance
62.5 mi (101 km)
Start
Sat, Dec 12, 12:01 AM
Time limit
18 h

Take this course offline

Download its map in Goat Maps and you can find the next aid station without a signal.

Open in web map

The first three miles are flat grassy road. A stream just before Forest Service Road 35 will get your feet wet, because the rocks are often too icy to cross on. Gravel road climbs from there to Petites Gap, gaining 1,200 feet, most of it near the top. A long gravel climb follows to Camping Gap.

Horton warns that Camping Gap to Headforemost Mountain is long and tough. It's 8.9 miles by the 2026 application and takes in the course's high point. It ends with a gravel road climb from Overstreet Falls to the aid station, half a mile before the course crosses the Parkway. That station moves lower when ice closes the Parkway, and its cutoff can move with it. Crews aren't allowed at Little Cove Mountain, at the top of a 1.9 mile climb up Yellowstone Road. Horton calls the stretch from there to Bearwallow Gap, 7.4 miles by the application, the second toughest section, and says Bobblets Gap to Day Creek "will seem like it goes on forever". From Day Creek it's 2.8 miles up, then down to Camp Bethel.

aid stations

miWhereCutoff
0Big Hellgate parking lot (start)
3.5Forest Service Road 35
8Petites Gap Crew
13.6Camping Gap
22.5Headforemost Mountain (Floyd's Field) Crew, Drop bagSat 6:40 AM
29Jennings Creek Crew
35.1Little Cove Mountain
42.5Bearwallow Gap Crew, Drop bagSat 12:30 PM
49.6Bobblets Gap Crew
56.8Day Creek Crew
62.5Camp Bethel (finish)
Evening sun over a wide valley seen from a wooded ridge on the Blue Ridge Parkway
Emma White / Unsplash

Getting in

Entry is on paper. You mail the application and a check to Dr. David Horton, listing the races you've finished in the last year, with times and places, plus older ones. The race committee takes runners it thinks can finish inside 18 hours, and wants to see several 50 milers and 100 milers on your record.

For 2026 the application set October 14 for picking about 100 runners from the applications received by then. The rest were carried over to October 30. If you aren't picked, your check is torn up and you're told so. There is no waiting list. The fee is $270, or $300 later: the application's rules say after November 5, its form after November 3. There are no refunds or transfers, and the application adds "DON'T EVEN ASK."

Camp Bethel and the drive to the start

Low evening light on a forested ridge above farm fields, seen from the Blue Ridge Parkway
Emma White / Unsplash

The race is based at Camp Bethel, 328 Bethel Road near Fincastle, about 10 miles north of Troutville. Check-in opens around 5 PM on Friday, December 11. A pasta dinner, free for runners, is around 6 PM, and the course briefing around 8 PM. At 10:50 PM everyone drives to the start.

The start is 26.8 miles from Camp Bethel, about 30 to 35 minutes by car and 2.3 miles from Natural Bridge Station. Don't drive there and leave your car. Horton rents a 12 to 16 passenger van for some runners and asks runners with crews to take the others. After the race there are showers at the finish, and you can stay at Camp Bethel on Saturday night for free.

Crewing and drop bags

Crews can meet you at every aid station except the first, third and sixth: Forest Service Road 35, Camping Gap and Little Cove Mountain. That leaves Petites Gap, Headforemost Mountain, Jennings Creek, Bearwallow Gap, Bobblets Gap and Day Creek. The roads between them are gravel, and Horton asks crews to drive slowly.

Drop bags are only for runners without a crew. You get one bag: it waits at Headforemost Mountain (mile 22.5), then goes on to Bearwallow Gap (mile 42.5). Those are also the two cutoffs, 6:40 AM at Headforemost and 12:30 PM at Bearwallow.

Weather and kit

A road through bare trees coated in ice and snow, on Bent Mountain, near Roanoke
Janeson Keeley / Unsplash

Horton calls December weather here "unpredictable". It might be 30 to 40°F at night and 50 to 60°F by day, or 20 to 30°F at night and 30 to 40°F by day. There was a foot of snow early in the course in 2003, with temperatures in the teens. In 2006 it reached 11°F and in 2016 8°F, and in 2021 freezing rain fell for the first 10 hours. If it's cold, wear glasses or goggles: the application warns of frozen eyeballs.

For a baseline, Roanoke's airport averages a December high of 50.0°F (10.0°C) and a low of 31.8°F (-0.1°C), with 3.2 inches of snow in the month. The ridges are higher and colder. Daylight doesn't come until 6:30 or 7:00 AM, so you'll want a good headlamp and spare batteries.

Hellgate aid stations and GPS coordinates

For crews and spectators: each place on the map in decimal degrees, latitude first. Paste them into any map app or add them as waypoints in Goat Maps.

  • Big Hellgate parking lot (start)

    37.60807, -79.48078

  • Forest Service Road 35

    37.56776, -79.48431

  • Petites Gap

    2,369 ft (722 m)

    37.55935, -79.45856

  • Camping Gap

    37.52237, -79.47087

  • Headforemost Mountain (Floyd's Field)

    37.48796, -79.54473

  • Jennings Creek

    37.47688, -79.60397

  • Little Cove Mountain

    37.50291, -79.63816

  • Bearwallow Gap

    1,237 ft (377 m)

    37.51105, -79.66965

  • Bobblets Gap

    2,113 ft (644 m)

    37.46624, -79.69973

  • Day Creek

    37.40886, -79.74872

  • Camp Bethel (finish)

    37.44059, -79.78652

Hellgate FAQ

When is Hellgate 100K 2026?

Saturday, December 12, 2026, starting at 12:01 AM, with an 18 hour limit. Check-in, dinner and the briefing are at Camp Bethel on Friday evening, December 11.

How long is Hellgate really?

The race says 66.6 miles. The 2026 application's aid station miles reach the finish at 62.5, and that is the distance in the table on this page. The course map gives the finish as 62.4 "Horton miles". A runner's review of the 2018 race puts Bearwallow Gap, 42.5 in the application, at 46.5 actual miles.

How do you get into Hellgate?

By mailed application. The race committee picks runners it thinks can finish in 18 hours, and expects several 50 and 100 milers behind them. For 2026 about 100 were to be picked on October 14 and the rest on October 30. There is no waiting list.

Is Hellgate a Western States qualifier?

Yes. Finish within 18 hours in 2026 and you can enter the December 4, 2027 lottery for the 2028 Western States 100.

What are the Hellgate cutoffs?

Two along the way: Headforemost Mountain (Floyd's Field, mile 22.5) by 6:40 AM and Bearwallow Gap (mile 42.5) by 12:30 PM. The Headforemost cutoff can change if the aid station has to move. The finish closes at the 18 hour limit.

What is the Hellgate course record?

Brian Culmo ran 10:10:38 in 2023, and Rachel Spaulding 11:59:06 in 2021.

Try Goat Maps free.

Topo and satellite maps, slope angle shading, public land, track recording, waypoints and GPX import are free. Membership adds offline maps and the route planner for $29.99 a year.

Or open the web map

Updated . An unofficial guide, from the organizer's published information. Coordinates from the organizer's course and OpenStreetMap contributors. Photos from Unsplash. Organize a race? We help with course files.