⏵ Course guide · New Jersey trail festival
Wild Goose runs a full distance ladder, 10K up to a 36-hour 100 Mile, on three repeating loops (4.75, 5.5, and 7.75 miles) at Ringwood State Park in New Jersey. Sassquad Trail Running built it around generous cutoffs and one central aid station. I will walk you through the loop system and elevation by distance first, then give you a pacing and fueling plan for a repeating loop festival, plus free tools to dial in your own numbers.
These facts come from the official Sassquad Trail Running race page. The 2026 event moved to Ringwood State Park from its earlier Wawayanda venue, so check the current year location, cutoffs, and aid stations before you commit.
Every Wild Goose distance is built from combinations of three repeating trail loops at Ringwood State Park: 4.75, 5.5, and 7.75 miles, a great mix of hard-packed wide trail and technical singletrack with rocks and roots.
Wild Goose's longtime home, Wawayanda State Park, could not host the event in 2026 due to staffing, so the race moved to Ringwood State Park. Although Ringwood sits within the New Jersey Highlands, the loops used for Wild Goose avoid the park's steepest ridge terrain, keeping the course runnable for a field that spans a 10K to a 36-hour hundred.
Wild Goose runs one central aid station rather than scattering support around a point-to-point course. Combined with just a single hard cutoff on the final loop for the 100-mile field, the design is deliberate: organizers want runners and hikers out on course for the whole event window, not racing intermediate deadlines all day and night.
Because every distance is built from the same three loops, elevation gain scales predictably: roughly 1,200 feet for the 13.1 Mile up to about 11,025 feet for the full 100 Mile. Pick your distance knowing the vert commitment ahead of time rather than discovering it mid-race.
With only one hard cutoff for the longer distances, Wild Goose rewards sustainable, even effort across your loops rather than racing the clock all day.
A grade-adjusted pace target for the mixed hard-packed and technical loop terrain gives you an honest number to check your first loop against. Since every subsequent loop of the same length repeats the same terrain, that first split is directly useful for planning every loop after it.
With only a final-loop cutoff for the 100-mile distance, you have real room to pace conservatively early and still finish. A vert-aware finish prediction, built from your actual loop splits, tells you honestly whether you can afford an even, sustainable effort or need to push, well before the final loop arrives.
⏵ Free tools to pace this course
With one central aid station serving every loop, Wild Goose makes fueling logistics simple, structure your intake around regular loop returns.
Aim for roughly 60 to 90 grams of carbohydrate per hour. Because every loop (4.75, 5.5, or 7.75 miles) returns you to the same central aid station, you can plan carries in small, predictable chunks rather than guessing at long remote gaps.
Sodium in the 300 to 700 mg per liter range is a reasonable baseline for a mild mid-September New Jersey day. If you are running the 100 Mile or 100K, you will be out overnight, so plan a temperature-appropriate layering and fueling shift for the cooler hours as well as the daytime heat.
⏵ Build your fueling plan
Get a carb, sodium, fluid, and caffeine plan per hour built for your weight, your goal time, and a mid-September New Jersey day (and night, for the longer distances) with the free ultra fueling calculator. Browse the rest of the free running tools at the tools hub.
⏵ Train for it with Summit Line
Get a race-day plan built around YOUR fitness, this exact Ringwood loop profile, and your projected splits. Summit Line reads your real training, builds a plan for repeated loop racing at your chosen distance, and rehearses your fueling so race day is something you execute, not guess at.
Wild Goose's 100-mile event carries roughly 11,025 feet of elevation gain across repeating loops (4.75, 5.5, and 7.75 miles) at Ringwood State Park in New Jersey, with a generous 36-hour cutoff. Sassquad Trail Running designed the event to welcome newer ultra runners: there is only one hard cutoff on the 100-mile course, at the final loop, so you are never chasing an intermediate deadline the way you would on a course with cutoffs at every aid station.
The official race listing publishes per-distance elevation gain: roughly 11,025 feet for the 100 Mile, 6,502 feet for the 100K, 5,009 feet for the 50 Mile, 3,520 feet for the 50K, 1,870 feet for the 30K, and 1,200 feet for the 13.1 Mile. Since every distance is built from combinations of the same three loops (4.75, 5.5, and 7.75 miles), that vert accumulates steadily rather than from any single climb.
A mid-September race in northern New Jersey typically runs mild, though 100-mile and 100K runners will be out overnight and into a second day for the longer distances. Aim for roughly 60 to 90 grams of carbohydrate per hour and sodium in the 300 to 700 mg per liter range. With one central aid station serving repeating loops, you get frequent, predictable resupply, so plan your carries around loop length rather than long remote gaps. Build your numbers with the free ultra fueling calculator before race day.
The 100 Mile, 100K, and 50 Mile all share a 36-hour cutoff, with just one hard cutoff for the 100-mile field, on the final loop, so you are not chasing intermediate deadlines all race. The 50K has a 12-hour cutoff, and the 13.1 Mile and 5.5 Mile events get 10 hours. Organizers built the schedule deliberately so runners and hikers are out on course for the full event duration, not just the fastest finishers.
For 2026, Wild Goose moved to Ringwood State Park in Ringwood, New Jersey, after its previous venue, Wawayanda State Park, was unable to host due to staffing. The race starts and is based near the main entrance off Sloatsburg Road, close to Shepherd Lake, and although Ringwood sits in the New Jersey Highlands, the race uses trails that avoid the park's steepest ridge terrain.
Sassquad built Wild Goose specifically with newer ultra runners in mind: generous cutoffs, one central aid station on repeating loops, and staggered Saturday and Sunday start times so the course never empties out to just the leaders. If you want a first 100-mile buckle attempt with real structural support and a forgiving cutoff schedule, Wild Goose is designed for exactly that, more than most 100-mile races that put hard cutoffs at every aid station.
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<a href="https://runsummitline.com/guides/wild-goose-trail-festival">The Wild Goose Trail Festival course guide</a><iframe src="https://runsummitline.com/embed/race/wild-goose-trail-festival" style="width:100%;max-width:420px;height:180px;border:0;" loading="lazy" title="Wild Goose Trail Festival course guide by Summit Line"></iframe>This guide is independent and for planning only. The course details, dates, cutoffs, and aid stations come from public sources and can change year to year, so confirm the current specifics with the official race before you register or run. The fueling and pacing advice is general and not medical advice.
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