Mill Valley’s rugged Dipsea steps ready for race after renovation
Jonathan Pinski’s dog, Chunky Chunks, sits on a fence next to the recently rebuilt Dipsea steps as a pair of visitors try out the new stairway.
A group of runners and hikers has just finished rebuilding the famous Dipsea Stairs in Mill Valley, the grueling first leg of the oldest trail footrace in the country.
The group, members of the Dipsea Race Foundation, raised about $450,000 for a complete overhaul of the three lengthy flights of steps that lead uphill from Old Mill Park to Edgewood Avenue in Mill Valley.
Some runners believe the steps, just under a mile long and so steep that climbing them is the equivalent of going up the stairway of a 50-story building, are the toughest part of the 7½-mile race from Mill Valley to the ocean.
The town was laid out around an old sawmill at the end of the 19th century. Most of the new town was flat, but Mill Valley also includes steep hillsides, accessible at first only by footpaths and stairs. So the three flights of stairs are public pathways,
owned by the town.
Still, over the years the steps fell into disrepair. The renovation project was paid for by private donors, who bought plaques on each step for $1,700, a gift to the town and to tradition.
“A labor of love,” said Guy Palmer, the contractor who did the work.
The three flights of steps might just be a local landmark were it not for the noted Dipsea Race, which began in 1905 when members of San Francisco’s Olympic Club organized a footrace from the Mill Valley railroad station over the hills to the newly opened Dipsea Inn in Stinson Beach.
The race, an instant hit, has been run almost every year since. The first event for women, who weren’t allowed to compete initially, was in 1918.
The first leg of the race — up the three flights of steps — seems to be the toughest, but it’s just the beginning.
The course runs up Throckmorton Ridge to a place called Windy Gap, down into Muir Woods and then up and down hills to the ocean. It’s tough, steep and treacherous, with a downhill stretch named Suicide and a long climb up Cardiac Hill that have contributed to making the race famous. It draws runners from all over the world, so many that the Dipsea is now limited to 1,500 runners.
However, a complicated handicap system that takes into consideration age and speed makes it possible to have multiple winners. One year an 8-year-old girl won; another time the Dipsea champ was in his 70s.
One of the legends of the race was Jack Kirk, the Dipsea Demon, who ran the Dipsea 67 consecutive times. Kirk, a famously eccentric type, lived in the Gold Country in a shack without electricity or running water. He ran his last complete race in 2002, and started — but did not finish — the next year at age 96.
A movie called “The Dipsea Demon” was made about Kirk, and there is a plaque in his honor at the top of the last flight of steps. His famous maxim is inscribed in metal on it. “Old Dipsea runners never die. They just reach the 672nd step.”
There were 671 steps in Kirk’s day; after reconstruction there are now 690.
There is also a metal plaque at the foot of the second flight to honor Riley, the Dipsea dog, who never participated in an official race but ran with his human family on 27 complete training runs.
But the Dipsea steps are more than just part of a race course. They are used every day by hikers, runners and locals as the only direct route from the hillside to downtown Mill Valley.
“These steps are in use 24 hours a day,” said James Borella, who lives on Marion Avenue at the foot of the second flight. “They are part of the aura of Marin and Mount Tamalpais.”
Borella ought to know, because the steps run right by his doorstep. He’s installed a small fountain near the steps so passing dogs can have a drink. He calls it the Kiowa/ Scruffy Memorial Fountain in honor of two of his animals.
As Dipsea Stairs Renovation Project manager Eric Ellisen and Merv Regan, president of the Dipsea Race Foundation, stood talking about the project at the foot of the new second flight, the
newest patron of the steps passed by. He name is Teddy Sherero, who is 3 weeks old. He was being carried up and down the steps by his mother, Barbara.
“He likes it,” she said. “He likes the view.”
Ellisen and Regan like to talk about the nuts and bolts of the project, which was pretty much finished in November. This was an overhaul of the second of the three flights, 234 stairs between Marion Way and Hazel Avenue.
The entire project, rebuilding the Dipsea steps a flight at a time, took 10 years. What’s left is installing a few more plaques. A ceremony will be held next spring, Ellisen said.
The first project was to rebuild the top flight of 143 steps, completed in 2007. The first flight, up from Old Mill Park, came next — 313 steps. The middle flight came last, mostly because it was the most difficult. The stairs, many of them wooden, were decrepit and rotten.
“Some were concrete, anchored by old railroad ties and worn and slippery when wet,” Palmer said. And there was a sewer line right down the middle, underneath the stairs.
A few plaques are still available at $1,700 each, from the Dipsea Race Foundation, P.O. Box 10, Mill Valley, CA 94942.