Crater Lake Run

If your Internet connection was slow Monday night, it's because I was uploading all the photos for this post. The scenery was spectacular on this route, so I took 400+ photos; now that's some training volume.

Distance was 22.04 miles, moving time 4:57 (total 7:12!), and elevation gain 3,462 feet. Elevation range was 8,300 - 10,400 feet.

The core run to Crater Lake was about 18 miles round trip, because I ran along the side of Crater and did some small extra detours. I clocked roughly 6 hours for that portion, but a fast runner could probably do it in 4 hours with plenty of time for stopping.

Average moving pace was 13:29 min/mile, which is good for me given the steady climbing, and indicates the overall runnability of the trails.

Monarch Lake
To get to the Cascade Creek Trail, you either have to go over 12,500-foot Pawnee Pass and descend a few thousand feet, or drive to the Lake Granby area. I'd already done the former by doing this tough loop. This time I opted for the Monarch Lake trailhead, so I could focus on getting up to Lone Eagle Peak and have a more relaxed outing.

The first part of the trail follows the left side of the lake, and is a mix of small meadows and pine forest with some slight exposure, with a good grade for running and maybe a dozen rockier ascents.

There's also an alternate trail around the right (south) side of the lake at the beginning, which follows the shoreline about 100-200 feet up in the forest and merges with the other trail after the lake. It's on a north slope so it's shaded.

The lake is also the western start of trails to Arapaho Pass and Devils Thumb Pass.

The first several miles are mellow running through woods and meadows at a moderate incline. There's enough terrain variation to keep it from getting too monotonous if you do a lot of this type of running: meadows, creeks, rocky hillsides, big boulders and flowers and vegetation of every kind.


Cascade Creek lives up to its name, and above the Buchanan Creek junction things really start to get interesting. The creek quickly becomes a raging torrent sliding down through a rocky canyon. There are quite a few visible waterfalls, but the best is after the bridge around mile 5. Cold air and spray was rushing off of these falls, which were full from the continuing snowmelt:


There is also a great section of falls visible below this, which you can see later in this post.

Along the way there's a good mix of terrain, with rocky outcroppings and occasional meadows and creek crossings. Here's a shot from the point at which you start to see some of the upper peaks:


Although a lot of the trail is smooth dirt through the woods, it also alternates with technical rocky sections like the photo below. This is what I've come to regard as typical Indian Peaks trail surface, and it requires your attention. After a while you'll get really good at picking lines over and between rocks.


Soon the valley opens up, the walls rise higher, the trees become more sparse, and you know you are nearing the end. As you reach an open area with large boulders on the left, be sure you don't miss the stream crossing onto the right bank, because the huge boulders are tough to get over. I tried and had to backtrack.

First you hit the idyllic Mirror Lake, and get the full-on view of Lone Eagle:


It's so unlike any other mountain around here that I just kind of stood around muttering to myself and staring. I was giddy seeing it "in person".

After another short uphill stretch through beautiful alpine woods is Crater Lake, which is bigger and surrounded by jagged peaks on 3 sides. This was my lunch spot:


Waterfalls were streaming down the face of the mountains across the lake, and you could hear the roar from a distance. I set off around the lake to see if I could get a closer view.

Yellow Avalanche Lilies
Cascade Lake also reveals the secret of Lone Eagle: that its pointy summit is actually the end of a long knife-edge ridge, which is impressive in its own way:


I tried to imagine what it must be like to climb those sheer walls of rock, and gain that knife edge.

Over these jagged cliffs lies the basin containing Pawnee Lake, and of course Pawnee Pass:


I didn't reach the waterfalls, but got pretty close. I got to a point on the shore where I had sheer rock on my right, and about a foot of water and slippery rocks in front of me, with who-knows-what beyond. That was a good enough turnaround point for me.


On my way leaving Mirror Lake I got a three-quarters view of Lone Eagle.

Lone Eagle Peak
Back down at the falls I stopped at the top to check out the water rushing down before going over the edge. Don't slip:


And here's the lower section of the same falls:


As I was running along I was a bit startled to see this odd form in the middle of the woods, looking like some sort of petrified orc staring at the sky:


I was well-hydrated, but I think I was getting tired, because I started misinterpreting shapes more as I neared the end of my run. That often seems to happen on long runs. On a really long one I'd probably be hallucinating.

There was a lot of nice forest running, about 5 miles of it. The terrain is easy and fairly well-shaded:


I took this picture while filling my water bottles from a small cascade:


Back at the lake, I stopped at my car, got a drink and took some stuff out of my pack, intending to walk around and cool down.

However, I hadn't run over 20 miles since April when my foot problems began, and since I had 18.6 (?) miles on the watch and was feeling tired but OK, I decided to jog around the lake and see what was there. I ended up going to the far corner of the lake visible in the back, which was around 1.7 miles each way:


The trail on the right (southern) side of the lake is a really nice rolling, trail through the woods. It rises to as high as maybe 200 feet above the lake, and goes inland just to follow the lines of ravines, so the lake is always barely visible through the trees. It merges with the other trail after the lake.

Spanish Moss
There were some structures scattered here and there in the woods, along with this rusting steam engine:


I was going to continue on around the lake, but the other side was hot and sunlit, and the wooded trail was great. This is the trail along the shoreline a few hundred yards from the parking area:


For those of you who are curious about the snow conditions up there, here's a photo from near Fraser, with Parry Peak in the middle, looking very different than it does in the winter:


Some facts that only I may care about:

• I focused relentlessly on using a soft foot landing, as if I were barefoot. This helped keep the legs fresh until the very end.
• Only very minor PF issues, mainly because of point number one -- or could it have been the fact that I broke out a new pair of Cascadia 5s for this run (I bought up several pairs of last year's model)?
• I still get an uncomfortable tightness in the tendons along the knee and the hamstrings (even with stretching along the way) and a pounded feeling. Not sure if everyone feels that or it's just me.
• I drank 7 bottles of water: 2 bottles + 3 refill stops with the water filter. I finished the 8th and a bottle of G2 by the time I got home.
• I lost 5 pounds in spite of all the liquids.
• Between the water and about 7-8 S-caps, I had zero cramping in the legs, on a warm, sunny 22-mile day. I think I've got the water and electrolytes dialed in.
• I ate real food as necessary: a PBJ at the halfway mark, and jerky as needed after that. I used to have nausea on long runs (for me 22 miles is long), but seem to have conquered it between this, water and salt.
• I tried one bite of a "protein" bar but it tasted like solidified syrup. Ick. Way too sweet.

All right, time to get this overgrown puppy out the door.

"Publish Post".