Sunday, July 8, 2007

Crater Lake & Lassen National Parks

After another run in the Columbia River Gorge area--the groovy Eagle Creek/Tunnel Falls Trail, where one actually goes through a tunnel behind the waterfall--the next stop was Crater Lake National Park. How's this for impossibly blue water?

Being the consummate peakbagger, a hike of the park's high point, Mt. Scott, elev. 8,938 ft., was in order. After a memorable Fourth of July celebration in Klamath Falls, the next-to-last destination (last being Home Sweet Home), was Lassen Volcanic National Park, including Lassen Peak, and a very hot (100 degrees??) 11-mile run in the Park. I'm calling it heat training for Tahoe Rim. Lassen Peak, over 10,000 ft. high, was surprisingly very easy, only 5 miles round trip, with a couple thousand feet of elevation gain. A couple of snowfields and this bit near the summit are all that's left of the snow. Climbing the mountain in the cooler early evening hours made the hike much more enjoyable than my earlier run.

Home again, home again, for a few days at least!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Sue,
We have not met but I was pacing at hardrock the year you won and have since been interested in your running. The Tahoe Rim Trail is the race I help with and we look forward to welcoming you here and watching you run our beautiful course.
George

Olga said...

Seems like I had this part of your trip done some 4 years ago:) I, too, found Lassen peak been very easy (went after Silver State marathon that day), and Crater lake water insanely blue (unreal). Good call on heat training for Tahoe 100! I read it's always hot there. Looking forward reading how it went for you!
And thanks for your positive outlook on everyhting!!

Jamie Anderson said...

Tahoe Rim TRAIL 100 lookout! You're going to ROCK it. GLAD you're enjoying the MOUNTAINS out there. YEAH!