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PCT + Obsidian

July 31, 2010 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Weather: 60s? Pretty damn nice

Comments:
Drove up the McKenzie Highway w/Britt on Friday afternoon and camped at Lava Camp Lake, just over McKenzie Pass. I bet it rains in the Three Sisters Wilderness maybe once a month in the summer...and it POURED on us for 10 minutes, right after setting up camp. Then, when it finally quit, I realized I forgot all my cookware. So we rolled downhill into Sisters, had some dinner, went back to camp and had a nice fire before bed time. Terrific little camp along a little "pond" lake for $0/night.

Saturday morning Matt drove up from Springfield and we met him at Obsidian TH. We left his truck there, then B dropped the two of us back at Lava Camp, where we started the run.

The run is 12+ miles on the PCT southbound, skirting along North and Middle Sister, then 5+ miles east on Obsidian Trail. Pretty good run. I wore my new Camelbak single bottle belt, then another bottle in my hand. Matt wore my old Camelback 50oz waistpack. That, plus my new Steripen "magic wand water sterilizer", meant plenty of hydration.

First 2+ miles were straight uphill to above the treeline. It's always tough to start a run going uphill, but this wasn't too steep, thankfully. We kept it easy.

Once we popped out of the woods, we had incredible views of the Sisters in front of us, then Mt Washington, Mt Jefferson, and 3-Fingered Jack to the North. And beneath us, two little lakes (N and S Matthieu). After the Matthieu Lakes, we hit a major lava field approaching Yapoah Crater, which is always sweet. Like I told Matt: "There's TONS of places with woods and lakes. There's lots of places with woods, lakes AND mountains. But there's not a whole lot of places that have woods, mountains, lakes AND massive lava flows".

Before long we had a substantial climb up/around Yapoah Crater, then another descent into the Scott Trail junction/valley before another major climb to the summit of the run: Opie Diddock Pass -- which is a huge ridge of lava flow. Pretty cool...and not nearly as difficult as I remembered it.

After that, back into the woods for a more standard trail run, and much quicker, until we ran into a whole mess of snow around Glacier Creek to Obsidian Falls. Bummer. Not only did it slow us down, but it actually obscured an incredible landscape.

We really only had two substantial stops, and both were to procure water. The first was 70mnin in, at Minnie Scott Spring, and the second approaching the falls. I busted out my new wand. I had tested it the night before, but it still didn't make a whole lot of sense: some lights would flash, you'd stir the wand...then some more lights would flash.

Welp...turns out -- as I would later determine after READING THE DIRECTIONS once we got home -- was that the wand was supposed to illuminate (as a "visual" cue that the UV lamp was on). This NEVER happened when we used it, soooo...we drank about 120oz of untreated water on the run. OOPS!

After that 2nd "Giardia stop", we took a quick view of the falls, then headed down the trail. We over-ran the Obsidian cut-off due to the snow but found it on the way back. From there: some downhill, up and over a final lava flow, then a lonnnng downhill to the trailhead.

I kept with Matt the entire time, though there were points when I'd drift ahead (mostly on the downhills, actually). But in the last few miles I opened it up a bit and put some distance on him. I doubled back once I got to the TH, and it turns out he was only a couple minutes back, which was cool.

Pretty solid run! INCREDIBLE scenery, but the limitation is poor footing, even without snow. Lots of pumice sand and uneven lava rock makes this not the greatest "training long run", but definitely sweet. I'm quite proud of Matt who, 11 months ago, could run maybe 2 miles without stopping.

After the run we headed back to Lava Camp Lake to pack up camp and take a dip, then into Bend where we met Britt.

While there we stopped at BONEYARD BEER, the newest brewery in Bend, to have samples. UNBELIEVABLY INCREDIBLE BEER. They had a wheat beer with CHERRY (so good!), a terrific pale, a mindblowingly flavorful (without overpowering) "cascadian dark", and a solid double-IPA. This brewery is gonna be HUGE in 6-12 months, I'll put money on it.

After that, B and I drove home. Good day! :)