July 15
Driving through Medford. I'm not going to tell you how many of those we actually stopped at. It is a little embarrassing.
The dust flew from Matt’s shoes as he meandered down Sun
Notch trail ahead of me. I wondered to
myself, “How can trees grow in such a dry place?” That dusty soil, mostly pumice and a bit of
clay, drains of water quickly. The
higher elevations seem to keep snow long enough to sustain a water source
through the dry months and the runoff provides enough for large plant life.
We reached the end of the dusty trail. Trees gave way to Crater Lake. It is mind-blowing to think about the
eruption that took place here 7,700 years ago and how the mountain collapsed one
day. It is mind-blowing that another
volcano within the crater also blew and the hot magma sealed up the entire
crater. It is mind-blowing to know that
all the water that is in the lake comes from snow and runoff, no streams at
all. Wow. The only thing more impressive than the
creation of Crater Lake is the view from the rim.
That got me thinking about Mt. Shasta and the fact that it
is volcano of similar size to the former Mt. Mazama. Some predict her eruption will occur when the
Cascadia Fault (along the coast of CA, OR, WA, and BC) finally trips. I can’t help but wonder, “Will this be in my
lifetime?” Ash spread as far away as
Greenland with Mt. Mazama. Incredible to
think about, isn’t it?
Vidae Falls
We drove to the Castle Crest Wildflower Trail. Just a few miles from the arid landscape and
dusty powder trail appeared a lush meadow with a small creek running through it. Melted snow trickled down the hillside in
small streams and muddy spots formed alongside the trail. We were a few weeks from the full glory of
the wildflower meadow, but a few early bloomers shyly appeared in the sunniest
spots.
Lupine
Elephanthead
Pacific Bleeding Heart
Our third stop for the day was the Rim Trail. I can tell we were lucky and caught an ideal
weather day because the photos I got seemed every bit as wonderful as the gift
shop postcards. The color of the lake
was the most striking to me. Since no
streams (and therefore silt) feed into the lake, it is pure enough to see the
bottom in the shallow spots, sometimes down 100 ft. below the surface before
disappearing to darkness.
Blues, browns,
and a few tints of red created a visual depth to the surface, despite us
looking down from over 1,000 ft. above.
The sapphire water contrasted beautifully with the brown shoreline. If someone fell from the rim, they wouldn’t
be able to get out due to the steepness of the cliff all around. That made the trail I was hiking both
breathtaking and terrifying at the same time.
Matt and I cooked hamburgers for dinner and discussed our
next training plan. We’ll be adding an
extra day of faster stuff, but it’ll be more of a fartlek for that 5th
day each week. It will be easy to pull
the intensity from that sort of run if we find ourselves struggling for
energy. My training paces will be based
off of a 3:30 marathon and Matt’s 2:55.
On the CIM course and their weather that time of year, both of our goals
should be realistic. And after the
spring we’ve had, good marathon karma is bound to kick in, right?
4 comments:
I love Crater Lake! Great photos. Did you see Mt. Thielsen? My favorite peak ever.
These are beautiful. You guys take the best trips.
Great photos. All the points about the formation of Crater Lake are mind blowing and fascinating. It's kind of cool, that geologically 7,700 years ago is relatively recent. I like that you're thinking about it. I think it says something about marathon karma. Getting in tune.
Dairy Queen ROCKS! I hope you hit them all up :).
I've never been to Crater Lake, but flying over it one time I vowed I'd go there sometime - isn't there a marathon we can run for fun there? Yes, let's do a blogger meet up and run the marathon for fun one year - would be awesome!! Great pictures, I can't get over how blue the lake is. Lakes here are brown or brown-green. So gross.
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