Saturday morning I was joined by CBC athletes John and B for a quick run up to Elfin Lakes. The trail was clear of snow up until the ridge but the final 3-4km was still pretty white but very runnable! Great views of The Tusk and surrounding mountains - I had my piece of paradise. We ran at a nice comfortable talking pace, stopped for 10mins once we reached the lake and then made our way back down. I'm not a fan of crowds when I'm running so I was happy to be back down to Red Heather parking lot just as all the day hikers were arriving! My spirit feels so alive in the mountains, it was a good reminder of the awesome place that I am so fortunate to live in and the terrain that I have access to!
I then hopped in the car Saturday afternoon and blasted down to Seattle, picking up my adventure racing team mate on Nuun-Sport Multi, Aaron Rinn on the way down to southern Washington. The plan? Run the 55km+ trail that goes around Mount St. Helens. I've had my eye on this adventure for a years now and with the great weather window for the weekend and finally a free Sunday to just get out and play, I couldn't pass this one up. On our way out of Seattle, we stopped by good friend Erik Nachtrieb's house to pick up a topo map of the area and some great notes that he had personally written regarding the route. It was a bit of a late night haul as drove another 4hrs to the June Lake trailhead. Exhausted, we crashed hard at midnight in the back of the old subaru and didn't wake until 5:50am after 2 hits of the snooze button. By 6:30am, after a thermos of coffee and my home made gluten free banana bread, we were on our way. The goal wasn't to set a new speed record. Rinn has a big adventure race coming up soon and I was just out to enjoy the experience (nice to just cruise and move as we felt.)
We ran the route counterclockwise. The "flat" sections came first (if you want to call them flat) but it didn't matter, once that sun came up, it was hot. Luckily the first 3/4 of the route had lots of rivers as during the last 1/4, we were eating snow as we passed over patches located on the north facing slopes. However, made a great new discovery, grape flavored Nuun 
when paired with freezing cold ice water and snow is AWESOME!! We saw a handful of hikers during the first half of the run and only bumped into 1 other runner who had started 75mins after us but was going in the reverse direction. Erik's notes were great as we did go off course twice, costing us about 30-40mins total. Ahhh well, no worries, we were having a great adventure! The trail was in great shape, just a few tricky intersections that were either not marked or didn't quite go in the direction that you would anticipate. We stopped at lots of the rivers to re-hyrdate, wet our hats and cool down. Much of the run is very exposed except for the one 1300m climb out of the Toutle River. The great thing about going around Mt. St. Helen's is that the landscape and environment changes continuously. It was super engaging, never really allowing us to get bored or anxious to be down. I also love going around things as oppose to out and backs.
It took us 9:45 to go around including our navigational mistakes and stops! I think we could have done it in 8:30 or 8 if we had pushed the pace a bit more. Some of the lava fields get really tedious as you rock hop along. I used the opportunity to test out a new Salomon pack (XT Pro 14+3) which carries more gear and is larger then the XT Advanced Skin 5 pack. I think this new pack would be great for past packing an overnight trail. Hmmmm.....I'm in love with it anyways. I used my XT Wings as well, just wanting to take extra good care of my ankles and ensure that I didn't role. They seem to be getting stronger on a weekly basis. We finished the run by soaking our legs in the river at the parking lot - great way to end the day. Thanks Rinn for a great adventure!
I highly recommend running Mount St. Helens. It was an awesome day on the trails, I'm stoked that we finally did it! During the run I got inspired to tackle a few more trails, let's see what else I can fit in this year!
