DART organized the training/outing and invited us and Yumay and I were in without a doubt, what a cool way to spend the weekend, drive down friday night late, sleep in the car, on the ground or in a tent at the trailhead (all versions were used, we went for tent for the 4h of sleep we got), then head out supremely early (3am up, 3.30 start).
Erik Nachtrieb getting ready for the day ahead....
Aaron Rinn and Yumay powering up the gravel...
4.45am, getting light out...
Group picture in the early AM
The run can be done clockwise or counter clockwise (D'UH!) and that depends on when one wants runnability and water (east) or slow going and dry, super volcanic rocky ground (west)... we wanted to cover as much ground as possible first so we ran at night in the open flat east fields and were making great progress... the run is about 34 miles and 8000 feet of elevation gain/loss in this lollipop loop. Amazing views down and up the mountain (one can see smoke/fumes coming out of the crator!) were plenty, as was wildlife and different vegetation zones. We ate blueberries galore and treated our water from streams that came off the mountain... an incredible outing.
Narrow volcanic paths....
Happy to be out there...
Cmon how hard can it be to navigate around a volcano!
Aaron running down the volcano...
On the rockier, gnarlier southwest side of the volcano
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