Trail Run: Three girls and four mountain passes

Section between Mono Pass and Parker Pass.

Today I went for a trail run with Jess and Mel. Before setting out, we thought it was going to be about a 24 miler- it ended up being 21.8. The longest I have ever ran at one time is 16 miles (and that was a few years ago). I have to admit, it made me a bit nervous upping the mileage that much especially when I knew the difficulty of the route we were taking. However, I accepted the fact that we would probably be walking parts of it- I could gut it out.


Another first for me today was eating while running. Sounds great doesn't it? Eh, it was about as appealing as it sounds. I've decided that gels are gross but very necessary on a long run.

On our way up Mono Pass

Can you see Mono Lake?

Still going up.

We started our run at Walker Lake (8,366 ft.) off the June Lake Loop. We climbed up Bloody Canyon to Mono Pass (10,599 ft.) , to Parker Pass (11,100 ft), to Koip Pass (12,270 ft.), to Gem Pass (10,380 ft.) and down to Silver Lake (7,242 ft.) on the June Lake Loop.

Top of Parker Pass.

Mel is an experienced ultra runner and I saw her pull out a gel a bit before mile 5. I had a bunch of "running food" samples I had been given at a few races so I brought those. Not really having experience with that lovely stuff, I followed suit and opened up my Strawberry Banana Powergel (beggars can't be choosers) and ate it slowly over several miles. I did feel better after eating that but it made me pretty thirsty. I didn't want to eat or drink too much because I was worried about getting a side ache. Around mile 9-10, as we were climbing Koip Pass, I pulled out an almond banana macrobar. A few miles after that, I ended up eating a few nuts and part of another bar. None of which were very satisfying but they did give me the energy I needed to keep going. Jess brought a Steripen to clean our drinking water. It's a handheld ultraviolet water purifier. She filled up her water bottle and put the pen in for about a minute and it would flash green when it was done. I will probably be investing in one soon.

Water break.

Climbing Koip Pass.

At the top of Koip Pass. Can you spot the switchbacks?

Another view from the top of Koip... where we headed down. Can you spot June Mountain?

Banner Peak peaking out from behind the trees.

Top of Gem Pass.

Gem Lake.

Heading down Rush Creek trail into June.

Overall, we had a great 5 hours and 45 minutes of trail time. It was overcast most of the day- if the sun was out, I'm sure that would be quite a different run.

Refueling at June Lake Brewery and Ohanas 395.

When we got back, we stretched (I laid on the asphalt for a while) and then headed to June Lake Brewery and Ohanas 395. I was feeling pretty nauseous after the run but was hopeful that real food would help. We had Hawaiian tacos and microbrews. It was a great way to recover!

(All photos were taken with my Iphone).

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