Day 138: Crater Lake!!!

Monday 9/3/12
Miles 1834-1852 (18 miles)
Elevation 6,000'

Wow, Crater Lake is awesome! I'll post up pics when I get to a computer. It's really pretty. The lake itself isn't very big, it's about 4 miles by 6 miles wide. What makes it cool is the way it was formed. Crater lake is the caldera of Mount Mazama, and when all the magma underneath subsided, the whole crater sunk into the ground and basically inverted itself. The water in the lake is filled from centuries of rain and snow melt, since there are no springs or creeks that fill it. That's so cool! The color of the water is absolutely incredible, it is the bluest of blue, and really clear! Crater lake is also the deepest lake in the USA, and 2nd deepest on the North American continent. There's an island on one side of it called Wizard Island. It's really cool looking. If I was a wizard I would totally live on that island.

Today is labor day and I've been kind of dreading this, because I thought it would be a total chaotic mess of people, like Yosemite was on July 4th. And yes it was crowded but nothing like Yosemite. Whew what a relief! Lol. I'm not sure why we keep hitting these national parks on major holidays. It's definitely not intentional, infact if I was to plan it I would hit it on a random weekday. But as it goes, we end up wherever we end up, whenever we get there. So, happy labor day! Stoked its not a complete zoo out here. :)

The trail follows the west side of the rim for about 6 miles. That was really fun. I got to see the lake from several angles. It was a bit hazy, the smoke from whatever fire around us is a bit gnarly today. Ah well, it's still incredible. I love volcanology and rocks!! And it's not just because I live on one. I've always loved rocks, since about 3rd grade. For a long time one of my favorite possessions was a rock collection I made in 3rd grade, it was an egg carton with 12 different rocks in it that was divided into categories of formation: igneous, metamorphosis and sedimentary. My favorite rock of all, precious and otherwise, is still obsidian. Which just happens to be volcanic in origin :)

Oh! It was my sister's bday on August 28th. Hope you had a great birthday Cadi! She is a real life certified rock nerd. I'm just a wannabe. I think she's getting her Phd in rocknerdology or something like that in Michigan. For her bday present I considered collecting samples of rocks from everywhere I've been and sending it to her. Except that would mean I would have to carry rocks in my pack which is ultimately quite absurd. So, sorry Cadi, you don't get rocks for your bday. Why couldn't you have been a botanist. Leaves and twigs are much more lightweight than rocks. Haha :P

The rest of the trail today was mellow. Which I was grateful for because I'm still feeling kinda gnarly. But at least I don't feel like complete death, and it's getting better, so I'm stoked! Yay!

So I was telling Kyle how I ran the Honoulu Marathon in 2007 (I hate running, btw), and that 2/3 of the almost 30,000 runners were Japanese people from Japan. It's quite amazing. So now on Kyle's bucket list is that he wants to run the Honolulu marathon in a Godzilla costume. That is epic! It's in December every year, so it'll be cool if he did it this year. I could make him an ultralight Godzilla costume. Btw, if any of you are interested in running the HNL marathon, it's cool in some ways and boring as hell in other ways. You'd think that being in Hawaii, it would be beautiful and scenic. It's not. It goes through Honolulu town (which isn't very pretty) and then down Kalanianiole highway which is this boring ass straightway where, although the ocean is on one side, you don't see it because there are houses and a bigass wall. Bleh. What is fascinating and entertaining though, is the 20,000 or so Japanese people there who bring their families and stuff, so all along the course there are groups of 30+ Japanese spectators waving signs and banging noisemakers with logos of whatever tour company they took to get there. It's pretty awesome. That's basically what got me through the run. Because I really don't like running. I just ran it because I wanted to see what the big deal about marathons was. At least I got a cool t-shirt and goody bag.

There's is the north shore marathon on Oahu, as well as the xterra run which is a trail run marathon. They also do a mountain bike race. That one I might consider doing because it's on Kualoa Ranch which is at one of the most beautiful places on Oahu. Plus it's all off-road, and dirt is way more epic than pavement :)