Loowit 360 - 7.4.14

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DoctorDee69
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Loowit 360 - 7.4.14

Post by DoctorDee69 » July 6th, 2014, 3:58 am

Murphy's Law states that whatever can go wrong will go wrong. Clearly that cannot be true or we’d all live in a maelstrom of chaos, but enough went wrong with my Loowit 360 that I began to think it might be…

First, on Monday before my planned Friday hike I fell off a mountain bike. Hard, and going fast. By Wednesday I could not walk down stairs easily. The Loowit is not a hike for those without the ability to walk down things confidently. But the human body is an amazing thing, and by Friday morning, I was feeling well enough to attempt the hike.

Then, and how can I say this delicately? I forgot to pack my underpants. I’ve experienced chafing before, where my thighs rub together just above the “crux” of my shorts. I found that wearing silky, stretchy Calvin Klein Micro Modal midways prevents this. The thing is, I had been in Whistler earlier in the week, and there all the trailheads have stern warnings about theft from parked cars. This was at the forefront of my mind, so I tried to only take what I absolutely needed for the hike with me - everything else I left at my lodging is Seattle.

Not having underpants on a 30 mile hike posed two potential problems: firstly the aforementioned chafing and secondly, the risk that as I got warm and my body adapted to the heat we could have a painful version of Newton’s cradle down there. To prevent the chafing, I pressed my shoelaces into action as a make-do belt to keep my shorts pulled up. The rest I left to luck.

Then I could not find my car keys. I had put everything I planned to take (not a lot to be honest) in my tiny Salomon trail runner's backpack the previous evening. I had also scooped up the car keys, and it was only after 20 minutes of ripping my motel room apart that I realised this. So I was running late before I left my room.

I had no idea how to get to the trailhead, so I had put the co-ordinates in to my GPS - which tried to take me there by the most direct route - along an unpaved road with a locked gate. It took a while for me to work out how to get there on paved roads, so instead of walking at 05:00 as planned, I hit the trail at 05:51.

I was carrying three litres of Gatorade, in the hope that this might be enough to prevent having to filter - but I was carrying a Sawyer Squeeze too.

As I got out of my car at the June Lake Trail parking lot, it was pretty chilly - I had a lightweight top with me, and an IceBreaker 200 merino - I chose the merino. As I set off up the June Lake trail, another hiker, planning a three day backpack of Loowit was starting out at the same time, we exchanged a few words, and I set off to run. No... that was not going to work! The pain in my left thigh was too great. But I still walked at a much faster pace than the backpacker, due mainly to my much lighter load, and soon I had lost sight of him. Here, looking up to the left I got my first sight of the mountain, still mired in early morning mist.
01FirstLook.jpg
Soon I was at the bridge just before June Lake.
02Bridge.jpg
At 20 minutes and 1.2 miles into the hike, I reached June Lake. Here there were a few tents, but no sign of the occupants yet, since it was still pretty early in the morning.

Directly after June Lake the trail begins to climb steeply to the trail junction with the Loowit proper. I'd asked in this forum for advice on which way to hike, and had decided to go clockwise. But for some reason when I hit the junction, I went right, and was hiking counter clockwise.

In these initial sections of the hike the sun was still below the neighbouring hills, or hidden by the forest. When I eventually emerged from the trees, and began to climb onto the mountain proper through the lava field, the sun was still behind a layer of high cloud.
03Climb.jpg
Looking east at this point revealed a magnificent view of a sea of cloud in the valleys, with Mt Adams in the distance.
06SeaofClouds.jpg
04Adams.jpg
It wasn’t until I’d passed a couple of hikers, just emerging from their tents after the Ape Canyon Trail junction, that I saw real sun. But the day was still bearably cool, and I was not at this point drinking too much fluid.
07ApeCanyonJunction.jpg
As I crossed the Plains of Abraham, I tried again to run, but my leg still hurt, so I adopted a loping jog, with both feet on the ground at all times. It was faster than walking, but not very much, and certainly not elegant.

As it crosses the plains, the trail takes a detour to the edge of a waterfall (just a trickle today) that offers this spectacular view into Ape Canyon below:
08CanyonFrom Plains of Abraham.jpg
After Windy Pass and into the Restricted Zone I met another couple of hikers studying their map.

In the Restricted Zone, there were multiple opportunities to filter reasonably clear water. But I still had not really begun to drink my Gatorade, and I was confident of getting round on what I was carrying.
09 WaterintheBreach.jpg
In the breach zone, I marvelled at the log mats on Spirit Lake, at Loowit falls (which I did not take the side trail to, but wished that I had had time to do so) and at the distinctive crater breach itself.
10LoowitFallsandBreach.jpg
I got my feet wet for the first time of the day in what I assume to be the run off from Loowit Falls. A more determined hiker may have got across with dry feet, but I was not prepared to spend the time trying.

Shortly afterwards, I found myself in a gully with no obvious way out, so used my knee to shimmy up onto the other side. This was my first real contact with the mountain. And I quickly learned how abrasive the rock is, my knee is still slightly skinned. This was reiterated to me a few miles on when I mopped my brow of sweat, only for it to feel like fine grade sandpaper, a layer of volcanic dust had adhered to me.

In the breach zone, I was grateful that I had taken the advice to wear trail gaiters, without them I would have been stopping frequently to clear out my shoes, especially on the climb up towards Castle Ridge. As I left the breach zone, and entered the area where plant life is beginning to re-assert itself, I began to feel as if I had grit in my left shoe. I stopped to take it off and clean it out. But as soon as I put it back on, the discomfort returned.
12NewLife.jpg
I stopped again, and removed shoe and sock - assuming the grit was in the sock. It turned out that I had a huge blister on the sole of my left foot, under the heel. In thousands of miles of hiking, I’ve never had a blister before and I’d come to believe it was just not something my feet were prone to. So I wasn’t carrying anything to help with it. Just as I began to wonder what to do, a couple appeared on the next ridge, and hiked down to me. They had Gaffa tape, and gave me some - without their kindness, this hike would have been much less enjoyable.

They also told me that I was now just “about two miles” from the Toutle River, and that “another Australian guy” was about 20 minutes ahead of me, and he was packing light and moving fast too. What is it with you guys? We Brits sound nothing like Australians :D
11LeavingRestrictedZone.jpg
I figured that I’d never catch the mystery Australian if he was 20 minutes ahead and going my way fast. But as I cut down the Cascade Hiker cut-off into the Toutle Canyon, I met a guy hacking back up the hill. Going down the cut-off is great, the ash/sand is soft, and easy to descend. But going up is incredibly hard, as the soft sand saps energy with each step.

I stopped to ask why he was heading uphill the hard way, and he said that he’d been to the bottom, following the tracks of others, but that there was “no trail there”. I said that the Portland Hikers Forum said otherwise, and that I knew to trust you guys. I said that it might require a bit of bushwhacking, and when I showed him the GPS trail I had, he descended once more with me.
13ToutleCanyon.jpg
He commented that I did not sound like I was from Portland, and I said I was from the UK. It turned out that he was Jack: a Brit living in Seattle. We crossed the river together.
15OnARope.jpg
At the other side we met two guys who commented that we had made crossing “look easy” and we said that it had been. They asked if we had gotten our feet wet, and we said that we had. They did not want to get their feet wet and were going to turn back, which I thought was a shame after hiking all that way out with heavy looking packs.

The sun was shining strongly now, so I was glad of the cover of the old growth forest on the climb out of the Toutle River Canyon. I’d only been ascending a few minutes when Jack pushed out of the foliage that is encroaching on the trail at both sides here, and we ascended together. At the top, Jack planned to stop for a snack, and I wanted to push on. We exchanged email addresses and resolved to hike together at some future point.

Before we parted, I commented that it should all be “downhill from here”, and Jack laughed. He was right to do so - there are two significant drainages to navigate directly after the climb out of Toutle River Canyon, both with some uphill to contend with. By now, my right foot had begun to hurt badly. My trail shoes, in which I have done several hundred miles, were pressing badly on my right toe nail during descents. I was also running low on liquid. I resolved to look for a place to filter - but did not come across one from this point on.

To make matters worse, I stopped to chat with a cool couple who had started the trail the previous night by hiking six mies in the dark. We had chatted for a while, and he had told me about how he had been forced to abandon the Timberline trail the previous year, and had “gone to the pub”. In my current state of exhaustion and thirst, that sounded like the greatest idea I had ever heard. We chatted about where best to get a drink in Cougar. I set off on the trail determined to make Cougar Bar and Grill my next stop.

I took my last sip of drink as I hit the next lava field. Approaching it I had met a guy who warned me about how tricky it was to walk, and how difficult to navigate. He said he’d met a party of three who had become badly lost, and I met them shortly afterwards. But I found both the footing and the navigation posts to be just fine. In fact the lava field was easy walking for me, because rock-hopping on the balls of my feet took the weight off of my blister which, despite the Gaffa tape, was hurting badly now.
17OneLastLavaField.jpg
I was still following the GPS trail I had used to show me the Toutle bomber route, and at this point this trail took me on a ski trail that brought me, via one last long boulder hop, directly into the June Lake camp.
18JuneLakeFalls.jpg
I turned right towards the parking lot, and though my legs felt strong enough to run down the trail, my feet and injuries just would not allow me to. I was on the verge of dehydration now, and the last easy downhill mile seemed to take forever.

I may have looked a sad and downtrodden specimen of humanity as I limped into the parking lot - 10hr and 31m after I left. But that was not how I felt. I was elated to have made it round this awesome hike, on a perfect day, and having met some great people en route.

All I needed now was that beer!

http://gpsfly.org/g/3451
Last edited by DoctorDee69 on July 8th, 2014, 2:07 am, edited 5 times in total.

Limey
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Re: Loowit 360 - 7.4.14

Post by Limey » July 6th, 2014, 7:09 am

Wow, 10hrs 31mins with injuries and other issues is very impressive. I'm glad you were able to finish what you wanted to do. After all, that's a long way to come for a hike. I'm also a Brit and I always get pegged as an Aussie first even though after 45 years here I don't think I have any English accent left. Great trip report. Thanks for posting.

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Eric Peterson
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Re: Loowit 360 - 7.4.14

Post by Eric Peterson » July 6th, 2014, 7:40 am

What Limey said!

2.65 moving avg, you most must have been shuffling/jogging the flats and downs :)

I still have to try the CH bomber route for myself but staying on trail and jogging down to the ford
area is just as fast if not faster :D

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kepPNW
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Re: Loowit 360 - 7.4.14

Post by kepPNW » July 6th, 2014, 8:20 am

Incredible adventure! Against odds that would cause most to totally give up!

Really enjoyed reading through this one. :)
Karl
Back on the trail, again...

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CraigG
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Re: Loowit 360 - 7.4.14

Post by CraigG » July 6th, 2014, 4:13 pm

Having done this 3 weeks ago the opposite direction, I can say you did an amazing job! Well done!

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DoctorDee69
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Re: Loowit 360 - 7.4.14

Post by DoctorDee69 » July 6th, 2014, 11:01 pm

Eric Peterson wrote:staying on trail and jogging down to the ford
area is just as fast if not faster :D
Difficult for either of us to say conclusively, Eric, since we've both only done one way. But I gotta say that when your feet are hurting, the bomber route is sweet relief. I got down it quickly enough, once I'd concluded the chat with Jack.

I only managed to shufflejog some the plains, and some of the breach. By the time I reached the downhill sections, my feet hurt too much.

But for me its just about starting and finishing in daylight, and having enough time to drive home. I'll leave the real fast times to trail runners. I can't see any record on-line of them using this trail. I know there are incredible events like the Berkeley Marathons in the US, but is trail running a very big sport otherwise?

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Eric Peterson
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Re: Loowit 360 - 7.4.14

Post by Eric Peterson » July 7th, 2014, 5:04 am

I'll leave the real fast times to trail runners. I can't see any record on-line of them using this trail. I know there are incredible events like the Berkeley Marathons in the US, but is trail running a very big sport otherwise?
Dug up some past results from 2012's Volcano 50 race which 360's the Loowit -

https://www.nspirelive.com/nspir3/racer ... raceID=442

Your 10:31 would place a finish time ahead of some in those results! :)

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DoctorDee69
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Re: Loowit 360 - 7.4.14

Post by DoctorDee69 » July 7th, 2014, 12:39 pm

Eric Peterson wrote:Your 10:31 would place a finish time ahead of some in those results! :)
I train in the UK on a loop called the Yorkshire Three Peaks. It is 23 miles with 5400ft EG, my pb is 5:29, but the record is 2:46. I reckon some of our better trail runners would be round the Loowit in under 5.

I reckon without the injuries, I could do 9:30, and *possibly* under 9. Especially with aid stations (and if I did some real training)!
Maybe I'll enter the Volcano50 next year to celebrate my 50th!

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cascadehiker
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Re: Loowit 360 - 7.4.14

Post by cascadehiker » July 11th, 2014, 10:33 am

DoctorDee- congrats on the successful 360!! And I think you made the right decision on heading counter-clockwise. Otherwise you couldn't have done the Toutle bomb route. How fun was that?? Your time of 10.5 hours has me considering doing this as a trail run / hike now. Thanks for that. :x
"Man who catch fly with chopstick accomplish anything" - Mr Miyagi

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DoctorDee69
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Re: Loowit 360 - 7.4.14

Post by DoctorDee69 » July 24th, 2014, 10:18 pm

cascadehiker wrote:Otherwise you couldn't have done the Toutle bomb route. How fun was that??
The Toutle Bomb route is great fun, and as I mentioned earlier, it's a nice respite for tired or aching feet. It looks risky, but the ash/sand is so soft that it's actually pretty easy to make great time down there.

If you fancy it as a run-hike, there's always the race that Eric mentioned, in September.

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