Tuolumne 2018: Part 1 - Mammoth to Tuolume Run

 "I run because it always takes me where I want to go." - Dean Karnazas

Tuolumne.  One of my favorite places in the universe. 

We had two groups serendipitously coming together this weekend... as my trail running buddies had planned a Tuolumne to Mammoth trail run, and Hoeft got a group site (again).  So we had quite the crew to party up yonder in the high country.  Danielle threw out her back, so Metreses who were headed to go backpacking bailed on that plan and joined us.  

Start out with a group pic of us on top of Lembert Dome!  Camille!  Over here!  On day 3... aka. Sun.

I drove up Fri with Nikko as I was going to take the day off anyway and wanted to maximize my time in paradise

We drove straight to Tenaya Lake for a nice dip.  We stopped at Rainbow Falls for lunch too!  Double dip day!

Then we decided to climb Pothole dome... so Nikko could do the floss at the top. 

Cathedral Peak!  We'll be seeing you soon...

Nikko pondering life...

The rangers put on quite the show on Fri.  Banjos, guitars, good singing and a fire... we only stopped for 5 min on our way to go say hi to Hope.  The others slowly rolled in... and at 10 pm, Sam, Seth, Alex Hudgins and I drove down to Mammoth for our big adventure run the next day. 

We were quite slow in the morning...

after coffee, quick brekky, and a poo stop, we were on our way

We were team "NoBo" as we were headed north to Tuolumne.  We decided collectively to go through the Minarets in the beginning to add to the adventure.  I think that side loop was our highlight. 

Some runnable trails... some not.  We were going a lot slower than expected...

Nice shot of Seth floating on the JMT

There were plenty of folks on the trail and a nice lady took a pic of us...

my lunch... from yesterday.  I was stoked to have this. mmm....

Seth had tummy trouble (shocker!  I know...) so there was plenty of waiting for him at water stops.  And there were lots of water stops. 

Banner and Ritter

Seeing the SoBo crew was always uplifiting and gave both crews an energy boost for the next 10 min.  Aaron made a side tour to go tag a peak

Looking down the perfectly glacier polished Lyell Canyon. 

Big ole' cow bone...

Lyell canyon... takes forever. 

Sam was nice enough to wait for Seth... so Alex and I took off back to camp.  Sam and Seth were only like an hour back, so it wasn't too bad.  All in all, a great day running in the mountains...

Alex's track is more correct (I accidentally hit pause on mine for a few miles in the middle).
Strava heat map helped with the planning...
And in the end we used this as inspiration  https://pantilat.wordpress.com/2013/11/12/tuolumne-meadows-to-devils-postpile-via-the-minarets-and-donohue-peak/
and his Strava

The next day, we went on a fun group hike up Lembert Dome and down to Pothole Dome.

Where I caught a snake for the kiddos..

Fun times on top of Lembert Dome.  The kids sure like to hike when there is a crew!

We met up with everyone at the swimming hole behind puppy dome.

 

I took the kids climbing for a bit

Then I lead them up to the top of the dome.  And told the kids to jump on 3... there was some bad timed jumps

Looking back at Lembert Dome

The kids found a polished section they used as a slide...

Next time:
 - maybe add in Ritter and Banner.  Here's Leor's report.  And his approx route.  Fun page on climbing it in the spring.

Here's a fun vid of "stringbean" breaking the FKT on a trail in Ireland...  I also like his quote: "A love of distance and pain is what really separates an ultrarunner from a distance runner." - although I'm not so sure he's right.  Those marathons, 10ks, 30ks really hurt...