With a couple Mt Hooper Summits done over the years I've wanted to run a loop that could easily be done in a day. While the start of the route is all cross country travel (no trail) for 7 miles with 4000'+ gain, it meets up with the John Muir Trail/ Pacific Crest Trail at Selden Pass and provides an easy path to run. Myself-Nate Moore & Matt Tatum started just before 7am, we took our time up to Mt Hooper at 12,349' and once we got down to Selden Pass it felt great to stretch out the legs and run. Coming back into the Florence Lake area my legs were done and I had met my distance planned for the day, 21miles, so I tried to hitch a ride for the last 3 miles on the road back up to my truck. No luck though, so we hoofed it up hill and finally reached the truck around 4pm.
This time could easily be brought down by at least 90min we took our time once we got back to the Florence lake store. We bought some drinks and I also attempted to hitch a ride for the lat 2miles but luckily I didn't have any takers. Definitely a fun day, tough, but fun.