Marmot Mountain

 I hiked with the Valley Wanderers today. The trail didn't look very promising because the mountain and most of the peaks were pretty much enshrouded in low clouds. But Marmot is one of those peaks that can be easily climbed when completely in the fog. It's basically just a ridge walk as soon as you get to the first false summit. It's really impossible to get lost up there. There are many little trails that lead up to that first summit, but they all eventually lead there. Bella assumed the lead followed by Julia and her two big dogs, Trigger and Pumba and me. Julia likes to keep Pumba away from other people because he is huge and tends to push his way around. Since Bella likes to lead, and always goes with the leader, I kept up with Julia and Bella's much bigger canine buddies. We were in the clouds fairly soon and could no longer see the rest of our group. We would stop and wait for a while but once we got cold, we would move up to the next good stopping point. Judith eventually caught up with us and the 3 of us and the 3 dogs enjoyed our lunch on the highest point. Sarah finally arrived but Terry stayed down by the weather station with her dog, Chili. It was a really nice hike and quite beautiful except for being totally in the clouds on the summit. But it was mysteriously beautiful on the way up and down as the clouds swirled around us, periodically giving us glimpses of the valley below and the other mountains. I love hikes like that because they are really enchanting and make for interesting photos. I ended up running down most of the way and Judith finally caught up and passed me. But Bella took off after her, so then I ran a bit faster carefully trying not to trip over every rock, then caught up with Judith just before the parking lot. It's steep enough that it's almost easier to run down than to try to walk down, trying to brake with every step. I just kind of hop and skip my way down in places like that. The ridge up Marmot is really interesting with unusual rock formations. It feels like a much higher mountain than it really is, just because of the steep cliffs that drop off the sides. There were several snow patches that all 4 of the dogs really enjoyed. They all loved eating their mountain snow cones. The hike was only 2.8 miles but had almost 2000 foot elevation gain.

Eklutna Lakeside Trail

I usually hike on Fridays with my friend Pam. The last 2 Fridays she has been tied up doing other things. She said she was feeling hiking deprived! So we did the 10 mile walk from the Eklutna Lakeside Trailhead to the Bold Creek Bridge and back. It was a really nice day for it. Not too hot and not too cold. It was overcast but warm enough to enjoy the hike without a coat, but not so warm that we were sweating the whole way. Bella and Pam's dog, Dahla had their usual wonderful time running ahead and back chasing birds, bicycles and other hikers. But they were mostly well behaved. The Yuditna Cabin was unoccupied, so we took a nice break there at just past the 3-mile point. We had our official lunch break on the Bold Creek Bridge, enjoying the sounds of the rushing water. It was nice to just relax and walk a fairly flat trail and not have to push hard to climb up a mountain. But 10 miles is still a fairly long hike, and I was tired. Bella slept all the way home!

Lazy Mountain

 I'm trying to climb Lazy Mountain once a week for the rest of the summer or longer. But last week, life got in the way, and I missed doing it. Today looked beautiful on my morning dog walk so I decided that if I wanted to do my Lazy Mountain hike this week, I'd do well to grab the chance today. Bella and I started up the trail right at 9 am. I was feeling really good and energetic in spite of how steep that trail is. I still wasn't running up it though. I'd love to be strong enough to do that. I am always in awe of the mountain runners who go screaming by me running up the trail, while I huff and puff and pull myself up with my trekking poles. But today we pretty much had the trail to ourselves because of our fairly early start. Since it was just me and Bella alone on the trail, I wore my noisy bear bells to try to make enough noise that any bears out there would scurry away. I'm not sure they really help, but psychologically they do help me feel less nervous. I also talk to my dog a lot. I kept her on her leash until we were above the first picnic table. She tends to tun off on her own, and I didn't want her getting in an altercation with a bear or a moose. We grabbed snacks at the table and made our way to the top. The wildflowers were just gorgeous and dotting the hills everywhere. I was a little disappointed that the sunny blue skies from our morning walk had quickly deteriorated to solid clouds. As we progressed the sky did open back up a little and we did get some sunshine. In fact, I got pretty hot for a while. We got to the top and I took my usual 360-degree video.

It was beautifully calm up there and so green everywhere. The clouds were not yet obscuring the mountain peaks, and I had a full view of Matanuska Peak and the surrounding mountains. We spent a few minutes on the top until I saw a couple of other hikers who had reached the flag. Bella and I went back down to the flag so they could have room at the top if they wanted to scramble up the rocks to the summit. I made my way fairly carefully down through the loose scree from the top, then was able to at least halfway run along the ridge. I started running into many other hikers making their way to the top. I even ran into Dan and Karen, 2 hiker acquaintances making their way up to the top, much faster than my pace, I might add. Both of them are way out of my class. I wondered if they would both reach the summit and still pass me on their way back down to the cars. Once to the lower picnic table, I figured out how to really run down the steep rest of the way. I really don't call it running so much as more of a hop skip and a jump method of descending. I managed to make it all the way down without falling on my face, but I did have a few close calls as I tripped over tree roots that I used as steps. Bella mostly stayed right with me on the way down. I was now used to the idea that bears and things could be in the brush but kept her running leash-free, so she didn't pull me to my death on that extremely steep trail. We did the whole 4-mile trip in 3 and a half hours, which is faster than my typical 4 hours round trip. I still took 2 hours to get to the top but made up for my slow ascent by mostly running down. Once back at the car, I found raindrops on my windshield. Soon afterwards I looked back and saw the summit of Lazy Mountain was covered in clouds, and it started to rain at home. I'm glad I started early!

Summit View of Matanuska Peak

Bella on top

The flag has been replaced after I found it missing recently

Bodenburg Butte

 It was cloudy and looked like rain. But I just had to get out of the house. I did some yard work until I was totally bored with that. Mowed the lawn and trimmed some trees. But Bella was really getting restless and even she was getting tired of our many walks up and down our street. I hopped in the car, and we went to the West Butte Trail and hiked up to the top. This trail is odd because the majority of it is wooden steps that trail crews put in. Without the stairs, this trail would be horribly steep and maybe barely passable. The trail on the other side is steeper and shorter, but I like this one because it's longer and I don't have to pay to park. I have the Borough sticker on my car that gives me free parking. Sometimes I hike up this trail then go down the other side and back up. But today Bella and I just hiked to the top, had our snacks then ran back down. It was lovely up there and the wildflowers along the way were spectacular. The fireweed is now in full bloom. The tops of the mountains were totally obscured in clouds. I had considered a hike with the Valley Wanderers today, but they were hiking some complex route on the back side of Lazy Mountain. That didn't appeal to me after being fogged out on Pepper Peak the other day. Looking at the view from the top of the Butte, I decided that clearly, I'd made the best choice. I still had a bit of a view of the Knik Glacier and the trail was in great condition. It's only about 3 miles round trip but still a good little climbing workout. Bella seemed to enjoy herself too.

Knik River and Knik Glacier in the distance

Pepper Peak Trail

 The drive up Eklutna Lake Road was a little disconcerting when I had to stop for a black bear at mile 3. This hike was a bit disappointing for me. I absolutely love the hike up Pepper Peak, and that was our goal today with the Valley Wanderers. However, it didn't look promising at all. There were low clouds obscuring all of the mountain peaks, and I knew that even if we made it up there, we wouldn't have any view at all. We started with 8 of us. Chris, Karen and Virginia took off immediately and were quickly out of sight, which is typical for those speedy characters. The rest of us made our way up the Twin Peaks Trail. It was still quite beautiful, and we had a great view of Eklutna Lake from the first bench overlook.  We could see the clouds lowering and wondered if it was even worthwhile to continue to the 2nd bench. But we decided to press on at least that far. Once there, after pondering and considering, we decided to ascend into the clouds and go partway up to the ridge toward the next overlook and Pepper Peak. We stopped at a huge rock and most declared this as our final destination. We pondered a little and I assured them it wasn't very far to reach the upper ridge to see if we could get the view from there. We all pressed on. We made it to the ridge but could barely see each other, let alone the view of the lake. At that point, we collectively decided we were done, and it was pointless to try to find our way up to Pepper Peak. At some point, Sarah received a text from Virginia saying the 3 speedy folks had made it to the top but couldn't see anything. I was a little disappointed, but without seeing the view from the top, it was pointless to continue. We went back down and had an enjoyable 6-mile hike total. Bella enjoyed running up and down the trail going twice the distance we did.

Mile 3 of Eklutna Lake Road

View of Eklutna Lake from the overlook at the 1st bench

The upper ridge in the fog

Rabbit Slough/Palmer Slough Kayak

 I finally got out on the water in my kayak. This summer has been so busy with, I'm not really sure what, but I just haven't gotten out in the kayak. Lots of hiking plus lots of yard work have kept me pretty busy. There have also been quite a few rainy days where I just wanted to avoid being outdoors at all. I took my Oru Kayak to the Rabbit Slough dock and put in with Bella as my navigator and paddled upstream as far as we could go. I usually try to find a route to the Wasilla Boardwalk, but today it was just nicer to keep following upstream to see how far we could get. There were a few bright yellow water lilies brightening up the calm water. Soon after we started moving, Bella started barking loudly at a moose in the brush. I kind of wanted to take a picture, but decided it was safer to paddle hard and get out of her view. I wouldn't want an angry moose jumping into the water and swimming after us. There is very little current, and it was almost effortless to paddle upstream. The farther we went, the less current we had. I finally came to the end of any current at all into what was basically just a large calm pond with little water plants all over it. Bella seemed to want to jump out and seek land, but I think she realized there wasn't really any land close by. It got pretty warm, and I noticed she was panting a lot. I offered her some water by dipping her bowl into the water, but she wasn't interested. Since she was wearing her life jacket, I simply picked her up by its handle and placed her in the water for a few seconds. She looked a little startled by it and swam a few strokes before I plucked her out and put her back in the boat. We were both now soaking sopping wet. But she was no longer panting from the heat. After exploring this pond area, I turned back, and we just floated back downstream. There was enough current to keep us moving but I did need to paddle occasionally to keep us moving straight ahead. We passed some folks in a canoe and on paddle boards and kayaks. They all enjoyed seeing Bella looking out the front of my kayak. It was the most enjoyable, 3-mile low stress peaceful thing I think I've done all year. I'm not sure whether Bella enjoyed it or not, but I sure did!

Gold Cord Lake

 Today was kind of cold, cloudy and boring. The tree service was supposed to come this morning to estimate removing the troublesome trees in my back yard, but they canceled at the last minute. I went to AkTive Soles and found the new mountain running shoes I needed, then came home with no plans for the day. I could tell that Bella was very bored. She kept whining and wanting walks. I took a brief nap, then had to get out of the house. Wasn't sure where I was going, just out! I ended up driving up to Hatcher Pass just to see how the trail to Gold Cord Lake looked now. The last time I looked it was totally snow-covered. But today it looked like the entire trail was open. So, wearing my brand-new light-colored Solomon Speedcross 6 trail running shoes, Bella and I took off up the hill to the trail. My big challenge was keeping my beautiful new shoes out of the mud. There are 2 very muddy places on this trail, below the old cabin. I tiptoed through the tundra around the big rocks and managed to avoid both of them. The whole trail was a little muddy and slippery, but my shoes have great tread, and I made my way up the short trail easily. It's only 2 miles round trip but can be a little challenging in the mud and slippery rocks. Happily, it didn't rain on us, even though it sure looked like it wanted to. The lake is still mostly frozen but there are some open areas. The creek out of the lake is running very fast though. There were quite few hikers up there, many struggling on the slippery sometimes difficult to find, rocky, muddy trail. Bella tried to start something with each of the other dogs but obeyed my shouts of "On by!" 

I like my new shoes and managed to keep them looking shiny and clean except for the mud embedded in the tread that I had to hose off when I got home.