It warmed up to over 40 degrees today. But the wind was almost as strong as the temperature. I wasn't sure if I would really go hiking anywhere but decided to head up to Eklutna. The road up Hatcher Pass is still closed because of a bunch of avalanches, so heading there is out of the question. I figured it would still be cold up at the lake, so I didn't expect to do much hiking if any at all. But when I got to the parking lot, my car outside temperature showed 41 degrees. It was still quite windy, but seemed like a warm wind. I started out walking the trail with the dog. The snow is melting fast and would still be good for skiing. In fact I did see one skier, and wondered if I should have skied myself. But we were already walking so we continued on. There were large areas of standing water where there had been ice sheets from overflow. But most of the trail was still just soft slushy snow. After about 2 1/2 miles, Baby decided she'd had enough. She ran a few circles around me then started barking her displeasure. I picked her up and carried her for a short distance then decided that wasn't much fun. So we turned around and started back. When we got to the Eydlu Bena Loop Trail I decided to turn up it to see where it actually goes. I have walked part of it in the past but never the whole way. The snow along it was fairly deep and not packed down like the Lakeside Trail. But there were enough old footprints that I found it fairly easy to walk. The dog seemed kind of interested in it and lead the way. It was as if she knew that it would ultimately lead back to the car even though it was heading in the opposite direction initially. We walked all the way to the trailhead which starts at the Twin Peaks Trailhead. Then we turned around finally reaching the car. It was a nice change from the usual lakeside trail. Even with the wind, I was quite warm and didn't even need to wear my gloves most of the way. We ended up covering 5.79 miles. A nice hike on a beautiful spring like day.
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