Matanuska Lake Trails

 It's snowing but very peaceful. Baby and I met with our friend, Pam and after a quick snack at Vagabond Blue's, we went to the Matanuska Lake Trailhead and went for a nice snowy hike. We had some trouble finding the exact trail we had planned to use, because others had broken trail, but not on the trail we expected.  We ended up going in an interesting unexpected loop and found ourselves right back where we had started.  But it was so nice that we simply repeated it. It's always so quiet and peaceful while the snow is falling.  Halfway through the second loop, Baby started having some trouble.  It doesn't take much snow to cover chihuahua feet, so they were getting cold.  I picked her up and put her in my pack and she rode the rest of the way on my front so she could see where we were going.  It was so nice to have someone to hike with instead of my usual solo hikes.  Pam and I caught up on the last month of our lives as we walked through the snow. The last hike of 2021. Maybe we will hike next year, tomorrow!

Bodenburg Butte

 I really wanted to do something with a little elevation gain today.  I had originally planned on Lazy Mountain, but since it was only 8 degrees out, I felt that might be too much for the dog. So I changed plans and we hiked up the Butte.  It's still a steep climb, but much shorter. The trail was very hard packed snow and Baby was happy to run along, ignoring the cold temperature. This trail is about half wooden stairs, which are very steep They do have a coated nylon steel cable running along through posts as handrails.  I found them to be extremely useful today. The stairs where all completely covered with ice, and it wasn't nice flat ice either.  It was more like 4 to 6 inches of glare ice that was rounded off into big solid lumps.  I had worn my hiking boots and brand new very sharp microspikes. Thank goodness for those, because it would have been impossible without them.  Baby wanted to run the whole way, but I'm not quite as agile so I was holding tightly to those cables and hoping my spikes would keep me from slipping.  It all worked well.  It was quite a workout, especially with someone trying to make me run the whole way. 

All was great until we got to the top.  There we were met with at least a 30 mph wind that made it feel like 20 below zero at least.  My dog became quite vocal and told me off unmercifully, pulling towards the trail and barking her displeasure. Needless to say, we didn't stay long, but I did get a few pictures before she dragged me back down the trail. Going down was rather treacherous because she wanted to run the whole way, while I was gingerly trying to keep from sliding down off each ice covered step while clinging to the hand cables.  I was very happy to get to the bottom of the stairs still upright. We made it and it was a great little hike.  

Knik Glacier

Baby voicing her displeasure

Sunrise at 1:40pm

Thunderbird Falls Trail

 It was very icy up at Eklutna Lake and Baby seemed quite disinterested in hiking up there today. I didn't feel like carrying her the whole way so I drove back down. But decided to give the Thunderbird Falls Trail a try. It was just as icy and just as cold, but she didn't seem to care at all and raced along like it was the middle of summer. The conditions were perfect for walking as long as I was wearing microspikes on my boots.  We went all the way down to the base of the falls. It was nice watching the water flow through the iced up sections. It's such a beautiful and peaceful place.