Lazy Mountain Climb

 I thought yesterday was muddy on Blueberry Knoll, but today was 100 times worse! I took the old Lazy Mountain Trail because it's the shortest and most direct way to climb Lazy Mountain. But it is extremely steep and if wet at all, it can be almost impossible. It was incredibly muddy and I ended up finally putting my micro spikes on my boots after sliding about 10 feet down one of the steepest slippery slopes. I thought today was going to be a perfect day for the climb, but when I set out for the trailhead, the clouds rolled in and obscured the peak. I considered abandoning the idea, but then decided to go for it anyway. It was quite a relief to finally reach the picnic table and stop for a snack. I ran into my friends from the Valley Wanderers who had climbed from the Southside Trail and were headed down Lazy Moose. After my steep slippery adventure, I momentarily considered descending with them. But I hate to quit, so continued on to the top. It was getting colder as Baby and I climbed, so I put her coat on her because she was shivering a little. The cooler temperature kept the ground fairly hard, so it was much easier climbing than the first part had been. We also encountered quite a bit of snow, which was also easy climbing since I was still wearing my spikes. We didn't hit the fog until right before the summit. Sadly we didn't get to see any of the view I had hoped for. But it's always nice to reach a goal. It was windy and cold so we didn't linger for long. The trip down was great until the last of the false summits before the junction of the Lazy Moose Trail. The temperature had warmed up and the mud was horrifying! I had 6 inch clumps of mud and grass built up under my spikes. It was almost impossible to maintain any kind of footing, so it was an easy decision to take the gently but 2 miles longer Lazy Moose switchback trail instead of the one I had climbed. It was still muddy but quite nice until I encountered a gigantic tree that had fallen across the trail. I tried several methods of getting past it then decided it didn't look possible. Shortly before the tree I saw a side trail heading down that had a sign indicating it was joining Lazy Moose.  I had no idea where it went but felt it must be the alternative to the obstructed trail. At least it was heading down. It came to anther trail with a sign that said it was access to Lazy Moose. I took it to the right, hoping that was the right direction. On my GPS map I saw I was parallel to Lazy Moose but heading in the right direction. It connected to the Morgan Horse Trail and led us back to the parking lot. I'd like to walk Lazy Moose from the bottom and see what happens from that direction when you reach that fallen tree. This was one of my more interesting climbs of Lazy Mountain.