Government Peak Race Trail Snowshoe

There is still so much snow everywhere but it has warmed up considerably. Today it reached 50 degrees. I snowshoed with three of the Valley Wanderers to the second picnic table on the Government Peak Race Trail. We pondered whether to wear grippers or snowshoes. But after a little consideration, we all decided it is better to walk with snowshoes than to carry them. Our snowshoes have sharp claws on the bottom that make them just as useful on ice as our microspikes. It's better to have snowshoes when you don't need them, than to find yourself in deep snow without them. They are kind of a pain to carry regardless of what kind of pack or carrying process you use. Plus they can feel kind of heavy. It didn't take long to know we had made the right decision by wearing them from the start. The trail is pretty steep in a lot of places, and can be tricky walking in snowshoes. But we all made it to the second table easily. Bella was delighted to be bouncing along the trail with us, usually following close behind the leader, who was usually Chris. I did put her back on the leash to avoid a couple of dogs and the remains of an unlucky porcupine along the trail. I did worry that she might try to eat the quills. She can be weird like that. But she passed them without even noticing them. My left knee was doing some complaining. I noticed that on Sunday while skiing all day up at Skeetawk. But after awhile, it seemed to resolve itself. We turned at the lower table on our descent, and took a mountain bike trail that led to the Fireweed Trail at Government Peak Recreation Area. In places the trail was rather vague and not recently traveled, but we had little trouble finding the actual trail. Bella walked on it as if she knew the way all along even though she has never been there before. Lower on the route, we joined the Race Trail again because it was more heavily traveled. The forecast cloudy day turned out to be a beautiful mostly sunny day. By the time we were down, the snow had gotten very soft due to the warm temperatures. Even with snowshoes sometimes we would sink in a foot or more. It won't be long before we're hiking on dry ground to the summit.

Bella following the leader, Chris

Twin Peaks Trail

Since Archangel Road didn't sound too promising, Pam and I decided to give the Twin Peaks Trail a try. It was still very much snow covered and quite icy. It stayed around 37 degrees so really didn't soften up much for us. We wore our microspikes, and found poles to be very helpful. Both of our dogs quite enjoyed themselves. It wasn't too bad to the first bench and the overlook with the great view of the entire lake. But from there to the second bench the conditions deteriorated gradually. The closer we got to the bench, the deeper the huge post holes made by other hikers, became. It was tricky navigating around them. But fortunately it stayed frozen so we didn't create new ones. We decided not to try going further up the ridge towards Pepper Peak. That area looked traveled but not packed down at all. We both wished it had been a beautiful sunny day, but that would likely have made conditions much worse and we would have needed snowshoes. It was a lovely 6 mile round trip with the usual amazing view of the lake and Twin Peaks. Certainly a good workout as well.

Archangel Road Hike

 Many of the trails are in poor condition right now, whether for hiking or skiing. I was thinking I may want to ski Archangel Road tomorrow with Pam. But I wondered what the conditions were like. First I went up to Independence Mine and tried walking up there. That trail was in miserable condition and had obviously not been groomed for some time. Even Bella, the dog wasn't interested in walking up there. So we went on down the road and started walking on Archangel Road, just to check the conditions. Bella was really happy walking there. Ski conditions looked pretty marginal, with deep holes from many walkers and only ski tracks going up the right side. We just kept walking because Bella just kept on going. I hoped it didn't soften up and become a miserable experience on the way back. But it stayed firm enough to walk the 4.6 miles round trip all the way to the bridge and back. I was quite surprised that we went that far. It was a very nice hike, but I didn't regret that I wasn't on skis. I did see a couple of skiers but they looked like they weren't having the greatest time coming back down on the rough trail that was still quite frozen. I'll opt for somewhere else tomorrow. It was still very beautiful as always, even with the dark clouds that fortunately didn't rain or snow on us.

Matanuska Lake Trails

I joined the Happy Hikers today for a hike along the Matanuska Lake Trails. We took a route that I had not done before. I usually do the Long Lake Loop, but they chose to continue the lower trail past the island and then straight up through the hay fields towards the University experimental farm. It was icy and snow covered initially, but once up in the fields, we really didn't need our microspikes. I did keep mine on because they came in handy later on the hike. There were 14 of us and two dogs in our group. Bella enjoyed visiting her dog friend Buck, the golden retriever. They first met on Saturday at Mt Gordon Lyon. The trails out there can be kind of confusing and we kept coming to junctions. We came to a spot that indicated Crevasse Moraine Trails were 2.7 miles one way and about 2 miles back to our original trailhead. Most of the group elected to head back towards the trailhead. But Amelia, Ken and I wanted a longer hike, so we headed for Crevasse Moraine. I assumed that meant the Crevasse Moraine trailhead, but it really meant just a connection to the vast Crevasse Moraine Trail system. We encountered lots of snow, ice and even some water on the trail. We finally decided we didn't have a clear destination, so we took a loop that reconnected with our original trail. We had a nice 5.4 mile hike. I liked this route because so much of that area is down in the trees with no view. But we had beautiful clear views of Pioneer Peak, Twin Peaks, and Matanuska Peak, as well as Matanuska Lake itself. It wasn't a beautiful sunny day, but it was a perfect temperature for hiking. Happy Hikers meet for a long hike every Wednesday, so I plan to hike with them more often. They tend to hike closer to Anchorage, but it's nice to hike with others now that bears are waking up. Lots of nice people in that group.

Matanuska Lake

Matanuska Peak

Twin Peaks

Bella

Our group.
I'm the one with the furry four-legged fluff ball at my feet. 3rd from the left.

Mt Gordon Lyon Climb

 Today we met with the Valley Wanderers and a couple of Happy Hikers up at Arctic Valley Ski Area to climb Mt Gordon Lyon. The ski resort had groomed the trail up to the saddle between Gordon Lyon and Rendezvous Peaks, where we had intended to snowshoe. But we were advised to avoid that area because they were currently doing avalanche control and setting off charges that could cause slides in that area. We didn't want to wait for them to finish so we chose an alternate route, straight up towards the military installation on the opposite side of the peak. It was mostly untracked and we broke trail up the steep slope to the untracked military road that runs along the high ridge. It was a lot of work on snowshoes through the deep snow. My dog, Bella did really well considering that at times the snow was deeper than her body. I let her off the leash in areas that weren't too dangerous. But once on the ridge, there was potential for her to go bouncing too close to the cornices up there. I put her back on the leash. It was a beautiful sunny day for a nice change. The avalanche bombs going off scared Bella and sent her running back to my side. The views up top and really, all along the route, were just amazing. You could see forever, just range after range of mountaintops. Our whole distance was about 4 miles. Fortunately we were able to walk down our original planned route on the nice groomed slope. I stayed for a couple of hours and skied a run at the ski area on the deep ungroomed snow. Then attended a brief memorial for Dave Hendrickson, our Pioneer Ski Patrol member, and original founder. The Arctic Valley Ski Patrol took some of his ashes up to the top of the chairlift and bombed them to scatter them in the area. I wasn't allowed to bring Bella into the lodge, so we left soon after that event.

Bella on the summit

Bella and me on the summit

Matanuska Lake Trails, Long Lake Loop

My original plan was to meet my friend, Pam up at Archangel Road to cross country ski. But as I drove up the road it started to snow. The storm became so heavy that it was soon difficult to even see the road. Even my dog became concerned when she saw the heavy snow and started barking and whining. I texted Pam but she didn't respond. I didn't know if she was ahead or behind me. Cell service is very poor in this area so I decided to just continue in case she was ahead of me. I passed a snowplow heading down as the snow got deeper on the road. I finally reached Archangel Road and found a 3 foot high berm across the parking area. I knew it would be impossible to park there. Luckily I was able to make a quick U-turn and get headed back down the road. I had good cell service there so called Pam and we decided to meet down at Turner's Corner, a gas station often used as a meeting point. By the time I got to Turner's I found the storm had moved down the mountain with me and it was snowing furiously. Pam and I decided to go to Matanuska Lake and just hike the Long Lake Loop Trail. It's just under 5 miles and we found that it was neither snowing or raining there. There was enough ice and snow that we both wore our microspikes, even though in many places we still had exposed dirt. We had the trail to ourselves, so I let Bella off her leash. She had a wonderful time running up and down the trail with her friend, Dahla, Pam's dog. Bella is very good about immediately coming when I call her. We had a very pleasant walk but not the best view due to low cloud ceilings. But at least we stayed dry and didn't need to trudge through very deep snow. I later learned Hatcher Pass Lodge was closed due to a 2 foot snowfall. Once I got back home, it started to snow there too. Winter is certainly hanging on around here.

McRoberts Creek Trail

 I had some reservations about this hike today after hearing the forecast for 50 mph winds. The Valley Wanderers intention was to snowshoe from the Smith Road Trailhead, up the McRoberts Creek Trail to the tripod where it joins the Matanuska Peak Trail, then on to the picnic table, returning the same way. About 8 miles round trip and 2700 foot elevation gain. We just used micro spikes for about 3/4 mile then switched to snowshoes because we were starting to sink in badly. Snowshoes made life much easier. At about mile 1 we encountered a dead moose sprawled right across the middle of the trail. This was quite disconcerting because word has it that bears have been seen out in various places. Conditions were pretty rough and there were no previous tracks to follow. I stayed behind the leaders of our little group of 5 because they seemed to know where the actual trail was. It's not one that is frequently traveled, but it is sort of a shortcut up Matanuska Peak. We crossed some questionable snow bridges across creeks but no one managed to get wet. We took the steep shortcut up the steep gully they all call 'The Chute'. My dog, Bella did really well until about 3/4 of the way up the chute. She started walking behind me and making frequent stops. I fell slightly behind the others but caught up with them shortly before the tripod. It's up on a ridge and the wind was furiously blowing so they sat down for some food and a break. I gobbled down my candy bar and Bella gobbled down my little baggie of dog food. We were all freezing and made the command decision to turn around and go back down. I took off my backpack ad stuffed Bella into her three layer thick fleece bag that I made for her, and zipped her into my pack. She was shivering and obviously too tired to continue this silly expedition. I carried her all the way back to the car. She was comfortably curled up and warm and I'm sure, quite happy to be riding instead of stumbling through the deep snow in the high winds that had caught up with us. Our total mileage was only 4.6 miles, but it was quite the workout. I didn't take very many pictures, just a few to document that I actually went there. When I got home, I quickly printed out a Caution sign warning future hikers about the moose carcass on the trail, and taped it on the bulletin board at the trailhead. Bear spray will be important until that is gone.

Independence Mine Ski

Today the Happy Hikers from Anchorage had planned to ski up at Independence Mine. Several of our Valley Wanderers group decided to join them since this is a local hike for us. It was another beautiful day in spite of the inch of fresh snow on my walk when I woke up. There was a layer of fog down in the valley but up at the mine it was a clear blue beautiful day. The trails had been groomed for last weekend but now there had been roughed up by so many walkers. Our group was very large, somewhere in the 15 to 20 number. Most of our group was also walking but a few of us were skiing. I skied on my classic cross country skis with Bella pulling me hard enough to give me a little boost on the long uphill. We had a huge golden retriever and a little poodle mix type dog in our group. Bella did her usual tirade of barking at both of them, making me look like a terrible dog owner. But with such a large group we were all separated enough that for the most part, Bella was able to ignore the other dogs. Our total distance was only about 3 miles but there was an elevation gain of around 1000 feet. I kept Bella on the leash all the way to the highest point, and down the first steep incline. I'm not the greatest on steep downhills on hose skis so questioned my decision to leave her attached to me on that first downhill. Fortunately, even though she decided to run behind me, she quickly changed her mind and continued running at my same pace. I kept mumbling to myself "Please, Bella, don't stop!" She did great and got to the bottom of that hill the same time I did. After that, I took her off the leash. By then all three dogs were together. Bella didn't do her usual growling and barking, but instead just got overly friendly to both of them. The big dog wasn't too concerned, but the smaller dog clearly didn't want to be friends, although they didn't fight. I left her off the leash on the whole way down. She stayed right with me and I ended up being the first one to the parking lot. The snow was quite fast and it was nice not having the dog pulling and making me go faster than would have been reasonable. She was great, mostly right behind me or by my side. I can tell she really does enjoy being able to run full speed without being encumbered by the leash. We didn't see any other dogs until back at the cars, and by then I had her back on her leash. 

This was my first time to do something with the Happy hikers. They usually do something on Wednesdays so I will plan to join then occasionally. It was a great day with lots of nice people.

Bear Point

Today was one of the most beautiful and spectacular days I've seen this year. Bella and I hiked up Bear Mountain to Bear Point with our Valley Wanderers friends, Jane, Meg, Jo and Chris. It was hard packed and icy so we didn't need snowshoes, just microspikes. It's a pretty steep hike but the views from the top of the ridge are amazing. Our packed trail stopped once we got to the first peak on the ridge. But Chris decided to see if he could find a way on to where we usually can hike in the summer. Once he started walking, Bella took off after him. At this point she was still attached to me by her leash, so I followed along too. There was hard packed icy ground beneath the top layer of the 5-10 inches that fell this past weekend. So we were able to easily walk along the ridge. We did frequently sink through into softer layers, but it was mostly easy going. Sometimes Bella fell into our footprints and discovered she could do better by simply walking on top of the soft snow. We walked about one mile along the ridge. Beyond that we could see giant snow cornices to either side of the ridge. We decided for safety it was time to turn around. But we had amazing views of the surrounding mountains, the Knik and Matanuska Rivers down below, and even Denali and the Alaska Range in the distance. Bella collected quite a few snowballs inside of her coat and on her legs when we took off on the unpacked snow. I picked all that off of her before we started down the long icy path back to the trailhead. The trail down had now softened and was quite slippery. It didn't take me long to decide to take her off the leash so she didn't pull me all the way down in a pile of bruises and embarrassing moments. She was great! She stayed right on the trail and right with our little group. She made sure she knew where I was at all times also. Once we got back to the main Peter's Creek Trail, I put her back on the leash in case we encountered other dogs or hikers, for her safety. Round trip was a total of 5 miles and we climbed to over 3100 feet.You would never guess that only a week ago, Bella got her surgery stitches out. She recovered quickly!

Jo, Meg, and Jane

The KRRBRRR

 Ever year the local running folks put on this really odd running event called Krrbrrr - The Knik River Breakup Ramble Run. For some really amazing runners, it is actually a run. For people like me it was barely a walk. It is a combination of deep post-holing snow, wet slush, tree branches, steep hills and horse poop. I didn't even bother with running shoes. I went straight to my heavy snow boots with microspikes. It was very wet snow and in many places there was deep water where we had to take cross country shortcuts through dense trees. The race is well described by this link. KRRBRRR
It is a meandering 5.5 mile loop that starts and finishes in the Jim Creek parking lot. Participants are given 8 hours to complete as many loops as they want. I was happy to complete one loop and call it a day. Some diehard people were out there for the whole 8 hours though. I had to leave my dog home alone so didn't want to leave her for very long. Plus I fell while shoveling my walk yesterday and smacked my left ribs so hard that I quite possibly have a cracked or at least bruised rib or two. It hurts to breathe or even move. So plunging into deep snow up over my knees was not as comfortable as I would have liked it. But it was still fun and of course challenging. I was happy to stop after loop one.

Here are a few scenes along the trail

The 5.5 Mile Route