Lazy Mountain Hike

Bella and I met with the Valley Wanderers at the Lazy Mountain Trailhead, before the actual sunrise. Their plan was to hike the steep main trail to the picnic table at the junction of the longer, more gradual Lazy Moose Trail, then descend that trail, avoiding the slippery steepness of the main trail. I always prefer to go all the way to the top of the mountain rather then end the climb at the table. But today I just didn't seem to have any energy. I'm often the slowest of this group, but today I was really dragging. Sandy tends to like a slower pace so she stayed with me as I slowly plodded my way up. I have no idea why I felt so tired, but we did finally reach the picnic table. The others had been waiting for a while so they took off down Lazy Moose.  The steep trail was well packed down and all we needed were microspikes. But as soon as we started down Lazy Moose, our snowshoes were definitely needed. It was hardly packed at all. In fact, I think the only tracks were made by the rest of our group that had started down ahead of Sandy, Bella and me. I was relieved to be heading down and my snowshoes made travel easy even though the snow was quite deep. But Bella wasn't a fan at all. The snow was deeper than her body. After only a very short distance, she stopped and started trying to back out of her harness, she even worked her way right out of her winter coat. She was determined to get out of that deep snow. I had to tell Sandy to go on without us because I didn't want to carry the dog. I didn't have a pack on that would work well for carrying her either. We went back to the picnic table and Bella took off running back down the steep icy trail as fast as her little legs could carry her. I ended up becoming a mountain runner most of the way since I always keep her on her leash. I think that was my quickest trip ever back down that trail. I spent most of the time shouting, slow down, please, slow slow slow. Words she obviously chose to ignore. I made it all the way to the tiny bridge just above the parking lot before she finally pulled me over, landing on my knees. It was an odd hike, slightly disappointing, but still a beautiful day to be out there in the mountains. The sunrise was amazing too.