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.