Lazy Mountain

 I usually hike with my friend Pam and her dog, Dahla on Fridays. Today looked like a perfect day to climb Matanuska Peak but Pam didn't have enough time because she had a dinner date. We got a fairly late start too, about 11 am before we started our hike. Thinking I might still do Matanuska Peak, we started at the Matanuska Peak Trailhead. But I still couldn't talk Pam into climbing the higher peak. I considered climbing it from the top of Lazy Mountain but that is longer than the 10 miles along the regular trail and I knew I would get back after dark. So we hiked the Matanuska Peak Trail to where it intersects with the Lazy Mountain Southside Trail and turned up that way instead. We took a nice break at a spot nicknamed Stonehenge because of all the large rocks scattered around there. Bella led the whole way to the summit of Lazy Mountain. It really was a perfect day to be up there. No wind, nice and warm. Just beautiful conditions. While up on the summit elite runner Meg came sprinting up to the top and passed over the summit and sped like a gazelle down the far ridges towards Matanuska Peak. I joked that I wish I could follow her but knew she would likely be back to her car before I got to the summit. So reluctantly I hiked back the way we came with Pam and our dogs. It really was a beautiful hike and a great workout. Now I am determined to try Matanuska Peak, starting at 7 am on the next sunny day, even if I have to do it alone. A couple days next week look promising. I'll be watching the weather forecasts.

Matanuska Peak

Pam and me and our dogs at the flag just below the summit

The ridge towards Matanuska Peak from the top of Lazy Mountain

Bella on top of Lazy Mountain

Gold Cord Lake

 I took a nice hike up to Gold Cord Lake today with Bella the dog and my friend, Mark Simpson. It was very cloudy but at least not raining as we hiked. We did a little exploring once we got to the lake. We've both wondered what might be up on the ledge to the north of the lake. It looks like it should also have a lake just based on how it looks. I have flown up there in my plane and confirmed that there is not a lake there. But it still looks like it would be an interesting place to visit. The pointed peak called The Pinnacle is at the far end of that flat spot. We tried walking up to the ridge beside Gold Cord Lake to see if it looked like there might be a reasonable hiking route to get up there. We couldn't find anything that looked promising. It appears that any possible route would involve some serious boulder crossings. But it certainly would be possible. We decided that a better route would be farther down the Gold Cord Lake Trail even though it seemed like there would be an altitude advantage by crossing over from Gold Cord Lake. Maybe one day I'll try climbing up from lower just to see what is really there. I'm curious what route climbers use to climb The Pinnacle. Perhaps they just climb from the other side of the ridge. I'll have to research that. We got down before it rained.

Muktuk Marston Trail and Rendezvous Ridge

We hiked Muktuk Marston Trail, Rendezvous Ridge then down through Arctic Valley. The Muktuk Trail is a very gentle steady climb for about 3 miles up to Hunter Pass, starting at the Arctic Valley Ski Area. It was beautiful and green with a few tiny creeks crossing the trail. Once we reached Hunter Pass, we had a view down to the South Fork of Eagle River. At that point we finally encountered the high winds that had been forecasted for today. We all hunkered down behind rocks to grab a snack out of the wind. Then we started the fairly steep climb up onto Rendezvous Ridge. It was really windy up there. I let Bella off her leash most of the way and found myself really pushing because she insists on being with the leader. Chris as usual, was the leader. He walks so quickly that I can never keep up. But today he was having a long conversation with Jane, another hiker from our group, so I think it slowed him down a little. I managed to stay pretty close to him but Bella basically was the leader. At least I could always see her. I get nervous when she is so far ahead that I can't tell if she is even still with us. It was very cloudy and some of the mountains were obscured by clouds, but we still had some very nice views in spite of the weather. Bella enjoyed jumping over the big rocks and mooching snacks off of all of us. When we got to Rendezvous Peak, Chris elected to take the trail straight down through Arctic Valley. The rest of the group was more interested in traversing behind the peak and descending the more gentle route on the other side of the ski area. The wind was with us the whole way. Even with the steep climbing, I still needed both my jacket and my raincoat to protect me from that wind. Once we started the descent, we lost most of the wind, although there was an occasional gust to remind us it was still there. The whole trip was a little over 8 miles. It's a beautiful loop and I always enjoy it.

Peter's Creek Trail

It's another partly raining day so we stayed low along the Peter's Creek Trail rather than climb up into the clouds in the mountains. I joined the Walkabouts Hiking group today. Carpooled in with Pam and finally got my friend Alice out on a hike with us. It was just us 3 ladies plus Richard and Jim. I think the rain had discouraged everyone else. We were pretty lucky though because it was not raining very hard. Bella was soaking wet and full of mud and needed a bath the minute we got home though. This trail isn't very steep and is mostly in the trees and thick brush. It wasn't terribly muddy though, even with all the rain we've been having. We hiked 6 miles round trip and turned around at the far end of the higher trail rather than continue on the loop trail that would likely have been much wetter since it heads down toward the creek. 

Long Lake Loop Matanuska Lake Trails

 I just took a leisurely hike around Long Lake Loop on the Matanuska Lake Trails System, with my friend Pam and our dogs. It's pretty and green there from all the rain. We didn't have very much time so our usual 5 mile route was all we could do today. I've had a busy week of bigger longer hikes so it was nice to just relax and enjoy nature. 

Gold Cord Lake to the Waterfall

 Our original plan with the Happy Hikers today was to hike to Gold Cord Lake, then to the waterfall on the rock cliff above the lake then on to the upper ridge to overlook Archangel Valley. Jo from Valley Wanderers was leading this hike. When Jo and I got to the parking lot it was pouring rain, and forecast to continue all day. We waited for the others to arrive then decided to only hike up to the lake if we could do it. The trail gets very muddy and worse when raining. We all scrapped the idea of going to the ridge. Ken was there with his big golden retriever, Buck and he started out leading. Bella wanted to be with Buck, so I let her off leash. Normally this trail is quite crowded so I always keep her leashed. But we were the only people there today. I ended up being the leader myself because Bella kept racing up ahead on the trail. We do this one a lot so she knows exactly where to go. Once at the lake I waited for the others. Ken and Buck kept going on the trail around the lake. I followed, figuring everyone else would also. Plus I didn't want my dog going without me. When we got to the big rock that blocks the trail, Ken headed through the complex spot I have taken before. Meanwhile a couple of the other ladies passed me and started hiking a higher cross country route. That seemed to be just getting higher but not gaining much progress, so I went down and took my usual route around the rock. Ken and Buck seemed to disappear, and I rejoined Jane and Meg who had finally reached the same trail I was on. It turned out that Buck couldn't get through the rocks so Ken had turned back. I stayed with Meg and Jane and realized the rest of our group of 14 were not behind us. We kept angeling higher up through the boulders and tundra, still in pouring rain until we reached the waterfall that was nothing but a thin trickle pouring down the rock cliff face. None of the 3 of us had any desire to continue on up to the ridge, knowing we would not have had any view even if we did make it all the way up there. So we headed back down to a trail closer to the lake and made our way back. We took a little side trip to the cute rock bridge on a private side trail towards Dan's house. I had never seen it before and it was really a nice feature over the creek that comes down through the valley. We reunited with the rest of the group once back to the parking lot. Then we went to lunch at Hatcher Pass Lodge. It's still pouring rain!

The Happy Hikers. I'm in blue with Bella on her leash

Dan's Rock Bridge

Gold Cord Lake from the waterfall

The rock face with the waterfall that's hard to see

Bella wondering why we are out there in the pouring rain

Gold Cord Lake shore

Beach Lake Kayak

Finally a nice calm day. I had to drive to Anchorage so took my kayak with me and stopped at Beach Lake on my way back. Bella and I had the whole lake to ourselves. It was so calm and warm, just a perfect day to do something totally relaxing. Well for me it was relaxing. I'm not quite sure what Bella really thinks about it. I think if she could speak she would say she'd rather be hiking. She was doing a lot of whining and barking at nothing. We passed a couple of submerged logs that were sticking out of the water. They had been there so long that substantial amounts of vegetation were growing on them. I pulled up beside each of them, and Bella hopped out onto them. She was still surrounded by water so I'm not sure she felt she had accomplished much. The second time we did that routine, she slipped into the water and got her back end wet. Of course, that meant she also got me wet as I pulled her back in. She wears a life jacket and I have her leash clipped into my life jacket, so she is never in any danger. She got quite vocal with a few ducks we saw on the water. We paddled the whole 2 mile perimeter of the lake. I enjoyed just peacefully paddling and not climbing some hard core mountain for a change.

Lane Basin and Lane Glacier Hike

Our original plan was to hike to Fairangel Lakes. But just like the last time I tried, we were not able to cross the creek because the water was too high and fast. None of our group wanted to try to cross on slippery rocks with what was close to a raging river. So we decided to do the nice gentle hike to beautiful Lane Basin. There was a lot of water to negotiate there as well. Many parts of the trail had become almost like creeks with water running down them. But we were able to avoid most of the water and mud and work our way up the valley. We did need to do one creek crossing where I had to hand Bella to one of the other hikers about halfway across because I needed my poles to get myself the rest of the way. My feet did get wet doing that. We found the spot at the far end of the valley where the cute little Lane Hut used to stand. It was taken down due to major vandalism many years ago. We could see a hint of a trail that continued on up towards the ridge behind the old hut site, so decided to see if we could get up to the ridge. The trail was easy to follow at first but then it began to disappear into huge piles of boulders. Sometimes it was a trail and other times just a boulder rock climb. There was water crossing in little streams in many places as well. Bella took off making her own way, remaining close to the fastest hikers. She would occasionally come back to check on me, then scurry back through the rocks. This was kind of helpful because she was actually helping me to find the correct route. There were occasional rock cairns marking the way to whatever was of interest up ahead. It did turn out to be the way to the remnants of the Lane Glacier. For the most part, it is gone, but there was still a good sized bowl of snow and ice and we could see some old glacial ice clinging to the hillside above the snowfield. It was chilly and windy there so we didn't stay very long, but took a nice break to have a snack before heading back down. The view up there was breathtaking, with sharp spires in all directions. Bella enjoyed running around in the snow. On our way up she got distracted by a ground squirrel that had run under a big rock. She ran circles around that rock continually barking until we had to move past that area. Coming down from the glacier was pretty treacherous. In many ways it's actually easier to climb up rock boulder fields than to descend them. I kept taking pictures so was lagging behind a bit. I didn't want to lose sight of the correct path so hurried to catch up with Jane who was ahead of me. I stepped on a big rock and it moved, flinging me straight down into the rocks below. I only fell a few feet but landed directly on my left eye. My sunglasses protected my eye itself, but I now have a huge green goose egg over my left eyebrow. That's going to look lovely in a few days. But other than a few scrapes to knees and elbows, I wasn't hurt. I picked myself up and continued down with no problem. We had trouble once out of the rocks, finding the best trail down. There were so many stream crossings that it got rather challenging. Finally we just stayed to the right side of the valley and found the correct trail. Bella ran most of the way down, making her own trails through the tundra and jumping streams. She even swam across one of them. We were all quite tired by the time we reached our cars down at the Reed Lakes parking lot. Our leisurely hike to Lane Basin turned into a 10 mile mountain climb. But it was certainly worth all the hard work. It was a new trail for all 6 of us.

Twin Peaks Trail

My friend Alice has been wanting to hike the Twin Peaks Trail again but something always happens to keep us from doing it. Rain and high winds were forecast for today, but since it didn't look too bad this morning, we decided to meet at the bottom of Eklutna Lake Road and she rode up to the trailhead with me. She lost her rain jacket when she gave it to a volunteer on the Hatcher Pass Marathon, so I loaned her my old one that has a broken zipper on one pocket. But it still works well as a rain jacket. It was very cloudy but not raining, so we started up the trail. Alice hasn't done much hiking lately and wondered if she could even make it to the first bench at the overlook just past the 1 mile mark. But of course she did fine. We took the usual pictures there and admired the amazing view of Eklutna Lake. After a little coaxing she agreed to try for the second bench another mile or so ahead. We still didn't have any rain or wind. Once at the second bench we had one short passing rain shower and were convinced it was time to head down. But the most amazing view is to continue up the rough trail for another half mile or so through the rocks and some steep climbs to the ridge at the base of Pepper Peak. We couldn't resist the temptation to go on, so we did. We had a couple more short passing showers but continued on to the ridge following Bella who was forging ahead as usual. Once on the ridge we found both the high winds and the rain. We only stayed there long enough for a couple of pictures then quickly got out of there. It was quite the inhospitable place at that point. The trail down to the second bench was a little slippery and the rain was making it worse. But we both got down without any falls. I gave Alice one of my trekking poles, which really helps with balance on tricky trails like that. From then on, it was mostly steady light rain, and we were well protected with my Gortex rain jackets. So often I have started up that trail with others who only plan to go to the first bench, and ended up going all the way to that amazing overlook below Pepper Peak. I'm so glad that earlier this summer I finally got the chance to hike all the way to the top of Pepper Peak. But today was certainly not the day for that. A young couple descending from there confirmed that. They had made the wise decision to turn back before the summit. The view down at the first bench was really interesting on our way down because fog was rolling in giving fascinating views of the lake as it rolled by. We got back to my car before it really started to pour rain. We were so happy we made it the whole way to the ridge. Bella of course, was soaking sopping wet and needed another bath when we got home.