Lazy Mountain Climb

The weather forecast for this weekend all the way through Monday was so bad that the Valley Wanderers canceled today's hike up Pioneer Ridge and Monday's hike to Snowbird Glacier and hut. I was disappointed and expected to wake up this morning to pouring rain. Instead of jumping out of bed at 6 am as usual, I just rolled over and went back to sleep until 8. When I finally woke up I saw beautiful blue sky and bright sunshine. There was no way I was going to pass up a nice weather window like that. So, I grabbed my pack and drove down the road to the Lazy Mountain Trailhead. That trail can be terrible if it is wet, because it is almost straight up for the first mile or so. But even though it was damp it wasn't terribly slippery, so Bella and I made our way up to the picnic table at the halfway point fairly easily. But, just as we got there, so did the clouds and a little of the rain that we had been expecting earlier. I found one man resting at the table who said he was heading up. I considered heading down but felt some comfort knowing I wasn't the only person on the mountain, so I continued climbing. My first glimpse of Matanuska Peak showed that it was now covered with snow. That was disappointing because I still haven't had the chance to climb it this summer. As we climbed the rain got a little heavier, but visibility was still good and this upper part of the trail isn't nearly as steep as that first section. We continued on and decided to see if we could actually make it to the top. Two young ladies caught up to us near the top and ran by us. Soon after, a lone guy with his dog also ran past us. I could see them as they reached the summit, so of course Bella and I continued. I put her rain poncho on to try to keep her dry. I had my good rain jacket on and at least my upper body stayed dry. It got very windy which made it not as comfortable as I would have liked, and most of the wonderful view was obscured in clouds as we reached the summit. But I was delighted that we had made it even in those less than ideal conditions. As we started down we ran into the man we had seen at the lower picnic table. Our dogs had a less than friendly conversation as we passed him heading down. I let Bella off her leash so she didn't pull me all the way down the mountain. Conditions were nice enough that I mostly ran all the way down to the picnic table. But a couple hundred feet above it, the trail was getting very wet and slippery. I finally took one step onto a very wet spot and suddenly found myself on my back sliding 40 or 50 feet straight down the hill until I came to a stop at a flat spot. Now my pants were soaked and my pack and pants were caked with mud. Bella was standing there staring at me quizzically, wondering what I was doing in that position! I could tell I had smacked my right rear ribs and hip very hard and I knew I would be remembering this event for most of the next week. Hopefully no longer than that. I picked myself up and decided that the steep trail I had climbed up was going to now be extremely slippery from the rain. The longer switchback but more gradual Lazy Moose Trail joins the main trail just past the picnic table, so I decided to take that route down and avoid more slippery slide falls. I did have my microspikes with me, and they are helpful on muddy trails. But I have found that even wearing them, it can still be very slippery. So I left them in my pack and mostly ran down Lazy Moose. That trail was very muddy by now with standing water in many places. I gave up any plans to try keeping my shoes or anything else dry. By the time we reached the car, both person and dog were soaking sopping wet and muddy. I'm not sure if Bella really enjoyed that hike, but I'm pretending that she loved it. I think she did like the nice hot bath she got immediately after we got back to the house. It was crazy, but at least I wasn't the only crazy person out there on the mountain. Once rainy season starts here in Alaska, one must learn to deal with the rain or remain couch potatoes until ski season starts.