Gold Mint Trail

 I hiked with the Valley Wanderers today. They followed my suggestion of the Gold Mint Trail because everywhere else the trails are solid ice. This trail is in the same area as the Archangel and Independence Trails that I have been skiing all week. Pam joined us with her dog, Dahla plus Terry had her dog, Chili Julia had her dogs, Trigger and Pumba also. So Bella had lots of doggie buddies to run with.  She loves to run along with the big dogs. She looks so tiny next to them. It was fabulous conditions for hiking today. The trail is very well boot packed and we didn't need snowshoes or ice grippers. We went out to the 3.2 mile spot where the view opens up and you can see the glaciated mountains up ahead. It's so pretty back there. One day I hope to go all the way back to the Mint Hut at mile 9. But that will have to be in summer because we barely made it out by sunset at 4 pm. We saw a couple of moose running along through the snow out on a flat area across the river. Pam's dog was packing a bunch of snowballs today but for some reason, Bella didn't have as much trouble with them. I was able to pick them off periodically and keep her pretty comfortable on the 6 mile hike. It started snowing a little once we got back to the parking lot. On my way down the mountain, I noticed the snow turned to rain. It was 40 degrees in Palmer when I got home. A huge winter storm is due tonight with 70-100 mph wind and mostly rain rather than snow. I'm wondering what that will do to the nice fresh snow from this week. Plus I plan to Ski Patrol up at Skeetawk, the local ski area tomorrow morning. That could be interesting! But today was a really nice hike.