When Mark and I climbed the Butte the other day, he took some pictures of the little peninsula that looks like an island along the Matanuska River. He's been interested in finding a way to access that area because it looks interesting from afar.
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| The Peninsula |
I have a friend, Frank Wall who lives close to that area. He likes to hike, hunt and ski out there from his house all the time. I asked him if he had been out there. He said he would take us out there to check it out. So today we met him at his house and did what turned out to be a much longer hike that we had expected. As the crow flies, it would only be about 3 miles. But it's not easy to find your way directly there because of streams and trees etc. Frank led us along the old Dike Road for a couple of miles first. Then, from there we doubled back along ATV trails through the mud and long ice areas while gradually heading in the correct direction. Mark is not used to long hikes and was getting tired. But we all pressed on, through the mud, ice and several serious stream crossings. I had to carry Bella across a couple of the streams, but she eagerly ran across the shallower ones. Franks dog, Maya, is much bigger and explored a lot more of the area than the rest of us. At times I did keep Bella on her leash to keep her from getting herself into trouble. But, for the most part she stayed nearby. Once in clear view of the little tree covered mound, Mark disappeared. He saw it and got tired of trudging through the muck so took off for the peninsula mound and we lost him. I kept hollering for him and he didn't respond. We hoped we would come across him, since we were basically heading to the same location. But we were on actual trails. He was pushing through the brush. Frank and I were both tracking our route with GPS phone apps. We found a small trail heading directly to the top and started up it. At that point, Mark called me on his cell phone. He was heading up also, but in a different place. We shouted for him, but he never responded. Once on top, I called him back on the phone. He said he was on an actual ATV trail that was heading up. While Frank and I were taking pictures, Mark finally showed up. He had found an ATV trail on his way up. We took a nice break then took Mark's trail back. Frank knew how to go directly back to his house from the bottom of the mound and we went mostly directly through the scrub brush and over streams and ice until we got to the Dike Road. Soon we encountered a huge ice area. I didn't want to cross all of that ice, so elected to go straight up over a steep hill to avoid it. Frank took my route and Mark stayed down on the ice. The dogs followed us. Once over the hill, we joined up with Mark and easily made our way back to Frank's house. Instead of what we figured would be a couple of mile short hike, we had clocked 8.5 miles. It turned into quite the adventure. I think Frank just wanted to give us a guided tour of the area! I think we might have been able to get there through dead reckoning, but I can see how it might be hard to go there directly from his house. I enjoyed the walk on the dike. I'm glad we didn't get separated for very long and that we all made it to our intended destination. Mark and I may try to get there by just walking along the river someday if we can find a different trail there. We had two very happy very muddy dogs. Bella went directly into my kitchen sink, avoiding my bed and getting a nice through bath. Such a fun adventure
with great views from the top.
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| Bella and me |
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| Mark, Me, and Frank |
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