Running & Trekking The World!: Skyscraper to Independence Mine

Such an interesting and somewhat challenging hike we did today! We parked our cars at the upper lot of Independence Mine then all piled into Michele's big car and drove up to the Summit Lake area at the top of Hatcher Pass. We left her car at the turnout by the steep trail that climbs Skyscraper Peak. From there we climbed the straight up trail to the first summit. Janice was the fastest hiker and was always in the lead. Of course, my dog Bella was always either with her or bounding up ahead of her. I like to keep my dog in view so I hiked as fast as I could to keep close to Janice. We waited for the others to catch up once we reached the first high point of the trail. The trail is easy to follow along the upper ridge most of the way. It is a series of peaks and valleys with huge rock piles at the top of most of the high points. Bella always seemed to know where we intended to go and was usually far ahead of us. As we started to climb each peak, we could usually see her looking down at us from the top. Of course, she also took numerous side trips to chase marmots and squirrels and to investigate the occasional snowfield down below. We had amazing views down to Summit Lake and of the mountains surrounding the entire Hatcher Pass area. Much of the route was easy sailing along a gentle ridge. But there were numerous sections of steep rock where we had to rely on our rock-climbing skills to find our way through. On one place it was so technical that I hitched Bella to her leash and helped her over some spots that seemed impossible to me at first. I do wonder if she might have found a better way if left to her own resources. But I wanted to be sure she was always safe. It was a bit cumbersome for me in a couple of those places with the leashed dog trying to go twice my speed. But we both survived. Once we finally reached the high spot where we needed to start our descent, it was not totally apparent where the trail might actually go. So, we just started down over the soft mossy tundra until we reached the dreaded boulder field. The first boulder field was not marked at all, but we could see a semblance of a trail on the other side of it. So, we just climbed and scrambled our way through the huge rocks until we reached the other side. Then we continued nearly straight down through rocks and scree until we saw an orange flag, marking the spot where the trail now progresses through the second huge boulder field. I was ahead for a few moments and went right for that flag. Bella ran right to it, and I followed her. The others found a slightly different route, but we all ended up at the boulders and could see bits of orange flagging marking the route. Lots of climbing and scrambling we all made it through those rocks. Then we came to a scary nasty little scree field. Each step sent rocks and scree cascading down the slope. We elected to traverse that in single file, so we didn't cause a landslide on anyone below us. I got across this fairly easily because I know not to lean into the hill and to go as fast as possible. A couple of the others were a little more hesitant, but we all made it just fine. Jane had climbed higher and maybe she actually found a less obnoxious route. Now we were finally on an actual trail. Bella took off ahead and followed it like a champ. It had gentle switchbacks and often, Bella could be seen several switchbacks below. She did take some shortcuts. It was almost as if she could see my car in the distance down below in the mine parking lot. The trail led through lots of ruins of old mine buildings complete with old bed frames. We had to be a little careful to avoid splinters, tripping over metal cables and pipes, pieces of rusted metal roofing, and broken glass. Once through all of that mess we followed the trail for a while, with a clear view of the mine and the parking lot far below us. The trail eventually completely disappeared, and we had no choice but to simply head down through the mossy brush to the stream below. Then we crossed a bridge that finally led to the official trails of the Independence Mine Park. Bella ran ahead and was befriending a couple of tourists, so I had to catch her and put her back on her leash. It was a wonderful and beautiful little hike of only about 3 miles. But there was a lot of ups and downs and challenging rock-climbing adventures mixed in. We all really enjoyed it, and we had great weather because it never got too hot and although cloudy, it never rained. This was only my second time to do this, and I look forward to the next time.