Lazy Mountain

 The Valley Wanderers hike for today was to Stonehenge, which is simply a flat spot with a lot of rocks and rock cairns along the trail from the Matanuska Peak Trail to the summit of Lazy Mountain. That stretch of trail is officially called the Lazy Mountain Southside Trail on the borough brochure. It was raining this morning, and we even considered scrapping the idea of hiking altogether. But it had improved by 8 am so we decided to go ahead and do the hike just to Stonehenge. It was just the 4 of us, Jane, Judith, Rabecca and me, plus Rebecca's dog and Bella. By the time we met at the end of Smith Road the sky was bright blue with just a few scattered clouds. It was chilly but perfect temperature for hiking. We walked up the McRoberts Creek Trail to the shortcut that leads up to the Matanuska Peak Trail then on to the wood tripod at the 9200-marker leading to the Southside Trail up to Stonehenge. We took a nice break on the rocks at Stonehenge and the others decided to head back down. I hate to stop at Stonehenge because it's only a 30-minute walk to go all the way to the summit of Lazy Mountain. I chose to continue. Bella and I reached the summit right at 12:30 and we had it all to ourselves. We spent a little time on the very top and I recorded a 360-degree video of the summit view. Then we headed back down. The best part of the view is that of Matanuska Peak, but clouds rolled in and obscured it. A little disappointing but it was still a lovely view of the surrounding mountains. Bella and I scurried back down through a bit of loose scree and a few muddy spots and were back to the car by 2:30. It was a perfect day and as always, a great 7-mile workout.