Independence Mine Hike

 I had originally considered hiking early this morning around Reflections Lake with the Valley Wanderers, at 8:30 this morning, in the dark, to watch the first rays of light at 10:30 during sunrise, to celebrate winter solstice. However, the last 2 days I had hiked around Reflections Lake, I found it was mostly glare ice. With my worn-out micro spikes on Wednesday, I had to get off the trail and into the trees to keep from falling over on the ice. On Thursday, yesterday, I wore my new spikes and was able to carefully make my way around the lake. But it was still treacherous. I pondered the idea of trying to negotiate that icy trail in the dark, coupled with the forecast for subzero temperatures. I decided to opt out of that idea. By morning, when Palmer was 5 degrees below zero, the rest of the group had made the same decision. I normally hike with my friend, Pam on Fridays and she suggested a short walk up to Independence Mine with our dogs. We met at 10 am. It was now fairly light, but the sun had not actually risen when we arrived. It was below zero at my house and my car thermometer varied from -5 to 0 as I drove to the mine parking lot. It was actually 3 degrees above zero when I arrived. But there was a substantial wind blowing, which I knew would make it seem a whole lot colder. 

I had bundled Bella up in her warm coat and booties, plus wore my warmest Canada Goose down Jacket and my new micro spikes. Pam and I braved the chill as our 2 dogs raced far ahead of us the entire way, frequently returning to make sure we were still coming. Our whole walk was about 2 miles, but our dogs surely ran at least 4. I think they had more fun than I've ever seen them have, racing full speed up and down the closed road. Bella suddenly launched off one of her booties. They are bright red, so I found it quickly. But soon after she managed to discard the other 3. I picked them up and hoped she wouldn't get too cold. Both dogs seemed to do fine, but when we got back to our cars, I could see that Bella was pretty cold. As it turned out, our hike far surpassed the Valley Wanderer's original plan. As we progressed, we finally climbed into the rising sun right at the mine buildings. It was a gorgeous clear morning, and it was a spectacular Winter Solstice Sunrise. We stopped at Hatcher Pass Lodge to grab a bite to eat but found that it was closed today. That was a little disappointing, but our short little hike was wonderful.

Eklutna Lakeside Trail

 The wind in Palmer has been blowing between 50 and 90 miles per hour for a week. I wanted to hike up at Eklutna Lake with my friend Jennifer, but we didn't know what horrors we might find there. We both had driving horrors just getting there. She came from Anchorage and I came from Palmer. But we both survived the harrowing drive in. It was dead calm at the lake. Unfortunately it was also only 6 degrees, but we and our dogs hiked to the cabin a little past mile 3 and back. Her dog, Lola was wearing her winter coat and Bella had on her coat and booties. We were both so bundled up that we managed to stay fairly warm. The trail conditions were great with just some hard packed snow and very little ice. We did both wear our micro spikes though. We took a nice break at the cabin then turned around. She was a little late meeting up and it meant we ended up getting back after sunset. But it was still light enough to find our way back even without headlamps. The lake has a little ice now but still has lots of open water. It will likely be at least another month before it is safe to walk or ski on the lake. Jennifer had never been up there in the winter and really enjoyed the beauty of winter up there. It is really gorgeous when there is snow on the ground and the lake is still open showing amazing reflections. It was wonderful to get away from the wind for a couple of hours. I thought my car might blow off the road on the way home, but I managed to keep it under control I hope this wind stops soon.

Long Lake Loop Again

 We.ve had about 4 days of extreme winds with 3 1/2 days of no power. Trees are down everywhere from the 80-90 mph windstorm. Pam and I usually hike on Fridays, so we decided to repeat the hike we did last Friday. My back still hurts, but that trail is not terribly steep. We still walked the whole loop of about 5 miles. It was very icy today and my rather worn-out micro spikes were not doing a very good job negotiating the icy conditions. I decided to buy a new pair as soon as we got back. Pam had nice new ones and had no problem. The wind has mostly subsided, but it certainly left a path of destruction along this trail. There were trees down across the trail all over. Sometimes we had to crawl under them, other times we could climb over, and sometimes we had to find a totally new path around them. Our dogs were small enough that they could usually just go under them. It was only around 10-15 degrees and even with multiple layers, after a while, we were all getting a little chilly and glad to get back to the cars. More wind is forecast for the next few days, so it was nice to get in at least a short hike in between windstorms. Still hardly any snow, with not much hope for a white Christmas. That's annoying considering most of the lower 48 states are having tons of snow, along with other areas of Alaska. I guess we're just going to have a windy Christmas! Not what I've been dreaming of.

Long Lake Loop Trail

 Bella and I met Pam and her dog Dahla at the Matanuska Lakes Trailhead and took a nice 4.5-mile hike along our usual loop around Long Lake. I had a bad fall earlier this week when Bella yanked on her leash while I was walking on my icy boardwalk. I landed on my back hitting it really hard on the edge of the step right next to my spine. I've been pretty uncomfortable ever since. So, I didn't want to do a long, or hilly hike. I especially didn't want to do one where I might need to carry Bella. I didn't even want to carry my pack with snacks or water. We ended up walking farther than planned, but it was a lovely day, and it didn't seem to make my pain any worse. I let Bella run the whole way off leash. She wore her booties and her warm coat since it was in the mid-teens before we started. It was very cloudy but no wind. We managed to avoid the heavy fog down along the river. But the sun through the clouds was very beautiful.