The trails are still very muddy, and it is suggested folks stay off of many of them until conditions dry out. I knew the Matanuska Lake Trails were not too bad in most places right now, so I went with the Valley Wanderers on a 6-mile hike in that area. It was a very winding combination of parts of the Long Lake Loop and the Bear Berry Loop. We did encounter a couple of huge puddles that we needed to avoid by climbing a bit through the brush. But otherwise, the trails were pretty good. We did have to climb around a giant fallen tree on the Long Lake Loop Trail that wasn't even there a few days ago when I hiked it with Pam. I had taken a load to the landfill earlier and it was raining, so I planned for rain by wearing my rain jacket and making Bella wear her matching raincoat. At least she was colorful and easy to spot as she raced on ahead of the rest of us. But we didn't even get a single drop of rain. We were not at all disappointed about that. We had our lunch at the picnic table on the Bear Berry Trail with the awesome views of Pioneer Peak. It was great to be out with the group again.
