AKtive Valley Trail Race - May

This month's trail race was on the Government Peak Trails.  Since this is a virtual race series, we can do the course any day of the month. Unfortunately the Government Peak Recreation Area trail system has been closed for most of the month.  It finally opened up on May 24th. The race organizers marked the race course yesterday and I decided to take advantage of the good weather and the trail markings and do it today.  I only planned to walk rather than run.  I talked my friend, Mark into going along so I could show him these lovely trails.  The course followed the Fireweed Trail then connected to the Fiddlehead Trail and led back to the starting point at the parking lot.  I did the exact same route early this past winter and was excited to see it again without trudging through snow.  It was beautifully green with many stream crossings. Quite different from my winter trek. Baby, my chihuahua led the way, happily stopping at most of the stream crossing for a drink of water.  We saw one moose, who fortunately wasn't interested in chasing us.

 

 

Twin Peaks Trail

My friend Alice, and I had originally planned to hike all the way to the end of Eklutna Lakeside Trail and back today, for about a full marathon.  But Alice still had sore feet and some back pain from our previous hike, so we decided to do something shorter.  We hiked the Twin Peaks Trail.  She wasn't sure if she felt up to going farther than the first bench, but once there, she wanted to push on.  We passed the second bench and went all the way up to the ridge below Pepper Peak to enjoy the fabulous view from up there.  It is so amazing.  It was also the most perfect day I've ever had up there.  Clear blue sky and only a light wind, and also very warm.  It was over 70 down in town, and not much cooler up on top. The view will always be one of my favorites.   

Palmer Happy Run

 Today was my birthday.  It was a bit of an odd day.  Not exactly a great celebration. I spent about 5 hours splitting wood in my back yard.  Then went down to Palmer for the Monday night Happy Run.  I'm pretty slow, plus I always take the dog, so I leave a little early  because I like to do the 5 mile route. I can't quite make 5 miles in the one hour to get back to the Palmer Ale House before 7pm, if I start at 6 with everyone else.  But they don't really mind if we start early.  Today my friends surprised me with a birthday cake when we got to the finish at the Ale House.  It was delicious! What a pleasant surprise too.  It was 73 degrees and I was pretty warm.  I brought along a small water bottle and collapsible bowl for Baby because I knew she might get hot.  We stopped twice for her to have a drink.  I think she appreciated it.  I had a few sips myself.  She does really well on those runs.  She runs the whole way, but of course, since she is a dog, we have to stop and sniff and pee at every branch, twig and rock.  But we made it before 7.  It was a gorgeous evening.  I liked that I wasn't freezing cold like I usually am on those runs. 

The Dome

 Beautiful hike up The Dome on the Anchorage hillside with the Walkabouts hiking group.  It was a perfect day for a nice steep hike.  I had not been there before so it was a new adventure.  Lots of nice wildflowers.  I didn't even need to carry the dog at all, which was really nice.  On the way down, she out hiked us all, practically pulling me off my feet on the steep parts. I loved getting to hike with the group again.  For most of the last 6 months we had stopped meeting due to Covid 19.  Now we are hiking together again and we are all vaccinated.  

Lazy Mountain

 It was raining this morning and only about 40 degrees. I was still quite tired after the 30 miles I put on over the last two days.  But I had planned to climb Lazy Mountain with my friend Pam, so we met at the trailhead. We planned to hike up the steep Lazy Mountain Trail then take the more gentle switchback Lazy Moose Trail on the way down. The rain had stopped but on the ridge it was very windy. We reached the top after an hour and 30 minutes. It was calm and not terribly cold, although I did see a few snowflakes.  The trail was mostly dry except for a couple of short areas of soft snow.  

Baby did really well and got along with Pam's two dogs.  She took off pulling with everything she had on the way down and we just let her lead. After awhile, I noticed the trail didn't seem to look right.  I mentioned it to Pam and she said she felt the same way.  Then I looked at the map app on my phone and discovered we were way off! It looked like we were actually on the Matanuska Peak Trail.  That seemed impossible since we seemed to have followed the only obvious trail. We did eventually come to the junction of the Matanuska Peak Trail and the McRobert's Creek Trail, and had to return to the Lazy Mountain Trailhead via the Morgan Horse Trail. After I got home, I looked at the Lazy Mountain Trail brochure and discovered the trail we had taken.  We took the Lazy Mountain Southside Trail which connects with the Matanuska Peak Trail.  It was a really nice trail and not nearly as steep the trail we took up, but a bit steeper than the Lazy Moose Trail. The route was definitely a little longer than the other routes and our whole trip was 7 miles.

Note to self: Don't let the chihuahua lead the hike!

View from the top

Trail Map

Eklutna Lakeside to Bold Creek

 I hiked Eklutna Lakeside Trail again today with a friend who wanted to go on a hike on a mellow trail. He said he had not hiked Eklutna Lake so of course I suggested we go there. I figured we wouldn't go very far, but like yesterday, once we had gone a few miles, it was tempting to continue on. We ended up going all the way to Bold Creek at Mile 5. The short hike ended up being a whole 10 miles. I'm a little surprised that I could still hike at all after yesterday's 20 miler. It wasn't quite as nice today because the sun was hiding behind the clouds and the wind was much stronger.  But we both enjoyed the trip.

Baby walked the whole way, but embarrassed me every time we passed another person or worse yet, another dog.  She likes to bark and growl like a regular attack dog. But it's all bark and no bite.

Eklutna Lakeside Trail 20 Miles

 It was a spectacular day for a little hike at Eklutna Lake.  My friend Alice, and I had planned to hike to mile 7 for a total of 14 miles.  We've been adding a mile extra each week hoping to finally reach a marathon distance at Serenity Falls at the end of the trail.  But today was such a nice day that once we reached 7 miles, we thought, why not go one more mile, then one more mile, then... well we finally decided to turn around at mile 10. By the time we were back to the trailhead it was almost 7 pm and we had been hiking for 9 hours. So our next trek on the Eklutna Lake Trail we plan to just go the whole way and make it a full marathon. What's another 6 miles?

Baby, the chihuahua was amazing and walked about 12 miles.  She was still moving along with no problems, but I could tell she was slowing down. So, to avoid pushing her too hard, I let her ride in my backpack for the next 5 or 6 miles. When she started to squirm, I let her out again to walk and chase squirrels.  She and I ran most of the last mile because my phone was about to go dead. I wanted to get back to the car before we lost our GPS and no longer had confirmation of our 20 mile hike.  We made it and so did the phone battery.