Matanuska Peak Trail

 Another beautiful sunny day hiking with the Valley Wanderers. We started with just me, Jane and Chris, but Virginia caught up with us along the way. We hiked with only micro spikes to the Lazy Creek Bridge that the Wanderers put in last summer. After that, we switched to snowshoes because the boot trail we were following had become deep and not well packed. It's always kind of nice to take the snowshoes out of my pack and lighten my load. But they can still be kind of cumbersome things for walking. Before the bridge, there was an area that was very narrow with a steep drop-off that was also glare ice. I had to drum up a bit of courage crossing through that. I tried to sneak up onto little patches of dirt and grass where I couldn't find actual snow. Spikes were totally essential through that section. Bella mostly followed close behind Chris who is always the leader. She likes to be first! The snow got deeper as we went, and snowshoes were essential to keep from post holing up to our knees. Once we reached the tripod, we followed the boot packed McRoberts Creek Trail all the way back to the parking lot. It was pretty easy going but a little scary on some really steep downhill sections. Even the snowshoes with their claws seemed to slip a little in places like that. We took turns going down the steepest sections to prevent falling into the person in front. Bella scampered along as usual. We ran into one lone hiker who was on his way tup, checking out the trail for his planned climb of Matanuska Peak in a few days. He plans to camp one night and climb the next day. That's something I'd like to do in the summer. I would be hesitant to climb Mat Peak in the winter. Although, avalanche danger is fairly low right now. One our way down, we stopped at the spot where we could access McRoberts Creek. The water was still flowing under and through the ice and creating amazing ice formations. We could have taken off the snowshoes at that point, but it was easier to just keep them on all the way to the car. It was a beautiful and invigorating 5-mile hike. I think we will all sleep well tonight. 

Blueberry Knoll Hike

 I hiked up the Blueberry Knoll Trail today with a few of the Valley Wanderers. Once more we had a beautiful day. It was a bit chilly at first though, at only 8 degrees. We were a small group, just me, Jane, Isabell and Chris. It was very icy in a few spots, and good sharp micro spikes were very nice to have. Even with them, it was a bit sketchy at times. I managed to remain standing though. The upper part of the trail was nicely packed down and we didn't need snowshoes. Isabell wasn't feeling well so turned back about halfway. It's a pretty steep 1500-foot elevation gain, and not fun to be climbing there if you aren't feeling your best. It was mostly calm except for the short ridge area where we had a brisk wind. The top was lovely though with almost no wind. I could have stayed there in the sunshine for hours. But of course, we didn't. We stayed just long enough to enjoy the view, have a snack and take a few photos. Bella did great, even on the steepest icy spots going down. She had much better route-finding skills than we did in places. It was a great workout.

Archangel Road Ski

 It was another beautiful day to skate ski up along Archangel Road. Pam went with me today. She had to leave her dog at the groomers, so Bella didn't have a doggie friend to run with. But she had a grand time anyway, racing along always being ahead of us. She had a couple of brief encounters with other dogs. On one occasion though, a big dog on leash ran up to see me. When I pet him, Bella got in a spat with the other dog. I snatched her away and felt guilty because I was the one with the loose dog. I'm keeping that little incident in mind now when I see other dogs on leash. They all seem to get aggressive when they are prisoners on a leash. Bella is the same way. But she is so small that it's really critical that I keep her away from other dogs. She is very good about coming right to me when I call her though.

Archangel Road Ski

 Avalanches closed Hatcher Pass Road for a few weeks. Some slides even crossed the trails. I saw a late post on Facebook that they had opened the road all the way up to the mine. So, I grabbed my skate skis and drove up to Archangel Road to take advantage of the freshly groomed trail. It was only 8 degrees at my house but had warmed up to about 20 up there. It was also a beautiful clear sunny day. I was so happy that it was warm enough that Bella could run around without wearing booties. She refused to walk at all on her leash. But once I unhooked her, she was quite happy to run along ahead. It's harder to skate ski with her attached to me anyway, so I was ok with her off leash. Not very many people knew that the road was open, so I didn't see very many other people up there. We did encounter a couple of loose dogs, but Bella mostly behaved herself around them. When I was close to the bridge, I ran into one of my hiking friends, Holly. We skied together to the bridge. The last part of the trail was really messed up by snowmachine traffic. I miss the old days when they didn't use that road. There were many avalanches visible in the mountains and there were a couple of large ones that had actually reached the trail. They were some impressive piles of snow. I can't imagine the horror of being buried in something like that. 

The trip back from the bridge was much quicker because it is much more downhill. I really struggle skate skiing going uphill. But gentle downhills are a great way to practice. In some places it was so steep that it was easier to just straight run with Bella running beside me. She definitely got a good workout today.

Eklutna Lake

 It was only 8 degrees at home this morning but Palmer was showing much warmer on its weather observations. I decided to drive up to Eklutna Lake and see if I could ski on the lake. I think it might have been great out on the lake, but getting there was a different story. The edges all around the lake were solid glare ice, and it wasn't even smooth ice. To get out to the main lake I would have needed crampons. Bella was complaining of cold feet too. So I took the skis back to the car and switched back into my snow boots. I also put booties on Bella. It was only 14 degrees up there at the lake. We walked along the Lakeside Trail a little past the 1 mile marker. I let Bella off her leash and she had a grand time racing down the trail. There was almost no one up there in the parking lot so I wasn't worried about running into other people and dogs. It was only a short 2 mile hike, but as usual it was very beautiful. I hope we can get some more snow to cover up the ice sections. Even the trail had many rocks showing, making it not good for skiing either.

Gold Mint Trail

 It's been very cold, below zero for about a week. It's pretty hard on Bella, my dog going out in those cold temperatures so we haven't been doing a lot outdoors lately. We did take a quick 1 mile run around Reflections Lake this morning though. She managed to keep all 4 of her red booties on, which was nice. After that, I met my friend, Pam up at the Gold Mint Trailhead. The road has been closed due to avalanches for a couple of weeks, but they just opened it up to mile 14, which is the Gold Mint Trailhead. It was just about zero by the time we got there. I tried with no booties on Bella at first but she refused to walk. Then I put them on. She still wouldn't walk. I didn't bring my dog carrying backpack, so I just scooped her up and carried her in my arms for a while. She started getting restless watching Pam's dog racing back and forth and enjoying herself. So I let her down again. At first she was a little hesitant, but finally was racing along like a cheetah up and down the trail over the snow. We turned around just past the 1 mile mark because Pam's dog indicated she had now had enough and was trying to get Pam to carry her. Dahla weighs about 18 pounds and no way was Pam going to carry her. So we turned back at that point. After I got home, I read that the trail groomer had only made it to about mile 1 but had to turn back because they came upon a massive avalanche that they couldn't get through. So I guess we wouldn't have made it much further if we had continued on. It was kind of tough going as it was because even though it had been packed by the groomer, we kept punching through. But it was a beautiful day and worth all the hardship just to be out there in the bright sunshine and fresh air.

Archangel Road Ski

 The snow conditions were absolutely perfect for skate skiing on Archangel Road today. I got my skis on and was ready to go then noticed that Bella's coat with the built in harness was falling off. Upon closer inspection, I found one of the harness straps was no longer attached to the coat. That had disaster written all over it. So after struggling to get my skis on with her pulling on her leash, I had to remove the skis and go back to the car for a different harness. I left my skis and poles leaning against the snowplow and made my way back to get her spare harness. Once back in my skis, we were off to enjoy the delightful few inches of new powdery snow. I'm quite the novice when it comes to skate skiing, but I did find my new ski poles to be very helpful. I have fallen in love with skate skiing and hope one day I can master it.

It was very beautiful up there today and Bella and I got quite a workout on our way to the bridge and back, around 5 miles.