Hike to Dan's House

 Our plan today was to snowshoe up to Dan's house above Independence Mine in Hatcher Pass with the Valley Wanderers. Dan is 87, has lived up there all of his life and his family owned many of the gold mines in the area. We really didn't need snowshoes because the road up there was plowed, but the snow on it was still fairly deep. Some of the group did wear snowshoes, but Pam and I just wore our hiking boots.  I carried my snowshoes in case they were needed. When we arrived, Dan and Virginia greeted us with the most delicious hot tea I've ever had the pleasure of drinking. Peeooza brought some delicious cookies and Jane contributed some chocolate. Dan entertained us with some amazing stories of the history of the area. He could write a book about the gold mining history of Alaska and particularly of the Hatcher Pass area. I love his delightful little home there on the mountain. It's just my style, very small and cozy with only the bare necessities. The view is extraordinary to say the very least. It is a bit of a challenge getting up there in the winter. 

Virginia in the doorway

Dan's house on the right and the original home on the left

Dahla and Bella enjoying the snow

Along the road

Archangel Road Ski

 I heard that Archangel Road has been closed to vehicle traffic due to the recent snowfall. So, Pam and I decided to see how it was for skiing. They have not groomed it for skiing yet, mostly because the snow coverage is still not sufficient. However, once we passed the short, plowed area and reached the unplowed snow, we found wonderful soft powder. There were some tracks from other walkers and skiers, but the snow was so soft and powdery that it didn't matter if there were tracks or not. I found my skis went right through the snow as if it had just fallen this morning. It was cold, about 21 degrees when we started, but it did warm up quite a bit by the time we were back to our cars after 4 and a half miles. We went all the way to the bridge over Archangel Creek and back. Someone had built 3 cute snowmen right by the bridge. It looked like a little snow family. Initially I put booties on Bella. But very soon, I found one lying in the snow. I took the rest off, and hoped for the best. She did just fine the rest of the way without them. But by the time we were back she did have quite a collection of tiny snowballs on her legs and chin, plus even a couple on her eyebrows. On our return, Bella got tired of walking near me and took off running. I spent a lot of time calling her to no avail. I didn't want her to run all the way back to the road, so took off skiing as fast as I could, still yelling her name, in hopes of catching up with her. It took a while, but she finally stopped long enough for me to hook her up to her leash. From that point on, we were skijoring. She really didn't seem to mind being hooked up again. I liked it because she pulls hard enough that it made my ride a little faster. Pam prefers the groomed trails but we both agreed that it was spectacularly gorgeous out there today in the bright sunshine and blue skies. 

Reflections Lake

 I almost can't really call this a hike, since it's only 1 mile around the lake and I hike it several times a week just to give Bella a little variety to her daily walks. But it was so gorgeous there today that I have to remember today. It has been snowing at home for 2 days and it was still coming down hard when I got tired of digging out and decided to go to town. I got about 8 inches of snow from the storm. But to my surprise, there wasn't any snow left at Reflections Lake. It is several degrees warmer there than at my house up at 500 feet. I was delighted to see a little group of Trumpeter swans resting on the lake near the far shore. I was able to get a few pictures of them, even though Bella felt it necessary to bark at them. Her barks didn't seem to bother them at all. I guess they were resting while waiting for the bad weather to clear so they can continue their journey to warmer places far to the south. It was delightful to see some blue sky after 2 days of snow and fog.

Whittier

 I drove down to Portage then through the tunnel to Whittier with Mark today. It was cloudy but for a change, not raining. We went down to our usual spot to walk on the beach. The nice overlook platform is gone now. I wonder why, since it was so nice. We walked along the shore because the tide was really low. Bella got her feet wet and so did I since I was not wearing hiking shoes. Then we drove out the Shotgun Cove Road until it ended. It has been completely closed the last few times we have gone there. Apparently, they plan to extend the road all the way to Shotgun Cove. The old Emerald Cove Trail is now also gone. We found a sign for Dragon Back Trail so parked at that trailhead and hiked the trail. It was really quite short but led us all the way down to the ocean. It was a beautiful well-maintained brand-new trail. So much nicer than the old extremely muddy Emerald Cove Trail. I'm not sure if the cove we reached was actually Emerald Cove, but it quite likely was. We enjoyed exploring there. On our way back, we took another fork in the trail that led to a nice waterfall. I'm looking forward to someday in the future when they finish the extension of the road. There is potential there for many nice similar trails. Whittier is always a beautiful place with nice ocean and glacier views.

Carle Wagon Road

 Virginia texted me to see if I'd like to hike Carle Wagon Road today. I had never done it but thought, why not.  I wasn't sure where to park initially since the trail was almost impossible to see and started in the woods between 2 houses. We both parked on the side of the road. We hiked along this narrow slightly boggy trail round trip about 4 miles. There were several small creek crossings. On a couple of them, I preferred to just stomp through the shallow water instead of trying to jump across them. Bella ran right through the widest one. There were a couple of really nice bridges over the 2 biggest ones. We could see the snow-covered mountains of Government Peak and Frostbite Ridge. The trail does continue on to climb Frostbite. But we had no intention of doing that today. This trail is maintained primarily by the Backcountry Horse group. Virginia said that there are plans to connect this trail directly to the Government Peak Recreation Area parking lot, to avoid traffic by the private residences. This road was the predecessor to the current Fishhook Road that services the Hatcher Pass Area. Bella ran down the wrong trail near the end on our way out and made herself at home on the porch of one of the nearby homes. I hollered enough times that she finally came back and followed us. That could have been embarrassing! I enjoyed getting to know a new trail that I never knew existed. 

Hatcher Pass Road Treks

 Pam and I wanted to hike somewhere but we just couldn't decide where to go. The weather was kind of unsettling, and it looked like we'd be faced with anything from wet muddy trails to snow and rain. We met up at the Independence Mine Road and just ducked under the gate and walked up the plowed road. Cars can't drive up there now, but it was nice and dry for just taking a nice walk. The sky was dark and threatening at first but then we started seeing some blue sky. Once back down to our cars, we continued on down to the Hatcher Pass Road which is closed for the winter. We ducked under that gate and tried to make our way up to Summit Lake or at least to the Hatcher Pass Monument. Now the sun was shining brightly and the distant mountains looked gorgeous in the bright sunshine. The road had been recently plowed so we were able to walk on bare dirt on most of the road. But that ended fairly high on the road where we found the road grader was parked. After that the road was snow-covered, but mostly well packed down by foot traffic. We continued on and the snow became deeper and deeper. By the time we reached a point where I could actually see the summit in the distance, Pam decided she didn't feel like post-holing up through the deep snow. She turned back and I decided to continue and then just run down and catch up with her. It did get pretty deep. Bella was staying with me, but the snow was now over my boots. I finally did reach the monument and took a quick photo. Then I heard Bella start frantically barking. About the same time, it started to snow. I looked back and saw that Bella appeared to be stuck. I hurried back down to her and found she was so full of giant snowballs in her hair that she couldn't even move! I think she was carrying close to her own weight in snowballs. Many were the size of baseballs and a bunch more were more like golf ball size. I picked as many out as I could then scooped her up and carried her through the rest of the deep snow. Then I put her down in the packed snow, removed most of the rest of the snowballs and she took off running. At that point I was also able to run as fast as I could downhill to try to catch up with Pam. Suddenly Bella really took off and I lost sight of her. I heard someone shout, and that was Pam because Bella had caught up with her. I apologized to Bella the rest of the way down! At one point a guy on a snow board came screaming down the snow on the side of the road with 3 huge dogs running beside him. Our little dogs were in his way, so he purposely plunged into the embankment and deliberately crashed into the soft snow. He was not hurt and we all got a good laugh. The 5 dogs ran around greeting each other. Then he picked himself up and took off down the rest of the hill. We walked down the rest of the way as the snow finally stopped and so did that bright sunshine. We were back to the dark threatening sky again. But it was a nice 6-mile hike even if not very technical. I was glad I had reached the monument, and Pam was just as glad she had turned back. I think Bella was most happy to be rid of all those heavy snowballs. We ended the day with lunch at the Hatcher Pas Lodge. It's now pouring rain at home.

Bella on the road to the mine

Hatcher Pass Summit Monument

Gold Mint Trail

 There is a lot of snow in the mountains right now, but I wasn't sure how low the snow level was. I decided to drive up to Hatcher Pass and see how quickly I ran into snow. I was surprised to see that Archangel Road is still open. But soon after that there is snow along the side of the road. The road over the pass is closed and so is the road up to Independence Mine. It was really cold and windy, so I decided not to hike around up by the mine. I drove down to the Gold Mint Trail and hiked in 2 miles with Bella. The first mile of the trail is a little wet and there were a few small patches of wet snow along the edges. But after the first mile, I started finding large sections of snow on the trail itself.  There have been some nice improvements to the trail, with nice wood walks covering some of the most notorious wet areas. But we still had to cross some very wet places. It was getting very late in the day, and the trail was now mostly wet snow, so I turned back at the 2-mile marker. It also looked like rain was on its way. Bella was once again, a muddy mess so we went home and she got another bath. It won't be long before the whole area will be ready for skiing.