Mud Lake and Gull Lake Ski

 I went back to Mud Lake to see if the conditions have changed since last week. It was another perfect bright sunny day. I tracked mostly the same route I skied last time. I was hoping to find a way to cross over to Jim Lake. But I didn't find any snow machine trails or ski trails that seemed to lead in that direction. Although I do know approximately where I would need to go if I had enough time. I got a very late start today so didn't try breaking a trail through the snow to find a way. Bella got very upset at the start and even ran almost all the way back to the car. There is a shooting range about a half mile down the road from the Mud Lake parking lot. Today it was very busy there and the noise of the gunshots was really scaring her. I had forgotten my running belt so at first, didn't know how I could put her on the leash and still hold onto my ski poles. But I found that I could just put her retractable leash into my pocket and zip it up. It took a lot of coaxing and a few dog treats, but I finally got her to walk along beside me. I kept her on the leash the whole time because I didn't want her running back to the car again. Once we got fairly far away from the parking lot, the sound diminished and she didn't seem concerned about it anymore. The groomed trails were not as pristine as they were last week, but I still found they were good skiing. I got a nice workout for a little over 6 miles and just enjoyed being outdoors in the sunshine.

Skeetawk Patrolling

 It was another beautiful day to Ski Patrol up at Skeetawk Ski area. It was only 5 degrees when I got there but once the sun came up, it started to really warm up. I like to ski on Sundays because I reserve Saturdays to hiking with the Valley Wanderers. It also tends to be slower on Sundays. I skied hard most of the day. But in the afternoon, Max, the Skeetawk Patrol Manager offered to drive me up to the upper mountain on the snow machine to where the Snow Cat takes people who don't mind spending a huge sum to get a little longer run. I had never been up there to have the pleasure of skiing down. I had also not been on a snow machine since 1987! Max likes to drive fast and I hopped onto the back of the snow machine, and he whisked me quickly around the curves to where I got to hop off. The ride up was almost as much fun as the ski down. The trail up there is freshly groomed, and it was a fabulous ski down. Max sped down below and took a video of me skiing down. That was kind of fun since I've never seen myself downhill ski. At least I didn't have a horrible crash requiring the Ski Patrol to rescue me. I'd hate to have to rescue myself. I felt quite energized after that run down and went back to the lift to do as many more, shorter runs as time allowed until sweep time. It was a really great day.

Max Coffey

Eklutna Icebreaker 10-Mile Race

 It was kind of hard to drag myself out of my bed this morning. I was still kind of tired from yesterday's 6-mile hike. But with a little caffeine, I perked right up. I met Alice down at the end of Eklutna Lake Road and she rode up to the Eklutna Lake Trailhead with me. I have the parking sticker, and a better car for negotiating the icy road. It was only 3 below zero when we arrived. That was a bit disconcerting. We both worried if we would be wearing the right combination of layers to be out there for 10 miles. I had on my Ice Bug running shoes and micro spikes over them. Alice just wore her warm winter boots. But she found they were not comfortable at all for actual running. My feet, however, immediately froze and I never felt them again until I was back down to the end of the road to deliver Alice back to her car. I was getting worried about frostbite, which was actually helpful for the race. It made me run a lot faster than I probably would have if I had been more comfortable. We had to run on the lower trail most of the time. The ATV Trail was in great condition except for a couple of huge ice flows. We managed to carefully cross those without incident. But the lower trail was loose snow with footprints through it and extremely rough. It was difficult to walk on it let alone run on it. But I did my best to run most of the way. I was usually a little ahead of Alice, but she always caught up with me. I'm a very slow runner in any condition, but I was much slower today. It was beautiful out there and we both stopped to take a few pictures. We had 4 hours to complete the 10 miles, and we only took 3.5 hours. We heard numerous grumbles from other runners, and especially from the poor souls who had chosen to run the 20-mile option. I'm glad I didn't choose that race. 10 was plenty for both me and Alice. It was a beautiful day and did warm up to almost 20 degrees. Only my feet and my face were cold. But I don't see any frostbite. It was a great workout and fun seeing other familiar faces out on the course.

Alice

High Ridge and Biard Lakes Loop Trail

 This was a lovely 6-mile trek through the snow with Pam and our dogs. It was a lot longer than what I had hoped to do today since I'm planning to run the Eklutna 10-mile race tomorrow. But it's such a beautiful day and it's what Pam wanted to do. It's also one of my favorite local hikes. I especially like it because not very many people use it. It's not officially part of the Crevasse Moraine trail system, but the only way to access it is via an unmarked trail off one of several trails within that system. We accessed it off the Outer Loop Trail, where I had first encountered it. The Outer Loop was freshly groomed, in fact, we had to step aside for the groomer to pass by. Our footing was much better on that trail but did deteriorate significantly once we got onto the unmarked trail. I had my AllTrails app going in case we lost track of the correct trail. There were tracks from other hikers, but I don't like to depend completely on tracks through the snow. They did end up following the correct trail. Once along the shoreline of High Ridge Lake, the trail was quite wind-blown. We ended up post holing through some wind drifts that completely obliterated the original tracks. But it wasn't too difficult to find the correct path. The app was really helpful when we came to trails branching off the main trail. I am familiar with most of them, but Pam is not. The app kept us always on the right path. I liked that I was able to zoom in and see the actual name of the trails that branched off back to Crevasse Moraine. I had walked there using a couple of them on other hikes. Pam and I had come there via the Old Cat Track last summer. I recognized that steep branch right away. We were very happy to finally reach the little blue chair at the beautiful overlook over Biard Lake. One of the arms has been broken off, which is kind of sad. I found that on my hike there back in January. I'm sure there's an interesting story behind it. Soon after that we encountered a guy with a couple of dogs. Our dogs had the usual conversation with them as we passed on by. It was nice to finally get back to the Outer Loop and onto the hard packed groomed trail. It was a great hike as always, even through the loose snow.

Archangel Road Ski

The wind in the entire area is still blowing between 50 and 75 miles per hour. It is so cold and I could hardly stand up just taking the dog for a walk. It was also only 6 degrees. Pam texted that she has the day off and wondered if I would like to ski somewhere. It turns out, she has decided to retire so we will do many more hikes and skis in the future! There was no way either of us wanted to deal with that wind. We also had time constraints because she needed to pick up her granddaughter from school and I needed to take a neighbor to his doctor appointment. Archangel Road rarely gets that north wind, so we decided to meet up there. As we put on our skis, Bella decided that she was cold and was just not in the mood. She sat down and refused to walk. I told Pam to go on, and I'd try putting her booties on. When I took off my backpack, Bella tried to get into it. So, I took the hint, packed her up and put her in the pack. By now, Pam and her dog, Dahla were completely out of sight. I did the fastest sprint skiing I think I have ever done and finally managed to catch up with them. I worked up quite a sweat with the extra weight on my back. It was the best workout I've had all week! We didn't think we would make it all the way to the bridge, but we did. That always a nice destination because it's groomed to right before the bridge. After that, it gets very chewed up by snow machines. It becomes a multi-use trail at that point. Bella was starting to squirm, so I let her out of the pack. We turned back and Bella ran with us all the way back.  We got back to the cars very quickly. It seems like a fairly flat trail, but in reality, it is a gradual uphill all the way, except for the last little hill down to the bridge. Going back is always much quicker with some nice downhill runs. It was beautiful up there. The view down in the valley looked like the windy stormy disaster that it was. But up there it was gorgeous. We had a great time and got all of our deadlines met. We skied almost 5 miles.

Plumley-Maud Trail

 I've noticed this trailhead for years during the summer on my way to Jim Lake or Mud Lake to kayak. I've always wondered where it went or what it was like. In summer, I figured it would be very muddy. I heard that the ski club had groomed it recently. So, I decided to check it out. It is very close to the Mud Lake parking area where I went a couple of days ago. It is a trail that connects the two roads, Maud Road and Plumley Road. I figured it would be fairly flat and easy to navigate, especially since it had been groomed for skiing. At first, it was. I just hit navigate on my AllTrails app to record my route. Several times I ran into snow machine trails heading off what still seemed to be the obvious trail. I did find it was really not very flat. In fact, there were a few hills that caused me to take a deep breath as I screamed my way down them. I came to a place where there were two obvious trails, and I had no idea which one was correct. I felt somewhat lost so clicked out of the app, reconnected and followed the actual trail. I saw where I was and realized I needed to take the right trail. It was a very steep hill. I chickened out and took off my skis and walked down to the little bridge over McRoberts Creek. From there it was flat and eventually lead to a road that connected to Plumley Road. I was getting a little tired and wished I had brought some water and something besides doggie treats to eat. Bella got a nice drink at the creek and ate some snow and the doggie treats. We did run into 2 guys on snow machines. There were more tracks causing confusion, so I was glad I had the map to follow now. I saw a couple of places where I'm sure that if I followed a snow machine track, I could have found my way over to Mud Lake. It was interesting exploring a totally new trail to me. I will give it a try in the summer. I was surprised at the lovely views I had along the way. We covered a little over 6 miles. 

McRoberts Creek

McRoberts Creek Bridge

Skeetawk Ski Patrolling

 This was a simply gorgeous day Ski Patrolling up at the Skeetawk ski area. We got several inches of new snow overnight, which made the skiing fabulous. At least until the light fluff got skied off and the frozen surface reappeared. I skied hard most of the day until my feet got so cold that I hid in the upper patrol shed with several of the other patrollers to warm up. It gets to be a long day since we get there 1 hour before they open and close the place down at the end of the day. We had a patrol meeting after the sweep. I'm always ready to head home after downhill skiing all day. But the views were spectacular today.