Eklutna Lakeside Trail

I introduced my friend, Alice to the Eklutna Lakeside Trail.  I hike that trail so often that I kind of take it for granted.  But she was amazed by its beauty.  I usually end up only going to the cabin at mile 3 because it seems that whenever I go with someone else that's were we turn around. But Alice was happy to continue to Mile 5 to the Bold Creek Bridge.  It was a beautiful warm day with just enough wind to keep us cool and keep the mosquitoes at bay. The snow is mostly gone and although there were some big wet spots, we were able to walk around them and keep our feet dry. The lake itself is still frozen. We watched a jet high above flying orbits through the sky making for a very interesting sky with its vapor trails.

We had such a good time that now we are going to plan to go every Tuesday, unless Alice gets a job, and increase our mileage for a few miles each time, until we reach a full marathon distance.  My chihuahua, Baby did great with the 10 miles, but I know at some point, I'll end up carrying a dog in my backpack.

Palmer Happy Run

 I stopped doing the Palmer Happy Runs most of the winter because I really like to take my dog.  But she gets cold easily and I end up carrying her. In the winter, these local runs are also in the dark.  But now it has warmed up and the snow is gone. So I did the 5 mile run tonight.  I left a little early because I like to do the long 5 mile run, but I can't quite make that in only one hour.  I do like to get to the Palmer Alehouse by 7pm for the raffle and to visit with the other runners and walkers.  But tonight, even though 100 people did the run, I didn't see anyone I actually know!

Baby, the chihuahua was amazing. She ran the whole away, except for the usual stop and sniff that all dogs need to do.  She probably did better than I did.  But we made it right at 7. As usual, I didn't win anything in the raffle.  But I was glad that I was able to run the entire 5 miles. I registered for the Anchorage Mayor' Midnight Sun Marathon in June, so I need to get out and run to train for that.  Hiking is great but running is essential if I want to complete the marathon.  It was gorgeous out there tonight.  I love the view as I run along the Matanuska River. I'm going to reserve all Monday evenings to do the Happy Runs, at least through the summer.

Twin Peaks Trail

Once again, hiked up the beautiful Twin Peaks Trail.  Today I hiked with my friend Diane and we both had our dogs. We might have gone a little higher but Diane was having trouble from a knee injury, so we just went to the first bench.  I really loved having someone to hike with instead of the usual solo hikes with only my little dog.  Now that it's gotten warmer, I don't have to carry the dog anymore.  She has become an amazing hiker.  

 

Twin Peaks Trail

 After 8 hours of downhill skiing yesterday, I didn't feel very ambitious. But I did like the beautiful warm weather so drove up to Eklutna Lake.  The Lakeside Trail is really wet and sloppy so I hiked up the Twin Peaks Trail to the first bench with Baby, stopping to visit every tree, bush, shrub and rock.  We weren't breaking any speed records, just sauntering through the wet snow.  In places it could almost qualify as a river because so much water was flowing down the trail.  We took a nice sunny rest at the bench at the first overlook then turned around and headed down.  I heard later on Facebook from a hiker who had passed us, that she encountered a black bear farther up the trail.  I'm quite happy we didn't have to meet his acquaintance. 

I love the view up there!

I figured out from my map app how the Edylu Bena trail related to the Twin Peaks Trail.  I marked the spot where the new Twin Peaks Trailhead is and could see where the old trailhead on the map once connected to the new trailhead.  I wasn't able to locate any parts of the old trail where the map still shows it.  That must have long been overgrown and is probably not even visible in summer.  But when the snow melts, I want to try to find it, out of curiosity. 

Eydlu Bena Trail Hike

 I downhill skied all day yesterday and am taking a day off from Ski Patrol, since I plan to hit the slopes tomorrow for the last day of the season. I took a nice relaxing little hike along the Eydlu Bena Trail at Eklutna Lake with Baby and my friend Mark.  It's short and not too steep, but still quite snowy and wet. Any day at Eklutna Lake is a good day.  It was interesting looking at the route on my Google Maps app on my phone.  It shows the Twin Peaks Trailhead in a totally different place.  It doesn't mention Eydlu Bena Trail but shows that we were walking along an old jeep trail. Most likely it is an old road left over from the construction of the Eklutna Powerplant, that routes water from Eklutna Lake through a tunnel to the Old Glenn Highway in Palmer.  I'd love to know what Eydlu Bena means.  I assume it's from the nearby Eklutna native tribe. In fact, I wish I knew what Eklutna means since I seem to spend a lot of my time there!!!! 

Bodenburg Butte Climb

 Had a really nice little hike up the Butte with Baby today.  It's been so warm the last couple of days that I thought I may not even need to wear my microspikes.  Boy was I wrong!  About 10 feet from the parking lot I had to put them on my hiking boots.  The whole trail was covered in snow and it is very soft and slushy.  But it is also very slippery.  I needed them all the way to the top.  There are a lot of wooden stairs along this trail. Most of them have mounds of snow on them and they were very slippery.  It was interesting following a chihuahua who was able to run at full speed up those stairs. I kept telling her that I can't quite hop up them like a jackrabbit the way she could.  But I got a few indignant annoyed looks while she stopped and waited for me to catch up. She had no choice but to stop and wait, because she was on her leash the whole time.  If I don't keep her leashed she will chase every squirrel, dog or moose that she encounters along the way. We did meet a couple of dogs and a few hikers.  When I stopped to chat with another hiker, she stopped barking at him and started barking at me instead.  Apparently she doesn't think I'm allowed to stop and chat with people on our way back down to the car.  I love that little trail because it's pretty short but very steep and always a nice workout when I don't have a lot of extra time. I always meet some nice folks along the way too. 

Plus the view from the top is spectacular!

Eklutna Lakeside Trail

 It warmed up to over 40 degrees today.  But the wind was almost as strong as the temperature.  I wasn't sure if I would really go hiking anywhere but decided to head up to Eklutna. The road up Hatcher Pass is still closed because of a bunch of avalanches, so heading there is out of the question. I figured it would still be cold up at the lake, so I didn't expect to do much hiking if any at all. But when I got to the parking lot, my car outside temperature showed 41 degrees.  It was still quite windy, but seemed like a warm wind.  I started out walking the trail with the dog. The snow is melting fast and would still be good for skiing.  In fact I did see one skier, and wondered if I should have skied myself.  But we were already walking so we continued on. There were large areas of standing water where there had been ice sheets from overflow. But most of the trail was still just soft slushy snow.  After about 2 1/2 miles, Baby decided she'd had enough. She ran a few circles around me then started barking her displeasure.  I picked her up and carried her for a short distance then decided that wasn't much fun. So we turned around and started back.  When we got to the Eydlu Bena Loop Trail I decided to turn up it to see where it actually goes.  I have walked part of it in the past but never the whole way.  The snow along it was fairly deep and not packed down like the Lakeside Trail. But there were enough old footprints that I found it fairly easy to walk.  The dog seemed kind of interested in it and lead the way. It was as if she knew that it would ultimately lead back to the car even though it was heading in the opposite direction initially.  We walked all the way to the trailhead which starts at the Twin Peaks Trailhead.  Then we turned around finally reaching the car.  It was a nice change from the usual lakeside trail. Even with the wind, I was quite warm and didn't even need to wear my gloves most of the way.  We ended up covering 5.79 miles.  A nice hike on a beautiful spring like day.

 

Run for Luz

 This was a special virtual run for a very special runner friend who passed away recently. Luzviminda Villamil was an inspiration to us all.  She was always there, running marathon after marathon after half marathon, often with Mainly Marathons.  She always had a smile on her face and was loved by us all.  Hearing of her sudden passing was devastating to our Mainly Marathons and Marathon Maniacs communities. So, many of us ran a special virtual race in her honor. There was no distance specified, just whatever we could or wanted to run this weekend.  Today was a particularly nasty weather day so I was glad I managed to get out the door at all in the 5 degree temperature and that horrendous wind.  I did keep it quite short.  I just ran with my dog around the neighborhood.  I had an extra running partner join us at the end of Curt Circle.  A large brown super friendly dog decided he needed to follow us wherever we were going. I kept yelling for him to go home, but he would have none of it.  He followed us all the way to my house.  I checked his collar and learned his name was Grizzly and I called his owner who came to bring him home. By the time his owner had arrived he had already taken off.  I hope he had found his way home through the woods.  I guess he also wanted to run for Luz!

 

AKtive Valley Trail Race - April

 The AKtive Soles Shoe store in Palmer is sponsoring the AKtive Valley Virtual Trail Race series again this year.  Each month a different course is listed and runners can run the course any day of that month.  I decided to do the April course today, which is on one of my favorite trails here in the valley.  The Crevasse Moraine Trail System. It was snow covered but well worn down so it was easy to run or walk just wearing ice spikes on my snow boots.  I ran with my dog and we had a great time going up and down all the hills.  

The map looked so confusing, but I managed to actually not get lost.  I almost always get lost on those trails so I was happy to find my way without any serious confusion.  Although I did end up repeating part of the Mooseberry Loop, making the route a little longer than the 5K. I was happy that I never had to carry my dog too.

Eklutna Lakeside Trail

 It's been a little while since I've been to Eklutna Lake.  I brought my skis but the trail is not skiable. It was totally chewed up by snow machines and the ruts they caused were now frozen in place.  It was extremely icy and my micro spikes were essential.  Baby was good for the first mile until she did her usual antics until I stuffed her wiggling body into my backpack, where she rode comfortably to the cabin. Once there we turned around and I let her walk, hoping I wouldn't need to put her back in the pack.  She did great and practically ran all the way back to the car.  It was a spectacular day and we had the trail all to ourselves except for two people we met close to the end and one fat biker.  

Valley Thaw Out Half Marathon

 Finally an official race after so many months social distancing and hiding from Covid-19. It was a very small race with something like 38 runners total. I ran with my friend, Alice, Both of us were not in the best running shape so we encouraged each other into walking the entire way.  It was so nice to have someone to talk to while we slogged through the snow.  We were lucky that the forecast winter storm didn't arrive and it remained calm the entire time.  We arrived at the finish together both placing last. The race was a single out and back course that we did twice.  We spent a long time at the halfway point because Alice needed to change out of wet socks and shoes. I enjoyed the little break and gobbled up a few of the tiny snickers bars they had at the turn around aid station. We both considered it more of a hike than a race, and that was apparent to all based on our slow time.  But it was a pretty laid back event so no one really cared. I hope I can pick up the pace before the next full marathon on my race schedule.  I do look forward to running on dry land instead of snow!