I really wanted to do something with a little elevation gain today. I had originally planned on Lazy Mountain, but since it was only 8 degrees out, I felt that might be too much for the dog. So I changed plans and we hiked up the Butte. It's still a steep climb, but much shorter. The trail was very hard packed snow and Baby was happy to run along, ignoring the cold temperature. This trail is about half wooden stairs, which are very steep They do have a coated nylon steel cable running along through posts as handrails. I found them to be extremely useful today. The stairs where all completely covered with ice, and it wasn't nice flat ice either. It was more like 4 to 6 inches of glare ice that was rounded off into big solid lumps. I had worn my hiking boots and brand new very sharp microspikes. Thank goodness for those, because it would have been impossible without them. Baby wanted to run the whole way, but I'm not quite as agile so I was holding tightly to those cables and hoping my spikes would keep me from slipping. It all worked well. It was quite a workout, especially with someone trying to make me run the whole way.
All was great until we got to the top. There we were met with at least a 30 mph wind that made it feel like 20 below zero at least. My dog became quite vocal and told me off unmercifully, pulling towards the trail and barking her displeasure. Needless to say, we didn't stay long, but I did get a few pictures before she dragged me back down the trail. Going down was rather treacherous because she wanted to run the whole way, while I was gingerly trying to keep from sliding down off each ice covered step while clinging to the hand cables. I was very happy to get to the bottom of the stairs still upright. We made it and it was a great little hike.
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| Knik Glacier |
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| Baby voicing her displeasure |
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| Sunrise at 1:40pm |
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