Eklutna Lake Hike

A simply gorgeous day to hike Eklutna Lakeside Trail.  I also noticed that the Eydlu Bena Loop trail had enough traffic on the snow that it was possible to walk on it.  My dog, Baby loved jumping from footprint to footprint.  I enjoyed it myself until about one mile when the solid footprints stopped.  At that point I was post-holing and knew it would lose it's glamour very quickly.  So we turned back then continued along the Lakeside Trail until it started getting later than I wanted.  It was so beautiful and I look forward to hiking on the dry trail and up the Twin Peaks Trail when spring finally really arrives.

Palmer Happy Run

I have hardly been running at all this winter.  With so much snow, my focus has been mostly on skiing. But today I forced myself to do the weekly Palmer Happy Run again.  I had stopped for the winter because I really like to take the dog with me.  I'm just not that comfortable running on the dark unlighted streets on snow and ice, especially with her. In the cold, I'm more likely to need to carry her also. In fact, I did have to carry her in my backpack for a little over one mile tonight. It was very windy, with gusts to 40 mph. The actual temperature was right around freezing, but the wind chill was brutal, especially when running directly into it.  My dog, Baby, really hates cold wind.  When we hit the airport road, that north wind was right in our faces.  She kept turning around as if to go back where we started, 4 miles back. I wasn't interested in doing that of course.  So I put her in my pack and ran the last mile and a half. That was a different sort of running workout.  She weighs around 9 pounds so combined with the weight of the pack, I was running with 10 pounds bouncing on my back. She seemed much happier though. We were both quite happy to get back to my car and head home.  But I'm glad I came. I need to start doing those runs every week plus of course, getting in some longer training runs if I ever want to have a reasonable marathon finish time again. Running with Baby is a little weird though because like most dogs, she needs to stop at every pillar and post and sniff. But she runs faster than I do, so she does make me push harder to keep up with her. She did a really good job tonight.  We both got our feet wet because there were some snowy and icy sections, plus some huge puddles. But it wasn't too bad.

At least it was a beautiful sunny day for the first day of spring. Daylight Savings gave us daylight the whole way too. A bit chilly, but a very nice run.

 

Parkway Ski Trail, Nancy Lake

 I've tried to use this trail several times in the past and it always has horrible conditions.  Today it was pretty rough for actual skiing, but I found it wasn't too bad for just walking.  For most of the way it was just one single snow machine track. Sometimes in the middle of the path, I would sink in above my ankles. But I found that if I stayed on the runners tracks, it was pretty firm.  Baby was able to run along the whole way.  It was very beautiful in a simple and peaceful way.  Just mounds of drifted untracked snow among green spruce trees. So silent too. It was calm and right around freezing, so not even very cold.  We hiked about 3 miles. I want to come back there one day after a fresh snowfall and follow the entire loop on skis.  It is in the All Trails app on my phone so even if there is no track, I can find my way by GPS.  There is some pink flagging and tiny flags on the trees marking the trail. Quite the lovely spot. 

Eklutna Lake Ski

 Eklutna Lake has been so beautiful that I had to go back and ski on the lake one more time.  I went with my friend Pam and her dog Dahla. It was quite a workout.  We went even further than my 8 mile trip on Tuesday.  10 miles total. We turned around at mile 5 abeam Bold Peak.  It was cloudy but the peaks were still free of the clouds.  It was beautiful and the skiing was even better than on Monday and Tuesday. We really pushed on and didn't actually take a break until we turned around at 5 miles.  Baby did really well, although I do worry that I might be pushing her too far. She's so tiny! But she will sit down and bark at me if she really wants me to carry her.  She followed me the whole way out and ran the whole way back, leading in front of me.  I wonder what she thinks about these ski and hiking trips.  I hope she likes them.  She does seem to love to run, especially on the way back.

Gold Mint Trail

 They finally opened the Hatcher Pass Road to mile 14, which is right at the Gold Mint Trail parking lot. I could see huge piles of avalanche debris where it had crossed the road causing the closure.  Apparently there are many more larger piles of snow along the upper portions of the road. I decided to drive up and see how Gold Mint Trail looks after being closed all winter.  I found it quite nice for walking. It has a narrow foot packed path that is hard packed enough to not require snowshoes.  Skis would have probably worked as well but would be better on the untracked soft snow off the narrow trail. I used my micro spikes but they really weren't needed.  I do find that on hard packed snow, they make things less slippery, especially when my dog decides it's time to sprint back to the car.  She can pull me right off my feet if I'm not careful.

I was pleasantly surprised to find the weather fairly nice up there. Down in the valley it was very cloudy and not possible to see any of the mountains. But on the trail there were nice spots of blue sky with sunny peaks showing in between fluffy white cumulus clouds. At times the view was quite dramatic with sun-soaked white peaks peeking through the clouds. It was calm and quite warm. I barely needed my coat. Baby was willing to walk the whole way and even led instead of reluctantly following along behind me on her leash. She had a couple of boisterous conversations with other dogs we passed along the way. But for the most part, we were alone on the trail. You could hear rushing water through occasional large openings in the deep snow where the river flowed beneath us.  It was only a short 3 mile walk, but it was lovely.

 

Skiing Eklutna Lake

 Baby and I went back to Eklutna Lake. Only today, I wore my classic cross country skis instead of walking. It was pretty icy on the snowmachine track, but still possible to ski. Baby didn't want to walk at first so I had to carry her for the first mile, in my backpack. But once she saw another dog out there, she got very restless and I let her out to walk.  She really wanted to chase after that dog, but he was heading the wrong way. She was happy to follow behind me for the next three miles out on the lake. I found that off the snowmachine track, I was not even breaking through the icy crust on top of the snow. It turned out to be easy going. 

It's so beautiful out in the middle of the huge lake surrounded by untracked snow and snow covered mountains. I love how peaks you never see from the Lakeside Trail are now quite visible.  It's a lovely different perspective.

We turned around at 4 miles and Baby happily raced back to the car, making our return trip much faster. She's really tiny but she adds some momentum when she runs, which makes me ski a lot faster.

Eklutna Lake

Today I walked right out in the middle of Eklutna Lake, on the ice and snow with my friend Mark and of course, Baby. The snow was hard packed and almost ice where the fat tire bikes and snowmachines had gone. But otherwise the snow was a few inches deep with a crunchy ice crust on top  Skiing would not be the best, but would certainly be possible. I plan to try skiing it tomorrow.  It was spectacularly gorgeous out there today.  From the middle of the lake, you see the scenery from a whole new perspective. We didn't have time to go much further so we only made it a little over 3 miles.  But if I leave early tomorrow, I hope to get at least 4 or 5 miles out. It was bright sunshine and almost warm out there today.  

Chena River to Ridge

 I wasn't successful with this difficult 26 mile race.  It was a rough snow-covered trail that was really too deep and loose for simply running.  After 6 miles, I switched to snowshoes. That felt better on the trail surface and also took the weight off my back. We actually had 12 hours to complete the race, and it seemed like I would have time.  But at close to mile 10 a park ranger pulled up behind me on a snowmachine and informed me that I was taking too long to reach the check point at mile 14.  I had not read anywhere that the check point had a specific time limit. He talked me into hopping on back and riding to the check point. I had a choice there of continuing the next 12 miles, slogging in the snowshoes or continuing to the finish on the snowmachine. It seemed pointless to finish on the snowshoes, because I would still not be listed among the finishers. So I chose to just take the speedy wild ride down the mountain on the back of the snowmachine with the ranger.  It was fun although a little scary at times.  I still didn't get back to my room at Chena Hot Springs until about 5:30pm, so it would have been a very long day and well after dark if I had continued walking. I felt kind of dumb and old, having to scratch, but I realize that running in snowshoes just doesn't work well for me.  I should have chosen the option to ski.  But the trail description sounded much steeper than it actually was. I don't ski very well on steep downhills on cross country skis, so was uncomfortable choosing that option. However, after seeing the rest of the course via snowmachine, I do think it would have been fine on skis. I finished my day with a hot meal and a lovely soak in Chena Hot Springs. 

Eklutna Lakeside Trail

 I couldn't decide where I wanted to go today, but out of habit, I ended up at Eklutna Lake.  It's hard to go wrong up there.  It was a spectacular day with bright sunshine and hardly a cloud in the sky.  The lake no longer had open water or overflow sections like we saw on Saturday. Now it was flat ice with a skiff of snow.  I didn't go out there, although it did look pretty nice.  I even saw some people ice skating out there. I walked and ran with Baby to the Yuditnu cabin and back.  It was a great workout and welcome respite from listening to the bad news about the war in Ukraine.  That has been getting me very depressed. I just wish I could help but of course there is nothing I can do but watch in horror.  It's all so sad. When I spend time outside exercising, somehow I just feel so much better.  I think the fresh air washes away the sad.