Valley Thaw Out Half Marathon

 I wondered how tired I would be running 13 miles after that exhausting Lazy Mountain climb yesterday. I found that tiredness was the least of my problems.  I felt fairly well the whole way and managed to run the entire course without any walking breaks, except to grab water at the three water stops.  But the wind was brutal. It was 45 degrees at the start and only warmed up to about 50.  But the wind must have been 30 to 40 miles per hour. It seemed like no matter which direction I was going, it was always in my face!  I was glad I wore a long sleeve shirt and a windbreaker.  Otherwise I would really have been too cold.  I was quickly in last place and remained there the entire way.  But I always expect that since almost every other runner had 30 to 40 years of youth on me. I was slow but finished feeling good. They ran out of finisher's medals so I will have to wait to get mine in the mail in a few weeks. But I was really happy that I was able to run the whole way, especially in those windy conditions. 

   

Lazy Mountain Climb

Today I climbed Lazy Mountain with my friend Pam and our two little dogs.  Usually by taking the old Lazy Mountain Trail I figure about 4 hours round trip on a leisurely hike, and 3 hours if I'm practically running in both directions.  But today's trip took us exactly 7 hours! We did switch to the Lazy Moose Trail for the descent, which is 2 miles longer than the nearly straight up old trail. Pam doesn't like the steep trail for the downhill because it can be quite treacherous, especially on days like today when half was slick mud and the other half slick ice and snow. I switched to my micro-spikes once we hit the snow, but even with them, it was still pretty slippery. I was really glad I chose to bring my trekking poles.  They were almost essential today.  Once we reached the picnic bench at the halfway point, we found the route was totally snow-covered.  In many places we could just follow old footprints, but often we found we would punch through and post-hole up to our knees. Our dogs, however bounced along happily.  Pam's dog tried very hard to get into an altercation with a moose but she finally obeyed and left the moose alone.  I keep Baby on a leash because she will chase anything regardless of how large and ferocious it might be. The weather was fairly nice but not quite as sunny as we had hoped.  But the views were still spectacular. After much trudging and struggling, we finally reached the summit ridge.  It seemed a bit treacherous because the hard packed path created by earlier hikers was very narrow and one would not want to slide down the north side.  My dog decided to slide down the south side and found herself sitting on the rocks in a pile of soft snow.  Another reason I prefer to keep her on a leash.  But we reached the rocks on the summit without any disasters and had a pleasant little rest up there. 

the trip down was much easier except for the fact that now the snow had softened considerably and we occasionally found ourselves sinking thigh deep into the snow that had held us on the way up. We made our way to the rocks and even still wearing our spikes, it was much easier. I'm quite sure mine are not as sharp as they were when I left home.  Once we reached the halfway point, we turned onto the Lazy Moose Trail. There was still a lot of snow but after awhile, we were able to remove the spikes and walk mostly on dirt. It wasn't all nice dry dirt, and sometimes the mud was so deep that my one boot nearly submerged in it. I never brought my boots back into the house once I got home. Fortunately they are waterproof but I left them outside for the caked mud to remain out there. We reached the parking lot at 5pm, exactly 7 hours after we left it at 10am.  Nice speed, one mile per hour!

Eklutna Lakeside Trail

 I took a short hike at Eklutna today with my friend Mark.  I needed to get away from the pile of fallen trees I need to cut and split. A little 2 mile hike was just what I needed.  It was a beautiful day.  I also needed to have a look at the trail because my friend, Alice wants to hike there with me on Sunday.  I wasn't sure if it would still be snow-covered. I was happy to see, that at least for the first mile, it is mostly bare ground.  There were still a few small snow patches and some large puddles and a bit of mud, but nothing that was difficult to avoid. The lake is still mostly ice covered but it's looking very thin.  There is open water at the intake to the powerplant, so I sure don't think I would want to venture out onto it.  I think we will have open water in the next week or two, maybe sooner.  It's been getting quite warm and even hit 60 degrees in Palmer today.

Mt Gordon Lyons

 A wonderful hike with the Walkabouts hiking group. Pam and I had our dogs, Baby and Dahla of course.
The whole trip was on snow.  Arctic Valley Ski Area had groomed the first half up to the ridge, which made walking very easy. I did use my micro spikes, but it was soft enough that it would have been possible without them, but still kind of slippery. Once on the top we had gorgeous views in every direction. We could also see where the huge avalanche had come down and closed Hiland Road for a few weeks recently.  It was about 50 degrees down in the valley but a lot cooler on top. It was even snowing lightly when we got to the top.  But since there was no wind it was very pleasant hanging out up there for a while to have a snack and take a break.  Baby was amazing. I was worried that such a long hike all on snow might be too uncomfortable for her and I might be forced to carry her.  But I think she handled it better than I did!  I'm still a little weak from being sick recently so was a little slower than most of the others. But I got to the top around the same time as everyone else.  I'd been hearing about this hike and was really happy to hear the group was planning to do it. Everything is more fun with friends. That's such a great group. 

The Hiland Road Avalanche

West Butte Trail

I need to get back into climbing shape after dealing with Covid.  So Baby and I hiked up the Butte to get a nice climbing workout.  I had heard the other trail was completely snow and ice free, but just in case, I brought my micro-spikes.  I was so glad I did! I put them on very early in the hike once I hit the ice near the bottom.  I wore them the whole way, although I could have taken them off once I got to the stairs. But it's a pain taking them on and off and I didn't know what was ahead.  There were long stretches that were quite muddy but for the most part, the trail was in pretty good shape.  I noticed that I got short of breath easily, just like I did on Twin Peaks the other day.  Not quite back to my normal climbing shape yet.  But I really didn't have any trouble.  Baby charged right up of course.  It was very windy on the top as usual.  We found a partly sheltered rock and hid there for a little snack.  Then we hiked down.  I spoke with a couple people who had climbed the other trail and they said there was no snow or ice.  I will have to try that one next. But not today.

Beautiful views of Pioneer Peak, Twin Peaks, Matanuska Peak and the Knik Glacier from the top. 

 

Twin Peaks Trail

 I haven't done much hiking the last few weeks due to a two week bout with COVID-19.  I'm OK now and no longer testing positive.  I have been able to get in a few last days of the downhill skiing season Ski Patrolling up at Skeetawk though. 

Today I finally got back out on the trails and hiked to the first bench on the Twin Peaks Trail.  I wanted to go farther, but I was so busy with other stuff today that it was almost 2pm when I finally got to the trailhead. It was just me and Baby most of the way.  We did meet a young woman on her way down who warned us of a moose on the trail about one mile up.  I kept on the lookout for it. Baby saw it way before I did and was barking furiously. I finally saw it through the trees.  Between her barking and me trying to get her to be quiet, the moose finally took off up the mountainside. Then we were able to continue on. 

The trail still has a lot of snow and ice, but enough bare spots that it really wasn't reasonable to wear micro spikes.  So I just carried them in case I needed them.  It was pretty warm, 44, on my car's temperature gage. That caused a layer of slush on top of the otherwise icy spots, plus I was able to usually find some soft snow adjacent to the stretches of ice. In some places it was completely free of snow and streams of water were trickling down. But no mud to deal with.  We only went to the first bench because we got such a late start.  But that was fine because I'm still a little weak from being sick. We had a nice rest at the bench where we had a snack and admired the always amazing view of Eklutna Lake down below. Next time, I definitely want to get all the way to the top of Pepper Peak.  I'm not even sure that would have been possible today.  There is still quite a lot of snow on the hills above. Maybe in a couple of weeks I can get an earlier start and we will make it all the way.  But for today, it was a wonderful hike.