Gold Cord Lake

It's so cloudy and rainy everywhere. But I just didn't want to hang around in the house all day. It looked the best in the Talkeetna Mountains so I drove up to Independence Mine. Then Baby ad I climbed up to Gold Cord Lake.  I think it might be her favorite place to hike. There are so many ground squirrels and marmots whistling that she delights in trying to catch them, in spite of still being on her leash.  She also likes to stick her nose down in their many holes. I keep her from getting too far into their homes because I don't think she'd be happy if one took a bite out of her nose.  There were some muddy spots and we did our best to negotiate dry paths around them.  The little creek that runs out of the lake was a lot higher than usual, so I had to lift Baby over it. We hiked as far as we could without negotiating the boulder field on the west side of the lake. I saw someone in a pink coat who appeared to be making their way up Microdot, through the boulders.  I'll save that project for another day. I think I'd prefer climbing Microdot up the official trail, even though technically it doesn't really reach the summit. 

Eklutna Lakeside Trail

Raining a little in town but not a lot up here at Eklutna Lake.  I still have a little pain in my leg from my Ship Lake Pass hike, so decided to keep things short today. Baby and I had a peaceful little 4 mile round trip walk along the lake, with only a few drops of rain. There were quite a few kayakers out there on the water. But the oddest thing I saw was two guys actually swimming in that icy lake.  I'm not sure why anyone would want to do that, but to each his own!

Beautiful as always.

 

Ship Lake Pass Hike

 This was a very rainy trail at first, then it progressed into being a very muddy and extremely windy trail.  I hiked with the Walkabout hiking group.  I was wishing I'd worn rubber boots instead of my summer hiking boots because it was really wet and swampy in many places.  When we reached the higher ridge, the wind became so extreme that it very nearly blew me over.  I estimate the gusts to be 50 to 60 mph. It was at that point we all agreed to call it a day and leave the pass for a better day.  There were so many clouds and off and on rain showers, so we didn't get the best view of what is really a gorgeous area. But it was great exercise.  My dog, Baby did great as usual.  Once back down in the lower flat area, we encountered large areas of deep black mud. I was really trying to keep from totally submerging my feet into that black gunk. At one point we were all carefully tiptoeing on wet willow branches across a section of that black slime, when I noticed that Baby was really having a hard time. I didn't want her to end up totally covered in that stinky stuff, so I scooped her up in my right arm and carried my trekking poles in my left hand. I was doing ok when as I stepped on one of those slick branches, my foot slipped off and my right foot plunged into the mud. Simultaneously, that foot caught on the branch and I toppled over into the mess.  I did manage to keep my dog elevated above the mud though. But my left shin smacked either a branch or a rock and I was suddenly in extreme pain. I crawled out and was happy that I hadn't broken anything and could still continue to walk. Farther down the trail I pulled up my left pantleg to see that I now had a huge abrasion that covered about half of my shin, along with a huge lump that was at least 8 inches long. Fortunately it wasn't bleeding significantly. I was so glad I had worn thick leggings and my rain pants, so the mud didn't seep in and contaminate the wound. 

Later, I got separated from the group because I had stopped to take pictures. I no longer could see them so just continued along the trail. I came to a fork in the trail, and being unfamiliar with this trail, I took the fork with the sign that pointed to the parking lot. Unfortunately, there are two parking lots and this trail led to the wrong one. A fellow hiker told me how to get to the other lot, where we had actually parked. When I got there I learned via a text message that the others were waiting for me on the other trail. I texted what happened and started back towards them, and we met about halfway. I think I'll wait for a drier day to do that hike again!

Gold Cord Lake

It's been raining at home, but didn't look too bad up in the mountains. So it seemed like a good time to drive up to Hatcher Pass and take a short hike up to Gold Cord Lake.  It's a beautiful place and a nice gentle climb.  Baby loves to chase the ground squirrels and marmots and try to crawl down into their holes. It was pretty muddy in places, but otherwise the trail was nice.  It did rain just a tiny bit but raincoats weren't really needed.  I think our warm sunny summer days may be behind us and winter is on its way. 

Hunter Pass via South Fork Trail and Rendezvous Ridge

 Today was a very interesting hike with the Walkabouts hiking group from Anchorage. It was raining at home and forecast to be mostly rainy.  But I carpooled to Eagle River with Pam, in spite of the forecast. I had not hiked the South Fork Trail before so this was a new one for me. We started up the trail intending to hike up to Hunter Pass.  A short distance in we encountered a sign and a barricade telling us that the Hunter Pass Trail was closed. But the trail we were on does continue on to Symphony and Eagle Lakes as well as on to the Rendezvous Ridge Trail. Two of our group chose to go on to the lakes, but the rest of us took the trail to the ridge. It started to rain and at times it was quite wet. The clouds rolled in and out and I wondered if we would be able to find our way back to the trailhead once we got in the clouds. It was a little muddy and the brush and fireweed was very high and very wet. My poor dog was soaking wet.  But she didn't seem to mind it even though she generally hates rain.  I forgot to bring her raincoat so was feeling quite guilty.  Although, I do know she really doesn't like wearing her raincoat. So maybe she was glad I forgot it. It was a wet and slippery slog to the ridge, where the wind came up and the rain was harder. We discussed going back the way we had come versus continuing along the ridge to our original destination of Hunter Pass. Learning that the trail down from the pass would be easier and nicer than the way we had come, we chose that route. . Upon reaching the high point of the ridge, Baby started climbing up my leg.  That's her way of saying in 'dog talk' that she'd had enough of the rain and would like me to carry her.  Reluctantly I stuffed her into my doggie backpack and tried my best to protect her head from the rain with my sunhat. I'm not sure it helped much, but she seemed to tolerate it.  Every time we stopped, I felt Baby start to tremble.  I don't think she was cold, but just worried about why we weren't moving. Once we started down things got a little better.  The clouds moved away and the visibility was much better.  About halfway down, it even mostly stopped raining.  We got to a spot where our trail intersected with the closed Hunter Pass Trail and once again we were facing a barricade and closed sign. No one was about to turn back, so of course we ignored that and went down the trail anyway.  We actually avoided the new trail that they had been creating, which caused the closure, and we went down the original trail. It was a lot nicer than the trail we had taken up. It had a lot less brush and was fairly easy going. I took the dog back out of my pack and she happily walked down the rest of the way. When we got back to the car, we were all completely soaked. But it was still a beautiful and very enjoyable hike.

Long Lake Loop

 Short hike around Long Lake Loop on the Matanuska Lake Trail system with Baby and my friend Pam.  It's been raining a lot and I haven't done any hikes since the marathon last week. I have taken my kayak out a couple of times.  It was nice to get out and take a real walk again.  I'm ready to start doing some hikes now.  It was very cloudy so not the most photogenic day.  But I always like the part through the green fields even though today we couldn't see the usual view of Pioneer Peak and Twin Peaks. At least it wasn't raining.

Hatcher Pass Marathon

This was my 8th time to run the Hatcher Pass Marathon. It's really a hard race because it's basically all uphill.  You do get a brief 2 mile respite from grueling uphill for most of the last 2 miles, where you descend on a very steep road down from the top of the pass.  The elevation gain is about 5000 feet.  I'm not a good uphill runner at all, but do always manage to find my way to the finish line.  This year the race was complicated by rain from about mile 6 for me.  I did do the early start which gave those who worried about making the 8 hour time limit, an extra hour. It meant getting up at 3 am for me, so I could get ready, drive 10 miles and drop my dog off with my friend, Mark, then drive 57 miles to the start line on Shirleytown Road a few miles up Willow Fishhook Road from Willow.  As I write this, the official results have not been published, but according to my GPS running app, I took about 8 hours and 5 minutes.  I'll update when I get the official results.  It was still very slow for me, and as usual I was the last person to finish, and certainly the oldest character out there punishing themselves running up that mountain in the rain. But I wasn't too far behind the previous finisher. I was surprised to look at my results from my previous races though. I was significantly faster this year than the previous 4 times I ran this race. I was 30 minutes to an hour faster than all 4 of them.  While I was running, I was seriously wondering if I would finish at all, much less in the time limit. I really felt like I was struggling, not because of my legs but because I got so short of breath every time I tried to run uphill.  I ended up power walking almost all of the uphill parts. My saving grace was the 2 mile descent from the pass summit.  It was pouring rain by then and I was both soaked and cold. But I do well on downhill. I think I ran down that long hill faster than I've ever run anywhere.  I was flying down that hill! It really helped my final time. It wasn't as beautiful as this race normally is, because of the rain and fog along the way. The mountains were mostly obscured by fog and low clouds, but it was nice temperature and not raining hard enough to make the road too muddy. They have a nice metal medal this year, which I prefer to the wooden plaques from the previous years. But running this race is always an accomplishment and although I usually suffer the whole way, I'm always glad I did it.  I'm sure I'll be back next year to do it all over again.