I hiked today with the Valley Wanderers. Our original plan had been a snowshoe hike at Independence Mine. But they changed it due to freezing rain. Instead we hiked the Matanuska Peak Trail intending to go to Stonehenge. The trail was in great condition, with hard packed snow. I had been feeling exhausted all week and considered passing on this hike. But since the trail is so close and I felt I really needed the exercise, I decided to go. All was well for the first mile, but as it got steeper, I found I wasn't able to keep up with the other three ladies. I am generally slower than most of them normally, but today I was really dragging. I was very glad that Baby was happily running ahead and it didn't look like I would need to carry her. That really slows me down. When we got to the 9000 foot marker, the others decided to hike along the trail to check out a large landslide instead of heading up to Stonehenge. That part of the trail was deeper snow and not packed down. I could see right away that Baby was having trouble and I would need to carry her. At that point I decided there wasn't much point in continuing, so I let them know I was going to head back. It was pleasant descending and Baby was still doing fine. It wasn't the best day to be out there anyway because it was overcast and obscuring the mountain peaks, plus it was snowing lightly. I'm really glad I went and I hope I can get a little faster and in better shape because I love hiking with those folks. But I don't like being too slow, because I feel like I'm dragging them down. I think I'm just not quite in the winter mode yet. It's so much more complicated than summer hikes. But I really love the snow covered scenery.
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