Eklutna Lake

It is bitter cold today at home and in Palmer. I set out intending to try out my backcountry skis on Reflections Lake and explore the little fingers of the lake on the other side of the hiking bridge. It was only10 degrees and I wasn't too sure of the snow conditions on the lake. So first, I just walked the dog around the lake on the trail. I walked down to the lake and noticed that the snow is still quite deep there and there is one wide hard packed icy trail people had made out to the middle to ice fish. Also on my hike, I noticed there were quite a few drifts on the part beyond the bridge. I wanted to bring my friend there to introduce her to cross country skiing, because I figured it would be totally flat. But with those drifts, it looks less than ideal for that purpose. By the time I circled the lake, Baby and I were both freezing and I abandoned that idea altogether. Then we drove up to Eklutna Lake, which was much warmer. I skied out a couple of miles and found the snow to be nice and soft off the snowmachine track and also firm and easy skiing on the tracks. The snow was still pretty icy so I stayed off the tracks because they were noisy compared to the untracked snow. But the dog preferred the tracks so she ran on them and I stayed just off the side on the untracked snow. It was really nice and sunny. I'll plan to take my friend there to introduce her to skiing. The conditions are much better than Reflections Lake. If there is a warmer day before the ice melts, I may still try to explore out on Reflections Lake with my skis. I love going out in that area in my kayak. It's quite wild with little fingers of lake and swamp, with lots of birds in the summer.