Talkeetna Lakes Trails

A bunch of the Valley Wanderers hiking group met in Wasilla to carpool up to Talkeetna to ski on the Talkeetna Lakes Trails off Comsat Road. I had been up that road but never on those trails before. Instead of using my classic cross country skis, I used my new backcountry skis. I have now fallen totally in love with them after clamping down the heels and downhill skiing with them all day Sunday up at the Skeetawk Ski Area where I Ski Patrol. I really didn't need them for these trails but wanted another chance to get to know them. They were a perfect choice because somehow the whole group took off without me, while I was stopping my dog from picking a fight with another dog in the parking lot. I didn't know which way they went so just picked a trail and hit Navigate on the AllTrails app, figuring I would just backtrack if I got lost or confused. The route I picked had quite a few small but fairly steep hills.  The trails were groomed but still quite icy. My wide skis were perfect for the conditions because my classic skis get kind of scary and difficult to control or stop in steep icy conditions. Even with Baby pulling on me, I was still easily able to maintain good control. I skied all the way around Z Lake, and found there were enough trail signs that I didn't need to use the app to navigate back to the car. I just followed the loop around the lake then back to the parking lot. My friends started showing up soon after I got back to the car. They had formed a couple of groups, and each thought I was with the other group. We had 11 or 12 total, so I can see how that could easily happen. It was fine, and I really enjoyed my little solo route finding ski trek with Baby the wonder dog, who seemed quite happy to run as fast as she could the whole way. We all went for lunch in Talkeetna at the Denali Brew Pub.