I hiked today with the Valley Wanderers up the back side of Lazy Mountain. The fall colors are really getting beautiful back there. This route is a little longer than the regular Lazy Mountain Trail, but in many ways it is more scenic and interesting. There are actually several trails on this side of the mountain. We started up the McRoberts Creek Trail then took the steep cutoff up to the Matanuska Peak Trail. Then at the wooden tripod, we turned up towards Lazy Mountain through the rocky area we've nicknamed Stonehenge. So named due to piles of rock cairns people have placed there over the years. We had a snack and a short break then continued on up the steep hill to the summit. It was a little windy but not too bad. It was in the high 30's when I left home and likely about the same up there at 3700 feet. On top we had our official lunch, took our photos then started down intending to take the same route back. But at Stonehenge, there is another steep trail that takes a more direct route down to the Matanuska Peak Trail. We took that one. It was rather overgrown and difficult to follow at times. We managed to lose that trail and had an interesting diversion walk through brush and thick alders before finally being reunited with the official trail. I was tracking us with the AllTrails iPhone app and we used its GPS to point us in the right direction. It was very helpful. We had been walking parallel to the main trail and could see the direction we needed to go to get back on the trail. We had to fight the alders for a short distance but likely didn't go too far out of our way before we were back on the Matanuska Peak Trail. When we got to the steep connector that goes down to the McRoberts Creek Trail we decided to just stay on the Matanuska Peak Trail for a change. It may be slightly longer, but wasn't as steep. We covered about 6 miles total. It was a great workout with a great group of ladies.
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| Lunch Break on Top |
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| Me at the top |
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| Matanuska Peak View |
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| Matanuska Peak from the summit of Lazy |
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| Matanuska Peak and the ridge leading to it from Lazy Mountain summit |
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| Colorful Devils Club |
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| Valley View |
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