High Ridge and Biard Lakes Loop Trail

 This was a lovely 6-mile trek through the snow with Pam and our dogs. It was a lot longer than what I had hoped to do today since I'm planning to run the Eklutna 10-mile race tomorrow. But it's such a beautiful day and it's what Pam wanted to do. It's also one of my favorite local hikes. I especially like it because not very many people use it. It's not officially part of the Crevasse Moraine trail system, but the only way to access it is via an unmarked trail off one of several trails within that system. We accessed it off the Outer Loop Trail, where I had first encountered it. The Outer Loop was freshly groomed, in fact, we had to step aside for the groomer to pass by. Our footing was much better on that trail but did deteriorate significantly once we got onto the unmarked trail. I had my AllTrails app going in case we lost track of the correct trail. There were tracks from other hikers, but I don't like to depend completely on tracks through the snow. They did end up following the correct trail. Once along the shoreline of High Ridge Lake, the trail was quite wind-blown. We ended up post holing through some wind drifts that completely obliterated the original tracks. But it wasn't too difficult to find the correct path. The app was really helpful when we came to trails branching off the main trail. I am familiar with most of them, but Pam is not. The app kept us always on the right path. I liked that I was able to zoom in and see the actual name of the trails that branched off back to Crevasse Moraine. I had walked there using a couple of them on other hikes. Pam and I had come there via the Old Cat Track last summer. I recognized that steep branch right away. We were very happy to finally reach the little blue chair at the beautiful overlook over Biard Lake. One of the arms has been broken off, which is kind of sad. I found that on my hike there back in January. I'm sure there's an interesting story behind it. Soon after that we encountered a guy with a couple of dogs. Our dogs had the usual conversation with them as we passed on by. It was nice to finally get back to the Outer Loop and onto the hard packed groomed trail. It was a great hike as always, even through the loose snow.