Gold Cord Lake

 Today did not turn out the way we had expected. Our original hike was the traverse from Government Peak to April Bowl. I always prefer starting up at Summit Lake then hiking April Bowl up to Hatch Peak then crossing the ridge to Government Peak and going downhill on the Government Peak Race Trail or the Blueberry Knoll Trail. But due to the muddy trail conditions, Janice was leading and decided to avoid the steep muddy Government Peak Trail completely and just do out and back along the ridge from April Bowl to Government Peak and back. But the weather was not conducive to doing any of those options. Rain was forecast and it was already drizzling a little when we met at Turner's Corner. Only Julia and I joined Janice. Looking at the massive cloud banks ahead, we decided to just try for the simple 2.5-mile round trip climb up to Gold Cord Lake. It turned out to be a good choice because it was actually not socked in there, like pretty much everywhere else in the area. It wasn't even terribly muddy except in the one bad spot that is always that way. Julia brought her big dog, Pumba and Bella loved running along with him. They look kind of funny together due to their drastic size difference. We had the trail mostly to ourselves on the way up but did meet a number of families coming up on our way down. We let the dogs run free because it wasn't very crowded and they were behaving nicely. They did take off a couple of times across the tundra after a marmot or ground squirrel. But never caught one. Pumba always wears a muzzle so he would have been out of luck anyway. He's quite a gentle soul, but Julia says he does tend to get aggressive to other dogs at times. The lake is still mostly frozen, but the creek is running and there is now some open water on the lake. It's not quite summer up there yet.