Lazy Moose Trail

The forecast for today was 100% rain all day. But it wasn't raining when I woke up. Julia texted me and asked if I'd like to hike the Lazy Moose Trail up to the picnic table halfway up Lazy Mountain. It's my least favorite way to climb Lazy Mountain because it's almost 3 miles just to the table. The other route is only 1 mile, but insanely steep. But knowing it might have some nice fall colors and that we'd likely get caught in the rain anyway, I said yes, lets do it. It was a bit slippery from yesterday's heavy rains but since it's not terribly steep, it was quite pleasant. We could see the clouds building but no rain as we hiked the long switchbacks and finally reached the picnic table. I had decided that if it wasn't raining when we reached the table, I'd go on to the summit. But Mother Nature apparently didn't like that idea, so it started to rain just as we got there. We took a nice snack break and fed and watered our 3 dogs, then added raingear and more layers then backtracked down the same trail we had climbed. If we had gone down the steep way, it would have been treacherous with the added rainfall over already wet steep trail. I had a couple of near misses tripping over wet roots but did make it all the way down unscathed. We got back to the cars with 3 very wet and muddy, but happy dogs. Little Bella was shivering and wet, so I wrapped her in her towel and blanket on the way home. It was a nice 6-mile workout with some lovely autumn foliage. It's nowhere near peak yet, but there is a lot of golden color starting to show. By the time we got down it was nearly a torrential downpour. I'm so glad I didn't venture on to the summit. It will still be there the next time I climb there.

Bella with Julia and dogs Trigger and Pumba behind her.