Gold Cord Lake

It's been raining at home, but didn't look too bad up in the mountains. So it seemed like a good time to drive up to Hatcher Pass and take a short hike up to Gold Cord Lake.  It's a beautiful place and a nice gentle climb.  Baby loves to chase the ground squirrels and marmots and try to crawl down into their holes. It was pretty muddy in places, but otherwise the trail was nice.  It did rain just a tiny bit but raincoats weren't really needed.  I think our warm sunny summer days may be behind us and winter is on its way. 

Hunter Pass via South Fork Trail and Rendezvous Ridge

 Today was a very interesting hike with the Walkabouts hiking group from Anchorage. It was raining at home and forecast to be mostly rainy.  But I carpooled to Eagle River with Pam, in spite of the forecast. I had not hiked the South Fork Trail before so this was a new one for me. We started up the trail intending to hike up to Hunter Pass.  A short distance in we encountered a sign and a barricade telling us that the Hunter Pass Trail was closed. But the trail we were on does continue on to Symphony and Eagle Lakes as well as on to the Rendezvous Ridge Trail. Two of our group chose to go on to the lakes, but the rest of us took the trail to the ridge. It started to rain and at times it was quite wet. The clouds rolled in and out and I wondered if we would be able to find our way back to the trailhead once we got in the clouds. It was a little muddy and the brush and fireweed was very high and very wet. My poor dog was soaking wet.  But she didn't seem to mind it even though she generally hates rain.  I forgot to bring her raincoat so was feeling quite guilty.  Although, I do know she really doesn't like wearing her raincoat. So maybe she was glad I forgot it. It was a wet and slippery slog to the ridge, where the wind came up and the rain was harder. We discussed going back the way we had come versus continuing along the ridge to our original destination of Hunter Pass. Learning that the trail down from the pass would be easier and nicer than the way we had come, we chose that route. . Upon reaching the high point of the ridge, Baby started climbing up my leg.  That's her way of saying in 'dog talk' that she'd had enough of the rain and would like me to carry her.  Reluctantly I stuffed her into my doggie backpack and tried my best to protect her head from the rain with my sunhat. I'm not sure it helped much, but she seemed to tolerate it.  Every time we stopped, I felt Baby start to tremble.  I don't think she was cold, but just worried about why we weren't moving. Once we started down things got a little better.  The clouds moved away and the visibility was much better.  About halfway down, it even mostly stopped raining.  We got to a spot where our trail intersected with the closed Hunter Pass Trail and once again we were facing a barricade and closed sign. No one was about to turn back, so of course we ignored that and went down the trail anyway.  We actually avoided the new trail that they had been creating, which caused the closure, and we went down the original trail. It was a lot nicer than the trail we had taken up. It had a lot less brush and was fairly easy going. I took the dog back out of my pack and she happily walked down the rest of the way. When we got back to the car, we were all completely soaked. But it was still a beautiful and very enjoyable hike.

Long Lake Loop

 Short hike around Long Lake Loop on the Matanuska Lake Trail system with Baby and my friend Pam.  It's been raining a lot and I haven't done any hikes since the marathon last week. I have taken my kayak out a couple of times.  It was nice to get out and take a real walk again.  I'm ready to start doing some hikes now.  It was very cloudy so not the most photogenic day.  But I always like the part through the green fields even though today we couldn't see the usual view of Pioneer Peak and Twin Peaks. At least it wasn't raining.

Hatcher Pass Marathon

This was my 8th time to run the Hatcher Pass Marathon. It's really a hard race because it's basically all uphill.  You do get a brief 2 mile respite from grueling uphill for most of the last 2 miles, where you descend on a very steep road down from the top of the pass.  The elevation gain is about 5000 feet.  I'm not a good uphill runner at all, but do always manage to find my way to the finish line.  This year the race was complicated by rain from about mile 6 for me.  I did do the early start which gave those who worried about making the 8 hour time limit, an extra hour. It meant getting up at 3 am for me, so I could get ready, drive 10 miles and drop my dog off with my friend, Mark, then drive 57 miles to the start line on Shirleytown Road a few miles up Willow Fishhook Road from Willow.  As I write this, the official results have not been published, but according to my GPS running app, I took about 8 hours and 5 minutes.  I'll update when I get the official results.  It was still very slow for me, and as usual I was the last person to finish, and certainly the oldest character out there punishing themselves running up that mountain in the rain. But I wasn't too far behind the previous finisher. I was surprised to look at my results from my previous races though. I was significantly faster this year than the previous 4 times I ran this race. I was 30 minutes to an hour faster than all 4 of them.  While I was running, I was seriously wondering if I would finish at all, much less in the time limit. I really felt like I was struggling, not because of my legs but because I got so short of breath every time I tried to run uphill.  I ended up power walking almost all of the uphill parts. My saving grace was the 2 mile descent from the pass summit.  It was pouring rain by then and I was both soaked and cold. But I do well on downhill. I think I ran down that long hill faster than I've ever run anywhere.  I was flying down that hill! It really helped my final time. It wasn't as beautiful as this race normally is, because of the rain and fog along the way. The mountains were mostly obscured by fog and low clouds, but it was nice temperature and not raining hard enough to make the road too muddy. They have a nice metal medal this year, which I prefer to the wooden plaques from the previous years. But running this race is always an accomplishment and although I usually suffer the whole way, I'm always glad I did it.  I'm sure I'll be back next year to do it all over again.

Harp Mountain

 Hiked Harp Mountain Trail with the Walkabouts today. Pam finally decided to go even though her dog is still out of commission with a broken foot.  She was able to leave her home with help from a neighbor while we hiked.  It wasn't the best day though because it was raining when I left home. But the clouds did lift somewhat and we didn't have any rain for the hike.  But the clouds were still very low.  It seemed like they were rising at the same speed we were climbing, but when we got to the summit ridge they decided to just hang out there so we never did get to see the amazing view possible from the top of Harp. It's a steep hike so I was glad to just stop and hang out in the fog and visit with everyone.  Baby was happy to be out hiking again instead of watching me play with my log splitter and chain saw. There were three big dogs along with us and she got along pretty well with them.  The youngest one kept leaping right over Baby so she did give out a few growls each time that happened.  But otherwise she was quite sociable with the other dogs.  It felt great to get out for a real hike since it has been a couple of weeks. The last few weeks have been mostly pouring rain and not conducive to playing outside.  When it was dry outside, I was busy on the wood splitting project, which thankfully is now complete.  Next Saturday is the Hatcher Pass Marathon and I'm hoping the forecast of 60% rain is not accurate.  That might make that huge 26 mile climb more challenging that I would really like.  But we shall see I guess.  

Pioneer Ridge Trail

 This was probably the hardest hike I've done in recent years.  I was with the Valley Wanderers. They are all a bit faster than I am, and although I was fine for the first half, I really started to lag behind.  Lisa was leading this hike and she was so sweet and stayed with me. I had fallen the other day hiking on the ridge to Microdot, and struck my chest on a rock.  It was hurting to take a deep breath.  I'm not sure that was all that was slowing me down, but it sure wasn't helping!  This trail is gorgeous but very steep. It is also terribly overgrown and often it wasn't even possible to see your feet because of the vegetation.  There are also trees that have grown right over the trail and you need to step over them to pass through. There are also huge tree roots complicating your passage.  Then there were the mud sections.  It took some fancy footwork to pass around some of those muddy spots without getting my feet soaking wet. I always keep Baby on her leash so she doesn't take off after ground squirrels, moose, bears, or other dogs. She was pretty good, but there were times when she would take the low route under the many trees, roots and other barricades to smooth passage. It was always interesting trying to unhook and rehook her after she got herself totally entangled in branches.  She did surprisingly well at jumping over places like that, and saving me from the untangling adventure. There were flowers in bloom everywhere and on one section in the first mile or so there was a huge field of blooming fireweed. We had amazing glimpses of the Knik River and Knik Glacier most of the way up to the ridge.  It is possible to climb to the South Peak of Pioneer Peak on that trail, but our group of five had no intention of going to the summit.  As it was our trip was over 10 miles round trip. We just went to the highest part of the Pioneer Ridge, just before the trail gets very steep and heads up through the rocks to the summit.  One day I would like to do that, but today was definitely not that day. I did attempt it once many years ago but had to turn back near the summit due to a sudden heavy rain storm.  That is no place to be in a storm. But we had perfect weather today, just enough wind to keep us cool and keep the bugs down. We had a nice rest on the top of the ridge and had some snacks and admired the views.  So many beautiful mountains in all directions. I can imagine going from there over to Yudikench, Bold Peak, then down to Eklutna Lake.  Up there I got a feel for the whole lay of the land and how all the mountains and rivers are connected. I'd love to take a week and just wander from peak to peak. 

The trip down was slippery and I took a few tumbles, but nothing serious.  Just a scraped knee and sprained finger. Baby managed to find the best routes even though the vegetation was so high sometimes I couldn't even see her.  I just followed the leash! I used the AllTrails app that said we went 10.7 miles and the Nike app that said we went 12.7 miles.  Either way, we still had an elevation gain of over 5200 feet.  It was amazing and one day I'll do it again, with the South Peak as the final goal. 

Gold Cord Lake

I spent lots of the last few days just paddling around in my kayak to Jim Creek and Rabbit Slough. Got lots of arm workout but no hiking or running except for the usual walking of the dog.  But today I took the dog back up to Gold Cord Lake. It's just a short hike of only a couple miles but the views are always extraordinary. We hiked partway around the lake this time. Baby was busy chasing ground squirrels and trying to pull me off my feet as we hiked over the boulders.  But she never caught any of the little critters.  I think they were actually teasing her. We got a much different view of the lake from the far side.  Still lots of snow and ice on the lake but only half as much as our last visit about a week ago.  It's such a pretty place. My dog really loves to go there.  She finds so many interesting smells and tries to crawl down into all the squirrel and marmot holes.