Memorial Day Weekend

 This Memorial Day Weekend started out rainy and cool, so we delayed plans to go out in our Chinook and started with day hikes! I wanted to climb Flattop, because I think it's a great diagnostic at the beginning of each season - to see how well we're hiking, how out of shape, how long it takes us, how painful it is! We hiked up only about 30 minutes, and Brian wasn't feeling 100%, so we turned around and went back. It was also windy, with a driving light rain and cold, so it wasn't that hard to quit. Even the hour that we hiked seemed a challenge, but a good one, and we went home and talked about Brian's recent medical history and what might be adding to his distress. 

Day 2 was a little longer hike, about 2 hours, from Prospect Heights going toward Wolfjaw. Driving towards the mountains, they looked a little spooky with clouds hanging low and a very overcast sky, promising rain. But it was supposed to hold off for the most part til afternoon! 

We once again turned around, just giving ourselves enough of a push to feel like we had done something. 

Day Three - Sunday and Monday promised to be warmer and sunnier, so we got the RV ready and ourselves and drove up to the Hatcher's Pass area, camping at the Gold Mint Trailhead. Although we're "camped" in a parking lot at the trailhead, there are fire pits and picnic tables, and the most stunning thing is the view on all 4 sides! We hiked a little over 2 1/2 hours and found a fair amount of snow before we turned around from the well-publicized avalanches that occured during the winter months. 

When we first got there, we were setting up and having a bite to eat while watching "pack-rafters" get out their colorful, inflatable kayaks and get ready to paddle a pretty churned up Little Susitna River! We went down the bank and watched them put in too. 

And finally Day 4 - we had planned to hike the Reeds Lake Trail off of Archangel Rd, and we found that the bigger avalanches mentioned above that had closed the road this winter, still kept the entire Archangel Rd. closed. So we made our way over to Lazy Mountain and then found that our friends Alys & Pete, who live in Palmer, had suggested that we come there and hike with them near their property. So we switched gears and had a lovely afternoon with them and a good loop hike for a couple of hours that was a decent push uphill. Kira enjoyed meeting their dogs again, Shadow and Rider, and the horses, which I'm not sure she remembered! We ended the afternoon pulling our resources for a picnic lunch outside. We had hummous and guacamole and some tabooleh with chickpeas I had made, and Pete had his homemade rye bagels and Tillamok cheese as well as fresh goat's milk from their goat.