Matanuska Peak

I am in a hiking group on Facebook called Alaska Hiking.

I've made quite a few new friends there.

Two of them are Karen and Joe.

Joe recently posted about something called the Breast Expedition. 

I was interested, but the date of the event was August 15th, 9 days after my surgery.

The plan was for the team to meet up at the Matanuska Trail head and go to the peak (6,119 ft of elevation).

It was pretty obvious to me I would not make it to the peak, but I wanted to at least go and show some support, meet Joe, Karen, Mia.

Karen, Joe, Mia and me!

Right after this photo, I opted to get going.

I knew I was going to be slow and did not want to hold up the group.

I'm still trying to figure out what is on this grass?

There are a bunch of different ways of getting to Matanuska Peak.

Sean and I decided we were going to take the McRoberts Creek Trail.

Pioneer Peak in the background.

Pioneer Peak, Twin Peaks and Bodenburg Butte.

Matanuska Peak visible.  

There were canyons to our right here.

What on earth was I thinking?

There was a good bit of up. 

It wasn't bad, but there were a few parts that had me thinking the way back down was going to be horrible....

I was right.

There were a few parts of the trail that were a bit overgrown.

It wasn't terrible though.

Some places the grass was a tall as me.

When the wind would blow, the grass would sway causing me to get motion sickness.

That has never happened to me before.

Monkey flower.

This is twisted stalk, aka watermelon berry.

It's disgusting!  HA HA

I class it as non-tasty; non-delicious.

If I were starving, I still wouldn't eat it (Kidding).

About 2.75 miles in, we get here and the other trail meets up.

There was a big orange flag.

This isn't far from where I stopped.

I made it about 4.5 miles and 3,200 feet of elevation.

Not too shabby for someone that just had surgery 9 days ago.

I swear this rock has a face on it.

I hand Sean my phone and tell him to help me take my banana picture..

The first picture is of Dingo.

Why do I look so dumb?

Another outtake....

OK.... I like this one!

The mountains are starting to get their fall colors on them.

It seems too soon.

We stayed here 30 to 40 minutes.

Snacked.

Waited on Joe and the rest of his crew.

Joe and his team made it the rest of the way up.

I was so incredibly impressed.

From where I stopped, it was still about 2,000 feet of elevation.

The wind was bad.

There were a few times I thought I might get knocked over, but maybe that was just me being wimpy.

The swaying grasses.

Monkshood.

One of the canyons off McRoberts Creek.

I think this was my favorite picture of the day.

Rose hips.  

I also class these as non-tasty.....

I was so beat when we got home!

I was laying in bed, like Doug, eating potato chips.

My collar bone feels pretty good.

The skin is still all numb, although my incision feels like it is burning at times.

My hip still hurts a lot!

It feels better today.

I think the up-hill climb yesterday pushed some of the fluid out of it.

My limp is still present, but it is getting better too.

I can do my stairs a lot easier today.

Sean and I were hanging out on the deck, Sean was grilling up some tandoori chicken...   

Dingo on the other hand was Paul Blarting in the backyard.

This dog cracks me up!

I am so glad today has been a restful Sunday.

Mostly the reason I don't go hiking today is that it is Sunday.

Trails are crazy on Sunday's, especially the sunny ones and today was sunny!

So, we stayed home mostly.... ate food, strolled the neighborhood.

Life is good.

The Jordan's.