I spent the morning waiting. It was partially my fault since I should have just taken the initiative. I was up at 5:45am but didn't want to wake up the others and waited for everyone to shower first before they headed out to church with Nina and Mark. However, none of them wanted to go to church. They were all tired and Dwayne said this was his Father's Day weekend he wanted to enjoy doing things with his sons since his son Brett was visiting from Seattle. I chatted with Karin when I should have just gone to the trail head and met with Nina later. I did the better thing in the end and waited for Nina to be done with her church potluck and hiked up West Butte with her. The trail head parking lot is only six miles from their potluck location at Matanuska River park.
West Butte is a busy trail as it's only 1.3 miles to the peak and close to town. It's also a very popular trail with hikers of all abilities trekking up the steep grade and 505 stairs. The view from the 840' peak, however, is worth it. We shared the view with at least 50 other hikers, eight dogs (of which four were GSDs) and several babies in backpacks or shoulderbags. Pioneer Peak at 6398' is the tallest peak nearby and across the wide river valley. What a view. We were on the peak longer than planned but why rush? Zeke was curious about the drone flying overhead but Sadie just wanted a shady spot.
The hike was three miles round trip. We stopped at the river bridge for another mile along the rushing river. This is another popular spot for the locals to run their dogs or wade in the cold mud. We didn't cross the water to get to the plains, but the dogs enjoyed the cool river before we headed back to Knik in the late afternoon. The others hadn't come back yet from their hike in the Ekutna state park.
More later
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