Lazy Moose Trail and Lazy Mountain Trail(edit)

An alternative to the Lazy Mountain Trail, adding a couple of miles (one-way) for a more reasonable grade via switchbacks. There are distance markers every 200 ft for the first 11000 ft. The first mile is pretty benign, then it's two miles of switchbacks and views to the Lazy Mountain Trail junction at just under 3 miles and 2400 feet elevation. There's a picnic table at the junction. Beyond the junction, the steeper Lazy Mountain Trail has markers every 1000 ft and offers sweeping views of the lower Matanuska Valley and southwestern Talkeetna Mountains. Matanuska Peak blocks the views east into the Chugach, but on a clear day, you can see at least 150 miles southwest down the Cook Inlet to Mt Redoubt. (Flag photo is from the summit, but the GPS info somehow got stripped off the file.)