A walk on the green side
K.J. Hascall / Hungry Horse News
Two weekends ago a number of friends and yours truly ventured to Avalanche Lake. There’s a reason it’s one of the most popular hikes in Glacier National Park and the seven of us wanted to get it checked off the list before the tourist season begins.
But even without bear-bell bedecked visitors, the trail was packed! We saw dozens of locals, all with the same idea.
The trail to Avalanche Lake is an easy one, with gentle climbs and at least a few weekends ago, nearly snow free. Our calf muscles did not get nearly the workout my fiance Shawn and I experienced hiking to Apgar Lookout, but our senses of wonder sure did.
I personally marvel at the rounded boulders in the Avalanche Creek chutes every time I see them (I think this was my fifth trip to the lake). I am in awe of the power of water pounding against stone for years beyond reckoning.
The hillsides along the trail are bursting in emerald profusion. What a beautiful color, green, and how I appreciate it after a long winter in Lincoln, Neb. (10th worst winter on record with two weeks straight of -40 degree nighttime temperatures!).
In college I took a class comparing the literature of the American West to the Australian Outback’s equivalent. Somewhere during the course of that semester, we discussed as a class our obsession with green, a carry-over from European roots. How else can a person explain why we plant lawns? What’s wrong with wildflowers and buffalo grass?
But I digress.
Along the hike, we saw a number of deer and listened to the peculiar whistle of the varied thrush.
This was the earliest I’d hiked to Avalanche Lake, and so was surprised by the amount of snow covering the bowl. I shouldn’t have been, though, and I bet after this week’s weather, there will be quite a bit more. But how lovely is that cliff face reflected in the surface of the pristine lake.
Speaking of the wintry weather, did I mention Shawn and I have shed a bit of green from our horns and found some snowshoes on outrageous sale? Not even the snow can stop our hiking urge now!
Again, I digress.
As a final note, I want to mention that I did indeed have a new experience. Though I’ve memorized the bends of the Avalanche Trail, I’d never been around the full length of the Trail of the Cedars.
At the end of the hike, our gang made its way around the boardwalk through the ancient trees. Covering the sound of our footsteps and even our chatter was a silence older than man. There is something to be said for a walk through that forest. Trees hundreds of years old rise from the needle-covered floor into the sky, dwarfing the people embarking on a brief sojourn below.
The root system of a toppled tree provides a puzzling display of beauty greater than any man-made art as the fallen giant descends into decay.
The temperature began to drop and clouds filled the sky, so our group made its way from the forest to the parking lot. As we finished our hike, I turned back for a final look at a lesson newly learned. The green light of the cedars dimmed under the clouds, but the call of the varied thrush bid me on my way as brightly as ever.
K.J. Hascall is the managing editor of the Hungry Horse News.