We finally got our weather today, and headed into the park: blue sky, clouds, mid 50s, mountain bikes, snowshoes.  Mom, being shortest, rode M’s bike.  M rode my singlespeed because it has a slightly shorter cockpit, and I rode the Lenz.  M’s bike had the rack installed, and she choose the pack that carries snowshoes, so she was the gear hauler for the day.

There is still a lot of snow in the woods, even at lower altitudes.  No one had been up to Avalanche Lake since the last major snowfall.

About 2/3 of the way to the lake we came across all traces of the trail obliterated by a truly impressive series of blow downs and snapped trees.  50+ year old trees.  The high bowl on the peak across the drainage had cut loose with a massive slide (I assume back during the January rain) which had demolished several football fields worth of (old) trees lower down, and accomplished the above with wind power only.  No evidence of debris was found.  The trail crews have some saw work to do.

Not only did we have the lake to ourselves, a fair amount of wet snowfall in the past few days and some nice solar radiation today had minor slides, sluffs, and significant rock and ice fall going off quite regularly.  The acoustics of the lake valley are exceptional.

All in all an excellent day.

At dinner tonight we talked about the first time I visiting Glacier, a good 20+ years ago, with the family on summer vacation.  What got me started doing all of this, without which I can’t even begin to imagine who and what I’d be like.  So fitting that I’d be able to show my mom a different side of this big place.