Walking through the woods

As I walk down the path from Glacier Spit to Glacier Lake, I always try to stop at the location in the top photograph. Whether it’s cloudy or sunny, the bright green moss always seems to illuminate the path through the spruce. The spacing of the trees often allows for dappled light. As the trees continue to grow, they will eventually block the sun that currently makes its way through their trunks. Fifty years ago, they would have barely shaded the ground.

The tree in the lower photo makes a statement about perseverance. Occasionally, trunks snap due to high winds or heavy snow loads. When this happens, the tree can turn one of its limbs into the new trunk. This spruce turned six of its limbs into new trunks, and now they all reach toward the sky.

Forests tell stories that are longer than human lives. It’s always difficult for us to connect in a meaningful way with the environment as it was before and how it will be after us; we often base our perception on the baseline of the world as we came to know it when we came into it. Walking through the woods gives us an opportunity to peer into the past and future.