Today we wish winter could last forever or at least until King Salmon season.  After weeks of thawing days followed by freezing nights the moraine snow pack offers unlimited access to seldom seen places. It will soften in this strong sunlight but not before Aki and I can take one last stroll through the beaver lands.

First we cut through the Troll Woods where morning sun once again infuses tree moss with vivid green light. Aki almost runs out of patience waiting for me to abandon efforts to capture it with the camera. Rather than frustrate, my failure pleases. There is still some beauty capable of defeating digital machines and may only be  captured by the human eye. 

We find what looks like the twisted remains of a child’s plush toy fashioned into a small rug. It’s the frozen scat of a wolf who recently enjoyed rabbit for dinner.

The troll trail skirts some small lakes covered with ice that has captured the tips of shoreline alders. Greedy for light, the trees reached out over the lake in summer and remained too long. Heavy winter snows bent their tops under water to be captured by rapidly freezing water. It will take weeks of warm weather to win their freedom.

At the edge of the woods we drop down onto the flat beaver country and abandon the trail for a chance to move among the standing dead spruce to Mendenhall Lake.     With Mt. McGinnis as our guide we pass through the desolated country where only the stubborn willows have a chance to grow. Where exposed to full sun the ice is pockmarked by deep sided holes made by leaves or twigs that fell there during the winter. We find the grave of a small alder branch that it dug with the help of the sun. 

After rejoining the main trail we pass the massive two tiered beaver dam complex that provided so much transformation. Only a small trickle of water seeps out from underneath the last dam to only partially fills a winding stream flowing toward the lake. The once navigable watercourse is now too small to capture the glacier’s reflection.  It can only mirror the tips of two Mendenhall Towers.