Jasper's Lac Beauvert - Friday 2013 April 26

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I am sitting on a rustic bench on the shore of Lac Beauvert, listening to the crickle-crackle of the ice as a gentle wave-action fractures and melts it. Stars made from ice-glitter mark the fragility of cold ice on a warm spring day. In this sheltered spot, the wind rattles the high tree-tops. Far in the distance across the lake, wapiti call in their eerie bird-like song. Framing the background, the mountains sit in ponderous weight, lighted by glaciers shining where the dark snow-laden clouds part. Across every vista, busy honking Canada geese pursue their next pasture of greens released from the water.

This morning about 7:15, Deirdre and I walked briskly around the lake - a beloved pastime of visitors to Jasper Park Lodge. We enjoyed the freedom of movement of our strides along the familiar path, which dips and rises, close and away from the shore. Subtle changes in the forest renew the walk each year. Tall trees suddenly have succumbed to the forces of decay and now lie broken across the trail, providing a new universe for tiny insects and microscopic beings. Our lungs expand with the fresh clean air, hardly cooled overnight. The lake ice, almost solid when we arrived last night, has split along crack lines, retreating to leave only the thick centre and the thin shoreline still glazed.

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