Ten Years to a Glacier

November 2012 and the glacier's face, its very terminus, dipped into the water from the moraine on the western side all the way to a rock cliff on the east, not far from the water fall. The ice caves were an afternoon hike across the peninsula and a short walk back across the lake in perfect, frozen conditions. From the trail on the east side, the glacier was visible from every view point as well as from the sand bar by the falls below.

I stood at the east side trail vistas in the summers before thinking that one day I won't be able to see it anymore. That day has come even faster than I imagined, quicker than scientists initially predicted. The east glacier trail is really just a lakeside trail now. I have no idea where - or if - any ice caves still exist. If they do, it would be a much longer, treacherous hike up new, exposed rock cliffs on the west side. The terminus is just barely in the water, a fraction of what it used to be, and they say we'll no longer be able to see it by 2050. The cliff face now extends all the way to the eastern extent. And worse, you can no longer see the glacier from the falls. That thought hadn't even crossed my mind until it happened.

I wish I'd known the glacier when it filled valley, before there was a lake, before the view from the falls vanished only to be replaced by icebergs floating in the lake that are really just remnants for a final viewing before the funeral and cremation.