I've never been an exceptionally lucky person, but today I considered myself the luckiest person alive. The day didn't start out on the luckiest foot considering the fact that we woke up to find our camp site had been invaded during the night by a pack of stray dogs who ate most of our food. However, it was a small hitch in an otherwise great early day of riding.

We left East Glacier and made our way along the southern edge of Glacier National Park toward the Continental Divide and our final destination of West Glacier. Today was definitely what i would consider the perfect day of riding. The combination of bluebird skies and the perfect temperature, on top of a steady downhill ride through what I think is one of the most beautiful places on Earth, made me feel like the luckiest person anywhere.

When we arrived in West Glacier, we met with Dan Fagre, an expert on the effects of global climate change on mountain ecosystems. He told us about how, worldwide, 50% of water used by the human population comes from mountain ecosystems, (85% in the western U.S.) and that these systems are experiencing 2-3 times the warming of other areas. The result of warming in these areas would be at least half as much water for the people who rely on glaciers and snowpack. Fagre told us about his recent trip to Nepal, where they expect all the permanent snow and ice to be gone by 2050. Because of their sensitivity to climate and warming, glaciers are great measures of the effects of climate change. The Park researchers have noted the increased melt rates recently, evidenced by studies of 25 of the original 150 park glaciers still in existence. They have measured a 1.7m ice loss each summer from every glacier in the last several years. Fagre said,” The glaciers are essentially rotting,” because they are no longer structurally sound, in most cases.

Climate change is causing some other ill-effects in Glacier such as conifer trees encroaching on alpine meadows, which are a necessary food source for many animals, like the mountain goat. Forest fires are also becoming more prevalent, in part, due to a drier climate. Also, avalanches are becoming less frequent because of reduced snowpack and earlier spring melting, which is bad news for animals who rely on avalanche-cleared areas for food and travel, such as grizzly bears.

All of these negative effects taking place in Glacier would make one consider the Park and its inhabitants unlucky. However, Fagre notes some light at the end of the glacier-free tunnel when he says,”One of the neat things about research is that we have learned a lot... out of that knowledge will come the knowledge of how to adapt to these changes.” He is hopeful that research efforts within the Park will help workers understand how to manage the changes within the Park. Fagre acknowledges the fact that the solution will be difficult, but doable.

I like to think that I was lucky to experience a day like today, but in reality, I put myself here by signing up for this amazing opportunity. It was my decisions that allowed me to have a day like today. In the same respect, it isn't unlucky what is happening in Glacier National Park. What is happening there is a result of our actions and decisions, as a society, to continue to use a form of energy that is warming the planet at an alarming rate. We now need to make new decisions and take new actions to fix this. And even if everything can't go back to exactly the way it was Fagre says,”I always like to tell people it's still going to be a beautiful place.”

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