My Favourite Burnt Tree

Mrs Grizzly and I were snowshoeing along a trail in Tweedsmuir Park at East Branch today when my wife abruptly proclaimed, "I think this is my favourite burnt tree".  It brought me to a quick stop and got my mind off my dry walling job I was thinking about.  I had to back track to see what she was talking about.  I have to admit I hadn't paid it much attention, but she's correct, it is a beautiful old burnt tree.  It was a victim of the 2009 Heckman Pass Wildfire, and is one of the less common but beautufil Whitebark Pine trees (search "Whitebark Pine" in my blog for previous posts).  You can really see the unique form they take after growing for several hundred years.  I agreed with her - it's now "My Favourite Burnt Tree" as well.

Winter hasn't really been a winter thought at East Branch.  We barely have two feet of snow at the Highway 20 gauge in the pass and those two feet are soft and fluffy, you can't even step far off a packed trail in snowshoes without sinking down almost to the ground.  Time is not on winter's side any longer - there would have to be several snowfalls of more than a couple feet each to catch up.  Grizzly