South Fork Flathead River, Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex – a favorite place.
(Photo: Sigma DP2)

I got a message this morning from a PR agency in San Francisco that I started my day off with a good laugh:

“Now that the weather has finally warmed up for good, it’s time to head outdoors!”

I had to laugh because the view out my window today was awfully … white.

Spring snow always gives me a chuckle because of the irony it brings to the landscape. Yesterday, Stephanie and I took our first spring walk in the Bridger Mountains and found arrowleaf balsamroot and shooting stars in bloom.

Today, those same flowers are buried.

But as much as the spring flowers yesterday offered hope of a new hiking season, so too did today’s snow remind me that accessing my favorite places by foot and packraft is still a ways off.