more difficult

About a week ago, when we had snow but no Internet, we did the Mallard Lake trail. After a dusting of an inch or so of fresh powder we decided it was the perfect time to attempt this "more difficult" trek. The description said it rose 760 feet in elevation and featured a number of "side hills." Even though we didn't know what a "side hill" was, we decided to do it anyway.

To get to the trail head we headed down the two hills behind the Old Faithful Lodge. These bunny slopes had been part of our ski lesson and our (at least) my first attempts to go down them were not pretty. But, now, almost two months later, we glided down them with ease.

The trail starts in a heavily wooded area. As we zig-zagged through stands of lodgepole pines, it was like hiking with skis on. At the top of the first hill we had to cross a small creek on a fallen tree. After another uphill the trail opened up a bit

to allow us to get a glimpse of the slate gray ski. As we got to the top of the ridge, we reached an area scarred by the 1988 fires, the largest in the Park's recorded history, where small lodgepoles grow among charred trunks

From the top of the ridge, we dropped down into a gully

before making another climb to the top of the ridge using a variety of switchbacks that made us both comment that going down was sure going to be tougher than coming up.

From there we continued through a canyon (aka, "the bowl"),

where we found out exactly what a side hill was as we skied along the mountain edge with one ski higher up on the hill than the other for a good mile plus.

Once out of the bowl, we pushed on through another heavily forested area until we reached a small clearing which we at first thought was the lake. That was until we saw that the trail kept going along the side of the clearing, which turned out to be a meadow.

We continued on up and down hills till we finally reached a trail marker saying the lake was .2 miles ahead. From there it was all downhill, literally, to Mallard Lake, which sits at about 8,100 feet above sea level

Mallard Lake also sits atop the aptly named Mallard Lake Dome, a resurgent volcanic dome that is still growing due to an infusion of magma heating up groundwater and causing the ground to bulge. In other words, lava is usually hundreds of miles under the earth's surface, but around here it can be closer to 1o miles down. Gulp.

We had planned to eat at the lake but with the wind whipping off the icy surface making us colder than we had been all day, we decided just to boil water and let our camping food stew in my backpack for the required 10 minutes as we headed back to a warmer spot to eat.

Heading downhill, we started making good time and were back to the bowl before we had a chance to stop for lunch. You are suppose to drop into the canyon and have to take a quick right but I missed the turn.

My fall was graceful but not enough so to keep from sending Pad See You all over my backpack. (Two washings still haven't gotten the smell out.) We gathered ourselves and managed not topple into the canyon as we flew down the side hills before managing to stop at a fairly flat spot to finally eat.

Rejuvenated, we hit the trail again, enjoying the ups and downs that brought us to the top of the ridge and our first glimpse of a blue sky

Going down from there was our toughest challenge: the switchbacks, this time going down. The first couple turns proved doable but the final curve, called the "Mae West" came up too quick. The trail description says it is "not that big a deal when you're going uphill, but when you come back this way it will be an achievement if you can round Mae West without falling." Needless to say, we were not achievers on this day.

At least we knew that that was our final challenge of the day. From there we zipped down the long declines,

past the stream crossing and up the two bunny hills toward home. It may not have been perfect but we decided, in honor of Ms. West, any time we've got nothing to do - and lots of time to do it - we'll go on up to Mallard Lake.