A Pied Piper on Snowshoes

A Pied Piper on Snowshoes

Thirty first-graders shuffle snowshoes along Glacier National Park’s Apgar Nature Trail, as quiet as the snowshoe hare they are tracking, following a pied piper in a National Park Service uniform.

“If we’re very quiet,” Ranger Brian McKeon of West Glacier, Mont., whispers, “we may see whitetail deer.”

Stealthy as wolves, the 6-year-olds step in the track made by the snowshoer ahead. It’s a cadenced march until one youngster stops. A fender bender of three puffy-coated kids smashes, bashes, and crashes. Down they go, silence broken by laughter.

“This is fun,” says Whitefish, Mont., student Michela Millette on the Muldown Elementary School field trip. “The ranger told us that some of the animals hibernate, like the bears.”

Each winter, 2,000 students from northwest Montana spend a day with McKeon exploring the wintry world of the 1.2 million-acre national park. High school biology students learn that an entire world—called subnivean—exists under the snow for tunneling voles, mice, and insects. Younger students explore the world above the snow. All travel aboard snowshoes.

Now in its 10th season, the Winter Signs program has evolved from a few class visits to an entire winter ecology program. It started with a grant from the Glacier Natural History Association and a donation from Little Bear Snowshoes Co., and the park service offers the program free to schools.

Before field trips, older students collect and record temperatures above and below the snow, then study temperature’s effects on wildlife. Younger students make dioramas and learn words such as hibernation, adaptation, and migration. And, they play games.

“You three kids can remove your snowshoes,” the ranger instructs. “You are predators, the wolves. Everyone else is a snowshoe hare, and we’ll play tag.”

As if the pied piper’s flute hit high C, the high-pitched squeals blend into a chorus of giggles. They dash. They dart. They dance around and past the “predators.”

“I can’t catch anybody,” says one boy who keeps sinking in the 3-feet-deep snow.

“That’s how snowshoe hare get away from predators,” says the ranger. “Why do we wear snowshoes?” About half the kids raise hands. “So we can stay on top,” says a girl missing two front teeth.

“That’s right, on top of the snow. A predator like a wolf or coyote sinks and has a difficult time in deep snow. Look at your snowshoe print in the snow. Does it look like any tracks we’ve seen today?”

“Snowshoe hare,” several children shout.

“Yes. Who can tell me which of our three new words applies to the snowshoe hare?”

“Adaptation!” they cheer.

“He certainly knows how to teach kids,” says first-grade teacher Anne Audet. “Some kids have never been to Glacier Park even though we’re only 35 miles away.” The children gain understanding of the park’s winter world, while getting outside on snowshoes and traveling through the woods.

“Even kids who have a difficult time in the classroom have a great time out here,’’ she says.

Best of all, the children retain an understanding of winter existence.

“They take home the fact the Glacier is unique, not your typical park with swing sets,” says Joe Decker, the district naturalist who created Winter Signs.

McKeon learns from the students, too. “Why do beaver lodges have a hole in the roof?” he asks the kids as they spot a beaver’s stick home.

“For Santa Beaver!” whispers a 7-year-old.

“Each kid takes home something slightly different,” the ranger laughs.

Mac Bones, a Bigfork High School student, says his fellow students all remembered something about their trip.

“Whether it was about subnivean mammals or the 15-minute snowball fight, I’m not sure. But any day outside is better than a day in school.”

Jean Arthur, author of five adventure and travel books, writes and photographs from her Montana home.

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