Photo: Lake Bowman, Glacier NP

The lake is always pretty, but in the winter it is serene, silent, secretive. No yapping boaters, no shrill financial analysis, none of the noise Montanans regard as the worst of all the imported pollutions. The larch trees shimmer yellow, the sky is massive,a nd everything is chill. There are loons and grizzlies, peaks and timber cracked by lightning on the water's edge. You can stand anywhere on the shore in November and hear the motors whirring in your brain, the blood pulsing in your veins. Silence is a seductive sound.