Where my water comes from

Today I decided to hike up a mountain to study several high altitude glaciers of the Ruby Range in the southwestern Rocky Mountains. I stayed next to the river that flowed through the valley for some time and continued my ascent eventually reaching an upward facing wall off rock. I had to climb with no harness up the face. I knew that one slip could be the end of me, but I pressed onward getting up and over the wall only to find a seemingly endless talus- field of rock with a nearly 55% -70% grade. I crawled up the mountain on my hands and knees slipping and sliding around. My body ached and I was dripping sweat from the hot sun on my neck. It seemed that two feet forward would result in one foot of sliding backward.
This went on for what felt like forever. I was exhausted, and the high mountain air had me gripped and gasping. Near the top now, I saw the white light at the end of the tunnel; the sun reflecting magnificently off the bright white snow at the top. I held my breath and put my arms into the air and screamed as loud as I could. I made it to the top of the high mountain glacier.
My view was magnificent, to the south, I could see all the way down valley, and to the north Marcellina Mountain and Dark Canyon loomed in the distance. I stayed on top the glacier and had lunch. I studied the quality of the snowpack, there was a significant amount of black dirt on the surface, but a quick swipe left the surface clean and white. This dust and soot that settles on the snow comes from loess (Ie; microscopic soot particles floating in the air column). It fly's throughout the air column and settles out onto the snow. These particles absorb heat waves rather well and accelerate the melting of the glaciers. This occurs because all substances have radiative reflectance and absorbance properties; soil, water, etc.., with snow having the highest reflectance property. It’s called the albedo effect which is the fraction of solar energy reflected from the Earth back into space. In other words, it is a measure of the reflectivity of the earth's surface. Ice, especially with bright white snow on top of it, has a highest albedo: causing most of the sunlight hitting the snowy surface to bounce back into space.
Areas that are heavily populated such as urban cities and industrial zones generate soot and dust, which causes the glaciers to melt faster, thus contributing to the loss of high mountain glaciers across the Rockies. It is important to note here with the progressive warming of the earth due to climate change, the ability of the Earth to send these powerful heat waves back into space will be diminished mainly due to less snow abundance. Radiative forcing or climate forcing is defined as the difference of insolation (sunlight) absorbed by the Earth and energy radiated back to space. Typically, radiative forcing is quantified at the troposphere in units of watts per square meter of the Earth's surface.
This glacier was relatively healthy still, thankfully. I packed up my things and continued. As I looked around I saw a large blue lake below me. Glacial in nature, no doubt, the large lake looked so enticing, for I was sweaty and hot. I found an easy way down to it. A feeling of connection to the hydrologic system I was entrenched in overwhelmed me. The high mountain glacier was melting directly into this perfectly clear bright blue lake! I decried that the lake would be named Lake Sapphire for its brilliant color. Though, I am sure it has already been named. It all made sense to me now how this system worked, as I looked down the Bright blue lake turned into a high mountain stream which followed the initial path I was on at the beginning of my journey. I guess I will follow it back down to my camp. The majority of the water here in the Upper Gunnison River Basin comes from snowmelt of high alpine glaciers that continuously melt throughout the summer to keep the rivers flowing. A healthy snowpack is essential to supply the towns below with fresh clean water. I have now seen the source of where my water comes from. Ever wonder where yours comes from?