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MOUNT BAKER:
Wesley stops his Hummer in the parking lot of the Ranger Station, shuts off the engine, then climbs down and walks around his trailer and the yellow snow cat. He turns around when he hears the front door of the station open and close and sees Jamie smiling as she comes over and stares up at the snow cat.
“Is this yours, Wesley?”
“That’s right.”
“I saw it through the window. Why did you bring it here?”
“I found a fumarole and another new hot spring, so I’m going up to inspect the glaciers. I just wanted to let you folks know where I’m going. If I’m not back in four hours, you might want to send someone to look for me.”
“I’ve never been in a snow cat. Can I go with you?”
“You’re in uniform, so you must be working right now.” He sees the disappointment in her eyes. “I’ll take you for a ride when we get some snow.” She smiles and grabs his arm, pulling him toward the station. “What are you doing, Jamie?”
“You’ll see. You need a permit, right?”
“No, I don’t.”
“I know they always let you slide because this is your mountain, but there are rules.”
“Why are you calling it my mountain?”
“On my first day, Larry thought since I was new to the park service I needed to learn how this one operates. He gave me a list to memorize. Fourth item on the list of do’s and don’ts. This mountain belongs to Wesley Patterson, so leave him alone.”
Wesley doesn’t know what to say until she smiles. “I get it. You’re pulling my leg, right?”
“We need to talk to Larry.”
He follows her into the building and past the front wooden counter, then through the open doorway into the office of his friend, Larry Cobb, the park supervisor. “How you doing, Larry?”
“Good. Jamie showed me the hot spring at the campground. What’s going on?”
Wesley explains what he knows, leaving out the details about the alien device. “I’m on my way up to check the damage to the glaciers. This ranger lady says I need a permit.”
Larry looks at Jamie. “Rule four, remember?”
“I know, but I was thinking that if he doesn’t have a permit, I have to go with him as a representative for the park.”
“What?”
“Come on, Larry. I really want to go with Wesley. This way I’m still doing my job.”
Larry shrugs his shoulders and looks at the big man. “Are you sure you want her along?”
Wesley hesitates and looks at her. “I didn’t invite her in the first place.” He watches her mouth open slightly as she stares at him. “Get your hiking gear, Ms. Park Representative.”
Jamie smiles. “I need to go to my locker. I’ll be right back.”
Wesley looks at Larry. “You should start moving people out of the park.”
“Is it that bad?”
“It’s not an emergency yet, but if the melting continues, they need to go home before the streams rise and the roads wash out. I’ll have a better timeframe once I see how bad the glaciers are melting.” He turns when Lisa steps into the office, carrying a light blue backpack.
Jamie smiles. “I’m all set. Let’s go.” She spins around and walks out of the office.
Wesley turns to Larry. “I’ll bring her back and let you know what we find.”
Wesley leaves the building and sees Jamie climbing onto the trailer and up to the snow cat.
Jamie opens the side door and tosses her backpack inside, then jumps down onto the asphalt and smiles at Wesley. “Ready when you are.”
“Jump in and I’ll show you my mountain.” Once they are in the Hummer, he drives out of the parking lot.
He pulls the trailer along the old logging roads for nearly two hours before he is forced to stop. A swollen stream has washed out the road across the bottom of a canyon, and there is no other road up to the glaciers.
“If I didn’t have the trailer, I could drive through the water, but we need the snow cat on the glaciers.
Jamie stares through the front window at the stream. “Are you going to be able to turn around?”
“I’m afraid not. Let’s find out how deep it is.”
They climb out of the Hummer and walk to the edge of the rushing water. “Is this because of the melting glaciers, Wesley?”
“That’s right.”
“How much farther until we reach them?”
“An hour’s drive, if we had a road, maybe forty-five minutes if we follow this stream up the mountain.”
“All right. Let me get my backpack.”
“I saw you put it in the snow cat.”
“That’s right.”
“Help me with the ramps, so I can back it off the trailer.”
“Ah, you’re kidding, right? You’re going to cross the stream in the snow cat?”
“No, we’re going to drive it up the stream.”
“I can see why they call this your mountain, Wesley. I never realized you could travel in a snow cat without snow. By the way, I really want to thank you for bringing me along. I’ve seen some beautiful areas that no tourist will see.”
“My pleasure. There’s more to come, so let’s get started.”
Fifteen minutes later, Jamie’s hands tighten on the padded armrests as the front of the snow cat dips into the water, and it looks as though it will rush in through the front window. When the cat levels out and crawls upstream, she smiles at Wesley. “That’s the most exciting thing I’ve ever done.”
“That was the easy part.”
For the next forty minutes, it’s like being on a weird rollercoaster and Jamie holds tight to the armrests. At times, the rubber seal around the doors is all that’s stopping the water from flooding into the cab.
Wesley glances over at Jamie, as the front of the snow cat becomes nearly vertical climbing up over a small waterfall. He sees although her hands might leave permanent indentations in the padded armrests, she’s still grinning.
The front of the cat flops down over the top and crawls across a wide-open expanse of smooth round stones brought down by the glacier. Jamie points through the window at the wide vertical face of light blue ice, one mile away. “There it is, Wesley. It’s beautiful.”
A knot forms in Wesley’s stomach when he sees how far the glacier has receded since his last visit. “Let’s take a closer look.”
Wesley continues driving up the wide stream, across the loose gravel, and stops fifty-feet from the face of the glacier. “Oh, crap.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Let’s get out and I’ll show you what’s going on.”
They climb down from the cat, finding the air outside pleasantly warm. They walk along the wide stream of water flowing from beneath the glacier, and stop in front of the twelve-foot-tall, by thirty-foot-wide opening into a massive ice cave.
Wesley waves his hand across the opening. “This is worse than I thought, Jamie. The glacier has been melted by heat radiating from the ground. Let’s see how far back this goes.”
“Do you think it’s safe?”
“I believe so. It’s melted, not fractured. Come on.”
She points up at the translucent blue ice inside the cave. “It’s raining in there. You’ve got a hat, I don’t.”
“Stay out from the center and you’ll be fine.”
“If you say so, but I’m not buying it.”
“You can stay here, if you like.”
“Are you kidding? Where you go I go. You first.”
Wesley admires her fearless attitude as he enters they ice cave.