“Fantastic!”
The man’s first day in the
mountains of Whatcom County was already memorable. Cold despite the best gear available, he
looked forward to camp at Glacier Creek; the hot fire, a warm tent, hot food,
and whiskey would be welcome.
“Snap!” A strut folded. The snowmobile tumbled over the edge of a 200’
downslope, the man hanging on for dear life only to be flung away; the machine
continuing on, finally smashing against the root-ball of a fallen forest giant.
Consciousness! Cold!
So Cold! Dark! Struggling to stand! Falling hard; the fiery
pain of a broken leg.
Conscious again. Had it been all night?
The man slid down to the
snowmobile. The buzz of distant engines!
Wishing he’d stuck to the well-marked trails he’d been told to follow! No one would look for him here! Just one chance!
The leaking gasoline ignited instantly,
fierce heat immolating the root-ball.
Flame and smoke shot into the air.
“They’ll see that!” the man exalted.
Finally! A chopper!
A rescuer winched down.
“Hey buddy, you’re in big
trouble.”
“Tell me about it!”
“Whatever. Sign here.”
“What’s this?”
“Citations, summons, stuff
like that; Forest Service, Northwest Air Pollution NOAA, EPA, Ecology, bunch of
others; burning without a permit, potentially endangering wildlife, air
pollution, ground contamination, other things.
Come on, sign, I gotta get out of here, storm’s coming!.”
“What about me?”
“Maybe the next chopper. Bunch of environmental groups are flying in
to serve you with papers for a lawsuit. Maybe
they’ll have room.”
