Troydropped back to stay out of Alec's vapor cloud as they now glidedsmoothly and easily along the trail. A bright red metal pole, toppedby a small housing and antenna came into view on the side of the road.The tube went down through the snow and deep into the soil of themountain side. Inside, electrostats read soil moisture at depths up tothirty feet and transmitted the information on automatic or demandsignal.
Ahead, the vapor cloud from Alec's Sno car vanished as the traildipped down the side of the mountain and the driver cut his thrust tolet the momentum carry him on the twin set of skis. Troy gunned hiscar for a final burst of speed then cut rear drive and droppedswoopingly down the grade, whipping along in Alec's tracks. The trailcurved sharply ahead and Troy gently manipulated the front fork skisinto a snowplow to cut speed. His fingers rested lightly on thepressure switch that would open small scoops on the under surfaces ofall skis for additional braking power. As a final resort, the enginethrust could be shifted from rear to forward reaction to bring him toa complete stop and even send the car backwards.
* * * * *
The Sno car whipped around and down the trail. As the roadway swung tothe south slope of the range, the track in the fresh snow cut by thelead vehicle turned dark gray and then almost black. When the presentstorm had ended and before new snow fell again, the south slopes wouldagain be stained with clouds of black, mono-molecular film, gushingout in clouds behind spray jets of the survey planes. Each successivelayer was treated, lessening the evaporative surface effects of thesun upon the south slopes and holding as much of the moisture-givingsnow to the earth for controlled runoff. A pair of fresh elk-trackscame down the side of the mountain and cut across the trail and Troybraked to peer through the trees for a glimpse of the animals. Butthey had vanished, frightened by the sudden intrusion of the men.
A half hour later and four thousand feet lower, the trail joined awider and more traveled road. Alec turned onto the road and increasedspeed. A few minutes later, the Sno cars flashed by a sign reading"Elk City--4 miles." Alec cut speed and waited for Troy to pullalongside, then the two cars glided slowly to the edge of thewilderness community. At the outskirts of the little town the snow onthe road came to an abrupt end. Chemically-treated paving kept theroadways warm and bare of snow. Ahead, the pavement into town was wetand glistening and even falling snow had stopped. Rear skis were againretracted and the front wheels lowered for non-snow driving and thenthe two vehicles rumbled slowly into Elk City.
They came to a halt at the ranger station and dismounted.
"Let's call for a taxi and then go for a cup of coffee and anotherbite," Troy said. "I'm starved again."
"You and that hollow stomach to match your head," Alec grunted.
They entered the ranger station. Behind the counter, one of the fourrangers on permanent duty at the station was transferring a radarstorm plot onto a weather chart. He glanced up as the two men entered.
"Back so soon," he commented. "That was a quick trip. Get the jobdone?"
"Neither rain, snow or sun stops the Division of Agriculture in itsappointed rounds," Troy said flippantly. "Harry, call Spokane and tell'em we're ready for a pickup, please."
The ranger reached for a mike. "Spokane Region," he called, "this isElk City station."
"This is Spokane," came the reply.
"Your two snow boys are here," Harry said, "looking for a lift. Canyou send a 'copter after them?"
"Affirmative, Elk City," Spokane communicator replied. "We'll pickthem up in about forty-five minutes."
"Thanks, Harry," Troy said. "We're going to take a walk uptown and getsomething to eat. If the chopper should get here sooner, tell himwe'll be right back."
"O.K.," the ranger said, "but there's a pot of coffee on the stove inthe kitchen if you want to save yourself the walk."
Alec grimaced. "I had a cup of that concentrated sulphuric acid youcall coffee on the way up," he said. "No thanks, anyway. What do youmake that stuff out of? Leftover road oil?"
"Man's drink for a real man," the ranger grinned. "Us forestry menlearn to make coffee from pine pitch. Makes a man outta you."
"Huh," Alec sniffed as they turned to leave, "pine pitch is just sapand anyone who'd drink that stuff deserves the name--'sap' that is."
The ranger grinned as the hydrologists walked out.
* * * * *
Troy and Alec were walking back up the street to the station when thebig cargo copter settled down to the pad at the rear of the station.They hurried their pace and got to their Sno cars. By the time theyhad driven around to the pad, the copter crew had lowered the ramp andthey drove directly up and into the craft. A row of front-wheel racksstudded the after wall of the cargo deck and Troy and Alec nosed theirSno cars into the racks. By the time they had cut power and climbedout, the crewmen had cargo locks on both vehicles.
The crew chief closed the ramp and punched a signal button. As Troyand Alec climbed up the gangway to the crew-passenger deck, the bigjet rotors were already churning and the copter lifted into the againlightly falling snow.
The hydrologists settled into seats for the short ride to Spokane. Thecopter swung to the northwest, roaring a thousand feet above thesnow-covered mountain tops. They soared over the Clearwater River thatflowed to its confluence with the once-mighty Snake River at Lewistonwhere both vanished into a subterranean aqueduct. As they nearedSpokane, the country began to flatten out into the great Columbiabasin, where once nearly a fifth of the nation's entire electricaloutput was produced in a series of hydroelectric dams on the greatriver and its tributaries. A century ago, high tension powertransmission lines and towers laced the face of the nation, carryingpower from the waterways to the wheels of industry and cities hundredsof miles away. Like the dams, they, too, were gone and each industryand metropolis and village generated its own power with compactnuclear reactors.
The copter dropped down into an airways lane as it came over the edgeof the suburbs of Greater Spokane. The air lane followed almostdirectly above one of the crowded ten-lane North American ContinentalThruways that cut five-mile wide swaths across the continent fromFairbanks to the southern borders of Mexico; from San Francisco toWashington, D.C., and from Montreal to Vancouver.
As the chopper settled down over the heliport at Region Sixheadquarters, Troy and Alec climbed back down to the cargo deck andwent to their Sno cars. On the ground, the ramp came down and theydrove out of the copter and across the pad towards Snow HydrologySection's motor park. The Sno cars were parked in the garage for aservice check and with their ruckpacs slung over one shoulder, theyheaded for the offices.
The prominent peak of Mount Spokane north of the city gleamedintermittently as the sun began to break through the remnants of thestorm now blowing away to the east.
"I hope I don't get transferred out of the Region," Alec said moodilyas he surveyed the distant mountain.
"Why should you?" Troy asked.
"You never know what's going to happen when you step up a notch," Alecreplied. "You know that both of us are due for grade promotionsometime this year to senior status. Depends on how many Grade Onesenior hydrologists they need in the Region."
"Snow is snow," Troy shrugged. "It doesn't really make that muchdifference to me. If they want me to move, I'll move."
"It's doesn't make much difference to you," his partner said, "becauseyou're not married yet. But with Carol and Jimmy, it makes a lot ofdifference to me. It's bad enough living like we do here, jamming inagainst five hundred other families in the complex. The only thingthat makes it worthwhile is the chance to get away from the city withthe family on our days off. I want that kid of mine to know what realcountry looks and feels like. God help him if I should get transferredback east."
"You could always resign," Troy said half seriously.
Alec stopped dead in his tracks and turned to stare at him. "Are youout of your mind," he cried. "Resign from this for what? For thechance to be buried in a city or a bureau for the rest of my
life?Never to see the mountains except on rare vacations and then with aguide on my back? Never to see a river flowing or fight a trout? Havemy kid grow up with his only knowledge of the woods from history bookswith an occasional trip to the zoo to see what a deer or elk lookslike. I'd rather half-starve as an autologger operator in some gyppotimber camp than live like that."
"I was just kidding," Troy said. "When it comes right down to it, Iwouldn't be happy away from this either. Come on, let's check in withthe 'Scourge of the Northwest.'"
At SHS headquarters, they dropped their ruckpacs by the door and Alecfished the faulty