"Kim Stanley Robinson - Sixty Days and Counting" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robinson Kim Stanley)

on it had been a mile thick.
тАЬMy friendтАЩs father was really into the trails on the island, and he took us out and
told us all about them,тАЭ Caroline said. тАЬAh ha.тАЭ She pointed at a rusted iron rod
protruding from a big slab of rock, about head high. She started up past it, using her
hands for balance and the occasional extra pull up. тАЬThis was the first one, he said.
ItтАЩs more of a marked route than a real trail. ItтАЩs not on the maps anymore. See,
thereтАЩs the next trail duck.тАЭ Pointing above.
тАЬAh yeah.тАЭ Frank followed, watching her. This was his Caroline. She climbed with a
sure touch. They had never done anything normal together before. She had talked
about being a bicyclist, going for runs. This slope was easy but steep, and in places
icy. A jock. Suddenly he felt the Caroline surge that had been there waiting in him all
along.
Then the dark rock reared up into a wall of broken battlements thirty or forty feet
high, one atop the next. Caroline led the way up through breaks in these walls,
following a route marked by small stacks of flat rocks. In one of these gullies the
bottom of the crack was filled with big flat stones set on top of each other in a rough
but obvious staircase; this was as much of a trail as Frank had yet seen. тАЬMaryтАЩs
father wouldnтАЩt even step on those stones,тАЭ Caroline said, and laughed. тАЬHe said it
would be like stepping on a painting or something. A work of art. We used to laugh
so much at him.тАЭ
тАЬI should think the guy who made the trail would like it to be used.тАЭ
тАЬYes, thatтАЩs what we said.тАЭ
As they ascended they saw three or four more of these little staircases, always
making a hard section easier. After an hour or so the slope laid back in a graceful
curve, and they were on the rounded top of the hill. Pemetic Mountain, said a
wooden sign on a post stuck into a giant pile of stones. 1,247 feet.
The top was an extensive flat ridge, running south toward the ocean. Its knobby bare
rock was interspersed with low bushes and sandy patches. Lichen of several
different colors spotted the bedrock and the big erratics left on the ridge by the
iceтАФsome granite, others schist. Exposed rock showed glacial scouring and some
remaining glacial polish. It resembled any such knob in the Sierra, although the
vegetation was a bit more lush. But the air had a distinct salt tang, and off to the
south was the vast plate of the ocean, blue as could be, starting just a couple miles
away at the foot of the ridge. Amazing. Forested islands dotted the water offshore;
wisps of fog lay farther out to sea. To the immediate right and left rose other
mountaintops, all rounded to the same whaleback shape. The peaks to both east and
west were higher than this one, and the biggest one, to the east, had a road running
up its side, and a number of radio towers poking up through its summit forest. The
ice cap had carved deep slots between the peaks, working down into fault lines in
the granite between each dome. Behind them, to the north, lay the forested low hills
of Maine, trees green over snowy ground.
тАЬBeautiful,тАЭ Frank said. тАЬItтАЩs mountains and ocean both. I canтАЩt believe it.тАЭ
Caroline gave him a hug. тАЬI was hoping you would like it.тАЭ
тАЬOh yes. I didnтАЩt know the East Coast had such a place as this.тАЭ
тАЬThereтАЩs nowhere else quite like it,тАЭ she said.
They hugged for so long it threatened to become something else; then they separated
and wandered the peak plateau for a while. It was cold in the wind, and Caroline
shivered and suggested they return. тАЬThereтАЩs a real trail down the northeast side, the
Ravine Trail. It goes down a little cut in the granite.тАЭ
тАЬOkay.тАЭ