Читать книгу The Replacement - Anne Duquette Marie - Страница 3

Dear Reader,

Many of you know that I love to write about my country’s national parks. Each park has its own traits—its own character. While some places are definitely “user-friendly,” others are not. The setting of this story, Yosemite Park in the dead of winter, can be formidable.

Yosemite is located in the four-hundred-mile-long Sierra Nevada. This is the main freshwater source for San Francisco and the Central Valley. But the huge volume of snow that ultimately provides water for California’s coastal population is also the scene of deadly winters. California isn’t all beaches and sunshine.

Only two parks in the United States have rangers who live in total isolation due to winter weather conditions. Yosemite is one; Alaska is the other. The heavy loss of life sustained by the Donner Party members is only one of many tragedies to occur in this snow-locked area. During the winter, these mountains are just as inaccessible today as they were in the 1840s, the time of the Donners.

I have taken some liberties by making the existing town of Lee Vining larger than it is and setting a fictional hospital, municipal airport and ranger office there. And in reality, Yosemite has only two rangers on duty in the winter, not four.

Today’s rangers must be mentally and physically self-sufficient to survive in a winter climate so harsh that—as in the Antarctic—even snowmobiles and helicopters can’t be relied upon. Rangers must also be able to protect and, if needed, rescue any visitors to the parks. Rangers who hold these jobs are very special people.

I hope you enjoy my story about Lindsey Nelson and Eric Kincaide. Welcome to winter in Yosemite! (And please visit my Web site at www.annemarieduq.com.)

Anne Marie