Golden

They arrived at Golden in the late evening, following the Kicking Horse river, a high plains stream that often broke into multiple paths only to go join up again at a bend or a narrow. The name, Kicking Horse, had a historical anecdote to the early explorers of the place. A series of snow capped mountain peaks arranged in a straight line greeted them. It was a magical hill town surrounded by half a dozen of the most picturesque national parks in Canada – Banff, Glacier, Jasper, Kootenay, Mount Revelstoke and Yoho. They had seen most of those parks in different years and in different times. On this trip, Neil had planned to cover Yoho, Kootenay and a bit of Banff National Parks. To their west lay Yoho, and the small town of Field, north of which was the famous stone quarries at the slopes of the Burgess mound, known as the Burges Shale fossil deposit sites.

They had checked into an Inn with their room overlooking the gorgeous mountain range to the south-west. Neil did not know or remember the names of all the hills and did not carry any backpack map, but the view facing their room was spectacular. It comprised of a mountain range whose slope westward, towards the town of Golden was carved into several deep and parallel ravines. What forces created that landscape, Neil did not fully understand, but these features made him think. He could see, clearly, that men had made mountain roads leading half way up some of that slope, the steepness causing them to zig zag the unpaved road that was dusted in snow cover that was clearly melting away in April. There were tell tale signs of landslide and avalanche, where soil and small rocks had tumbled down and landed in a heap at the base of the steep hills. The roads were likely out of bounds at this season, but might have been open for the right vehicles when the snow was firm, so folks to ski or skate or use snow mobiles. In the summer, those roads should be navigable with all terrain or all wheel drive vehicles, for some spectacular landscape viewing. Right now, they were in a transition season, not cold enough and the snow gone soft but heavy for the unmaintained mountain road. According to the girl at the reception, the show on those roads can be more than a meter deep and would bury most vehicles, hence the road was closed now.

Mabel had gone into the bathroom to freshen up. They had planned to go walkabout in the small hill town, and eventually find a place to have a bite before settling for the night. They planned to head straight into the Yoho National park hills early in the morning after a hefty breakfast. Most of the days, they would skip lunch but carry a fruit and some snacks with them, and a jug of coffee.
Neil relaxed in the settee overlooking the large window and put his feet up on the low table. He tried out the TV, but did not like the shows and switched it off. The room was cool but not cold, so they kept the air conditioning off.
He watched as the light began to fade and the horizontal strips of cloud in the eastern sky turned from orange tinged to gray and then to grayish blue. The sun had set behind them in the west, and it reflected in the eastern sky before him.
“I like the pensive look on you”.
Neil turned his head away from the window. Mabel had emerged, and was drying her hair in a towel. She had another big bath towel wrapped around her. She had pale skin. Neil had noticed through his years of traveling around and meeting folks, that the so called white people, were actually more colored, than the so called colored people, or the Africans.
The issue of race, he now understood, was a non-science. Genetically, most people were quite mixed up, and the racial distinction of features, skin color, shape of nose and eyes, type of hair etc were very recent adaptation of the anatomically modern man, most likely to suit their surroundings. It could also be a certain kind of dominant gene pushed certain populations towards adopting some specific features more strongly.
Anyhow, he had learned that the so called white people could come in different shades, and none of them really white. In his mind, the Mongoloid race, or people of China and surroundings, were perhaps more uniformly pale skinned, and should have been the “white race” instead of the yellow. And the white people should have been the “colored race”. A white man from southern Italy was darker than is own father, from Bengal, India. But a real pale skinned northerner, or a red haired Irish person or a freckled European with colorless eyelashes were the other extreme.
Mabel was not quite that extreme. She did not have freckles, but her skin was paler, her hair was light and her eyes were different shades of green, gray or light blue, depending on the light.
“I like the fresh pinkish look on you” he ended up saying.
Mabel acknowledged the compliment. “What were you pensive about ?”
“Ohh, this and that. I am often pulled by two opposing feelings. One is a sense of joy and pleasure from seeing beautiful landscapes, rivers, animals, birds or stories of the people and animals that once lived here.”
He stopped, and considered his feelings.
“And the other ?” Mabel started drying her hair using a dryer that the Inn had provided.
“The other – is a sense of dissatisfaction, a sense of betrayal. Human civilization as we know it, has let us down, and we are destroying the planet and pushing our species towards doom.”
Mabel watched him somberly. “I can clearly see your positive side. It is a pleasure to just hear you talk about your wonder on this or that item about Canada, about other lands, about the flora and fauna, and about evolution and stuff.”
“And the other side is not a pleasure ?”
Mabel sat down on the bed, still tending to her hair and looking over at him.
“The other side is shows a lot more deeper and darker feelings, justifiable and well thought out, but pickled with a tinge of resignation and fatalism.”
“Fatalism?”
“Well, you do believe that man will bring his own world down. Right ?”
Neil nodded, and got up. “Yes, I do believe that, but it is not a matter of faith or premonition. Man has left tell tale signs of destruction on his path every since he evolved into a being separate from others. Even in our collective genetic history, we share traits with other animals that would, if possible, overdo things till life became unsustainable. But as our ancestors, we were incapable, more or less, to cause maximum damage to the ecology that the modern man can. Do not forget, many of the mega-fauna of the world at the end of the last ice age perished when they came into contact with their first humans. Today they find fossils and permafrost remains of mastodons and wooly mammoth, with clear sign of them being killed or butchered by humans. Same for giant ground sloths, giant flightless birds etc. And we know what happened to the American passenger pigeon or the bison.
“Buffalo ?”
Neil nodded – “Bison”.
Mabel brushed her hair, put on lipstick, and slipped into a fresh set of clothes. Neil got up and moved into the bathroom, to clean up himself. He left the door open, so they could discuss.
“You were talking about the flightless cormorant?” Mabel said.
“I was? When?”
“Earlier today. You know – comparing humans with lemmings or the flightless cormorants?”
“Ahh, yes. The Flightless Cormorants of the Galapagos islands show a curious behavior when faced with the danger of marine iguanas coming to steal their eggs.”
“Really ? What do they do ?”
“Well, we have not fully understood how much of an animals behavior is instinctive in its genes and how much is from rational analysis of situations using their brains etc. We know however, that man is a relatively very brainy creature, but we still have instincts that prompt us to reflexively do things without thinking, when we perceive danger, or example. The same goes for birds. Somethings many of their behavior is coded into their genes and their brains might be incapable of handling situations that they have no program for.”
“Explain please”
Neil adjusted the water in the shower and stepped into the warm stream of water. A soft envelope of steam gathered around him. It felt good to just stand in the warm shower.
“Marine iguanas are not the swiftest of land animals. They come up the rocky slopes ponderously, towards the nest of these birds. The birds themselves are not exactly tiny and they have a beak that could be considered sharp. They could, I think, easily try to fight the iguanas, snapping at their tails and even drawing blood. Usually a female will go to any length to protect its babies, even face great danger.”
“Yes, or course”
“But, not the flightless cormorants of the Galapagos”
“No ?”
“No”
“Why not?”
“I don’t have the answer, but I can guess. Living on an island that had no natural predator, the cormorants eventually lost the ability to fly. That same evolutionary adaptation might have also removed the genes that are inherent in cormorants and most other creatures elsewhere – to fierce protect its eggs, chicks and babies.”
“Ohh. So what do they do, when the iguanas come?”
They stand next to the nest, watch the iguanas slowly eat the eggs, and tuck their beaks into their own feather – a sign of confusion, I think.”
“How terrible”.
“Well, thats actually evolution. Given sufficient time, lie a thousand generations more of evolution, if the cormorants do not go extinct, and are not overly protected by man, and if the iguanas too do not go extinct, then it is likely that the Galapagos cormorants of the future would show ability to deal with this new threat to their survival.”
Neil stepped out of the shower, and grabbed a second large towel.
“Hmm, and why did you compare us with them ?”
“What ?”
“You know, lemmings and the flightless cormorants ?”
“Ahh” Neil chuckled. “I was mentioning how people know we are heading in the wrong direction and still ignore it, hoping that the real bad times may come after they are already dead, so the next generation may deal with it. A vast number of others are simply ignorant. Others do not wish to know, since there is no good solution to it. In short, the world remains in denial, and is unable to deal with an impending crisis. In that, I thought their behavior resembles that of the flightless cormorants of Galapagos, when faced with the danger of seeing their future babies killed by a slow moving menace. We too are sacrificing our children’s future to a slow moving menace. But in our case, the menace is our own creation.”
“And this bothers you?”
Neil nodded, stepping out of the bathroom naked. He fished around in his bag and pulled on a fresh set of clothes, and stood before the mirror, combing his hair.
“Ready?” Mabel asked.
“Yes – lets forget the pensive mood, the lemmings, the cormorants, the iguanas and the disbelievers. We shall enjoy the town of Golden on foot.” Neil took her hand, and they walked out towards the elevator.