Unhurriedly and carefully you overcome another mountain, the last climb before the goal. There is no need to hurry, it is inappropriate and impolite, the time itself is not in a hurry.
Moreover, it contradicts the meaning of your presence here. To freeze in this slow flow of minutes and hours, the course of which is almost imperceptible in these parts, because it seems that everything here is frozen in time.
Another peak has been conquered, or it only allowed you to pass, no matter, I'm grateful. The road ahead seems much easier. Even knowing that this is a tourist route, can't help thinking that you are the first person on this land.
So majestic is the peace of the surrounding rocks. It's as if they have never been disturbed by human fuss in millions of years of their existence.
Feel like you have disturbed the sleep of giants, every step echoes and you can even hear heavy breathing after lifting. Thanks to the wind, which blows away the noise generated by you in sharp gusts, no one will wake up, you can go on.
But here you come across traces of the presence of your tribe. They left these places decades ago, leaving behind only scars on the body of the mountains, in the form of railways and tunnels for the extraction of hidden treasures. Perhaps, the mountains didn't even notice anything.
It's strange, but this trace of humanity's presence doesn’t spoil the atmosphere of peace that you imbued earlier. Descending lower and lower, approaching the explored places, you come across one more amazing artifact.
This is a steam engine, for mining. Released around 1908, in the USA. It is impossible to imagine how it ended up here, even more amazing that it is still here. More than a hundred years have passed. And this miracle of engineering looks like a monument to a bygone civilization in these beautiful mountains. It was as if it had been left here by completely different creatures.
And this is the final touch in the canvas of contrast. Don’t feel upset, or the wrongness of finding such things here, on the contrary… You are convinced that our century, even by the standards of several generations, is very fleeting, and the memory of us goes away quickly. It's hard to win a race leaving your mark for centuries to come. After all, even this steam engine has surpassed its creators and owners in something, at least it has turned into an involuntary monument to human history at the edge of the world.
Perhaps I shouldn't make a fuss either. I’ll just try to find as many good and beautiful things as possible in my lifetime and share it with my son. And with all those who want to hear and see what I saw.