Looking out of the window, I saw a flat, arid moonscape, with hills in the background, less than a mile away. At two and a half miles above sea level – the altitude here – there wasn’t a single cloud in the sky. And there was the sort of light you see through the cabin window of a high-altitude jet, after a night flight, when you pull up the window shade and find yourself in that rarefied space between heaven and earth – a blinding beauty, almost too bright to endure …
Bio:
Ian Birch taught business at universities in British Columbia and Ontario before retiring onto a wooded acreage in the Township of Leeds and the Thousand Islands to pursue diverse projects. This article is an excerpt from the author’s book The Last Train through the Heart of the Americas: By Rail and Road across Two Hemispheres for which he is currently seeking an agent/publisher (ianbbirch@hotmail.com).