When Levi Zent leaves eastern PA and struggles getting his horses and wagon over an eastern pass, Zent wonders how he'll ever get through the passes in the Rockies. Michner editorializes that what Zent doesn't know is that due to the elevation in the east compared to the relative elevation in the west, no mountain pass in the Rockies would be any taller or more difficult that the one he just went over in PA.