Short story? fantasy. Sudden uplift of a mountain range. Strange crablike animals wander at the top. Trucker gets up there in modified truck. Picks up hitchhiking kid whose family lives on other side.

[Marcia]

Read this story back in the 70's, maybe? Can't remember title or author. Basic premise is there's been a sudden uplift of one of the mountain ranges (not the Rockies, maybe the Appalachians?) in the recent past. At the top the air is too thin to breathe and it's bitter cold. There are strange crab-like animals wandering the area at the top. This trucker has a specially-modified truck and makes regular runs up & back. On this particular run, at the stop before the climb he meets a kid who's looking to hitch a ride to see family on the other side. He takes the kid with him in the truck's cab. They make it over the top, with some complication thrown in as plot thickening. On the downhill part of the run, he drops the kid off at the relative's place (?). I don't remember much else in the way of plot, which is why I think it's just an atmospheric short story. I was telling my son about it recently while we were on a long-distance driving trip. I'd love to read it again. TIA for any leads on title and/or author.

[Kris]

Removed the book attached to this request which is marked Unsolved.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Marcia, are you still looking for this or did you find it?

[Ben]

Bears Discover Fire and Other Stories

More specifically the story "Over flat mountain".