October 15 and a most unexpected ng adventure

Tuesday, October 15, was kind of a layover day between the 168 run to Lava on Monday, and the 315-488 double header on Wednesday. So I decided to make the best of it by hiking about 2 miles south from Cumbres Pass on the Continental Divide Trail to a great viewpoint overlooking the Hamilton Point curves that I had once done about 8 years ago. This called for a reasonably early departure from Cumbres to allow time for the hike. When my dog Jack and I got to the trail head we met a group of six oriental ladies of Vietnamese extraction who were preparing to hike the same trail. While time was of the essence to reach the hoped for viewpoint, Jack had different ideas, regarding the six ladies as the pack we needed to hike with. The ladies enjoyed playing with Jack with the result that we had only gone half way by the time the eastbound train passed Cresco. Some of the ladies were very enthusiastic about seeing and photographing the steam train, not something they would normally encounter in the LA area.

Here is the half-way viewpoint with the train in the distance



Jack was more interested in the ladies' doings than the train rounding Windy Point in the distance (photo by Mai Lee)



After the train reached Cumbres, we left the "pack" for Tanglefoot curve, and the ladies continued their hike south on the CDT. Jack and I got to Tanglefoot just in time.



After our shortened hiking adventure we returned to Chama and watched 463 and 315 having their fires cleaned and the tenders refilled.



By mid afternoon we drove back to Cumbres to meet the westbound train. As we passed the CDT trailhead, the group of 6 was just returning from their hike and we pulled over to ask about their hike and to tell them that the westbound train would be crossing the trestle across the road in a few minutes if they were interested in more train photos. A little later the ladies caught up with us at the Coxo crossing, eager for more photos. They ended up following us to every viewpoint. I will attach a few excellent photos e-mailed to me by Mai Lee a few days later.