Re: The Narrow Gauge Rendezvous....again

-- continued from previous message, on the hike to Cascade Trestle --



Once getting to the bottom of Cascade Trestle I took some nice photos before going to cross the river. It's a great angle, had nice sun light and good view... except for a couple big trees in the way!




Crossing the River is a bit of a challenge, in that, well, you want to "walk across a mountain stream" with hundreds of dollars in camera gear? Years ago, dropped a nice Nikon in the water when I slipped and fell in (it was in a camera bag but still got damp). The key was to find, one of the two islands so as the Los Pinos River would be split and a bit shallow-er on each side of. Problem also is finding a place where there was less 'marsh' on each side of the water itself.

Rolled up my blue jeans and found a spot that gave me 10-12 inches for about 25 feet across of cold mountain water, then an island, then about 15 feet more at 10-12 inches deep. This with slimy rock bottom so slow and caution go. But no marsh or mud on either side at least to go in and come out on...


Using the island to split the river was the key I think, as it meant less depth and less flow to walk in...



My final (I got tired) spot where I setup required a lot of rock crawling. Unlike the other side, just a slope and some problems to go around, the other side of the hill is very rocky and was not easy going up the other side. But then my site I found a 20x20 clear'ish area that let me get some great shots of me and the bridge and the area. But this shot gives an idea of the terrain on the other side and my setup... Had three videos going and one handheld camera...

... btw - those jeans hanging, were used as a sling to carry in the two tri-pods (not the ones I was wearing -ha).


You can see the Trestle and the old Toll Road in that picture. It sure looks like an 'easy' travel. If you look to the right side of the picture, you get an idea of the rough embankment you guys would be using to go down the side to get to the River, on that side. And if you look to the left side of the Trestle, you will see the area that John took his picture from, track level, and the really rocky rough travel it would have been going down on that side. In the bottom you will get a weak idea of the rocky terrain I had to climb up from the rover level on this side.


This was a six plus hour afternoon that, gave me a couple good shots. My mistake was, not going on a couple refresher rail-fanning days in the weeks before the trip. I took the wrong camera lens, I did not work out daily to prepare for the hike, and I forgot the satellite phone.

So nope, guys I did not drive in from the other side, nor use an ATV to get in there. It was the old fashion, walk, hike, crawl, grumble, breath hard, and keep going, to get there using a hike from Osier over part of the grade and part of the old Toll Road and part of the hill/mountain sides and then walking in water to cross the River.

During the 4 hours, I enjoyed the peace and quiet enough, that I started talking to the rock squirrels (I did this trip alone). Mid afternoon a big wind came up, blew over one tri-pod and had hints of drizzle for 5-10 minutes (no place to crawl under where I was). The sun came out, the clouds went over, and I saw the rain down the Valley towards Los Pinos that the 315 and Geese would later go thru. When I left around 5:30pm to hike out, the wind came up and I had the threat of rain all the way back to Osier.

It was a good trip. My pictures came out 'ok'. I have the memory and will be loading more pictures and the various videos up soon.


Lacking any cell signal, I was unable to send this picture and text to family and friends (who did not know I had gone to Colorado in the first place)...


Frolin - O S Cascade Trestle - 3pm Saturday



...because you can't take pictures like this from the train !