Was It Worth It?

After chasing CORP the day before, I had left Medford in the late evening for what could have been a several hour long drive home. However, I had been up since 1:20 that morning and had zero intention of driving all the way home. The weather conditions were awful over the Siskiyou Mountains, fog so thick you couldn't see more than a few feet ahead of you, and my eyes felt like they weighed a ton as I got closer to Yreka, I was spending the night no doubt. After pulling off the highway just outside of town where I knew there was a large open lot, I crashed for a couple hours before making the final push to Dunsmuir, my ultimate destination for the night. Since I had nothing to do the following day, I decided I would spend it on the Black Butte Subdivision. After waking up in the morning I had a general plan mapped out. The first train in daylight would be the MRVEU, the Roseville to Eugene manifest. I wanted to shoot it at the Hotlum Trestle with Shasta soaring above, then chase it north to find ZBRLC, which I would follow south to Redding. However, as I was at Hotlum the Z would pass, it had been moving very fast and got out of Klamath earlier than what it was expected to be. I did know that an MHKRV, the Hinkle to Roseville manifest, was following a few hours behind them, so I would just shoot that instead. As mentioned, I first went to Hotlum, but I had a problem. When I got there I realized that the shot was going to be completely backlit, shooting straight into the sun, and the train was taking forever, so I was having to look elsewhere. I decided to go to a spot at Andesite, though I had never been there. After driving down the main dirt road to get to the siding, I pulled off onto an access road to get to the spot. What I did not know though was that the access road was in very rough shape, rocky, overgrown, and some extremely steep hills. Though my car has all wheel drive, it barely made it over these hills, and I had to gun it, that kind of steep. All of these hills were extremely rocky, and I was just hoping a tire wouldn't go flat or burst, especially after finding a small cut of discarded barbed wire in the road at one point, which had clearly come from the fence next to the road. I also did not want to walk in from the main road as I had no idea where the train was, turns out I actually had a lot of time. After a hill just before my spot was to steep for my car, I was forced to walk the rest of the way in. I decided that I would just back up and park in an area just beyond the north end signals, as that was really the only area I saw to turn around and have easy access to walk in all at once. After waiting for about a half hour I finally saw movement. The train was several miles out as it came around the mountain, I believe I was seeing them at Hotlum from there but I can't be certain. I decided it would be a good time to hike in, and after a bit of walking I made it. The train was still several miles out at this point and I had a good view of it. I spent the remaining time figuring out how I wanted to shoot it, climbing over steep and loose rock on a cliff to get the shot. There was also a power pole very close to me that made it hard to frame the photo. As the train was just coming up by the north end signals I realized I had to get lower and closer to the tracks for the shot to work. Sliding down loose dirt, I set up on the side of the cliff and pulled off the shot just in time as a backlit GE screamed up the over 1% grade with smoke shooting out. Finally, I could head somewhere for lunch. I made it out of Andesite with nothing damaged, but the drive was definitely not one I enjoyed. Although I like the shot, I just don't know that it was worth the pain and effort to get it. If I wanted to I easily could have gone to Cougar and got it there, the shot would not have been much different and it takes only a fraction of the effort. I guess if I had a four wheel drive and a better vehicle for off-roading I probably would have been fine, but in a used and beat up Outback it was a struggle. Needless to say, I will not be attempting that again anytime soon.

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