By
AnOldCowhand
on Sep 28, 2011
at 8:44 PM
Omigosh, I just realized that I hadn't replied to your last message but I didn't realize it had been ten days. *hangs head low* >We haven't decided yet if we are in Autumn or still in Summer. Temps here have been right around 100 for most of the last 3 or 4 weeks with a brief respite last weekend. >Ummm...lessee, oh yeah. Went down to Lake Arrowhead last weekend to attend the dedication of the Mountain History Museum. It was a 600 mile round trip. Went with a friend that was born in that area and used to travel that way back in the 50s so we sought out a bunch of the old roads where the freeway hadn't destroyed them. On the way back we stopped by the rail yard in Mojave where they were unloading blades, generators and gear heads for the nearby wind farm. HOLY CATS are those things big!!! Each blade took one and a half rail cars. The generator housings were the size of a bus. We drove out through the wind farm afterwards and saw them in operation. >After that we stopped to see the Tehachapi Loop. Built in 1875ish it was considered an landmark of civil engineering achievement. by looping the track around a small hill and crossing the train over itself, they gain 77 feet of elevation in a short distance and maintain the required grade. Just after we pulled up a train came by and we got to watch it circle the hill. A 4000' train actually crosses over itself. >Trust me, the greater portion of California would be delighted to be rid of Greater Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area. The rest of us are held hostage by the eco-facism and other insanities that come out of those pits of socialism and other degradations. Once you get into places like the San Joaquin or Salinas Valleys, the north woods or the coastal and foothill cattle country you find reg'lar, decent people that just want to live and work the way their ancestors did. </rant> >If you like nature and the outdoors, you would love packing in the high Sierras. While you're there your whole pattern of life starts to revert to revolving around the natural cycles. Up early to tend the stock and prepare for your day, back to camp before sundown so you can once again tend to your stock and the chores of living. Days spent in the silence of the high mountain forests, lakes, streams and even glaciers. >Uh oh, char. limit. Bye for now - James
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