Our Everyday Life

In the morning, after sending children to school and dad to the work, I started thinking if I can go somewhere for a hike. And why not? The weather is great, sunny, no wind and everything is in bloom.

Soon the decision was made to go to the place we had visited several times in the past – to the abandoned railroad. However, today is a weekday, so there could be timbers working. Well, will see.

The birds are singing in the forest and I can hear running water in the creek at the bottom of the hill. Trees are just began to wake up from winter sleep, and overgrown rails are seen quite well.

I don’t know why that railroad is so appealing. I adore the smell of the train engine, which comes from the sun-warmed sleepers! I guess I was a train driver in one of my previous lifes?

It is interesting to watch how the area is changing over the time. When we were here three years ago, the hills were covered with trees. And now all they are gone and the bright sun rays poured bald hills. But the railroad is continuing to overgrow. Some of the young trees are as thick as my wrist, can you imagine that?

Pretty quickly I’ve reached the railroad switch. Wow, it is almost invisible behind the bushes, and soon we will only guess about it’s presence, especially when the leaves are bloomed.
This is something new – the rail switcher mechanism is gone. Does someone borrowed it as a souvenir?

After another rails turn there was an entrance to the tunnel. Well, now, when all the trees from the nearest hill are gone, the tunnel looks absolutely abandoned.

There are a lot of the fallen trees on the slopes. Sometimes trunks laid on the rails too, and I was forced to find the way around. Spruce branches smelled sweet and reminded me about the Christmas time.
Soon behind the usual forest sounds I’ve heard ringing splash of water. Here it is, a tiny waterfall! There was a little stream between rails too so I was looking for a way around. But apparently, this route is quite popular now – path was wide and well seen.

Nothing is growing here still. Probably, the soil layer is very thin on top of the rock?
Look to that very bright tree hill somewhere ahead! I hope I’m getting closer to the Big Baldwin Trestle, the tallest bridge in this railroad.

And here it is! The old wooden boards become white after all these years of being exposed to rain, wind and sun. I wasn’t sure if it is still safe to walk on the designated area so I stepped to the thick board near the rail instead – there is a support beam underneath it. Wow, I forgot how tall the bridge was – it is almost leveled with the tops of the pines!

Three years ago the trestle was a final destination of our hike. But today I’m alone and want to continue my walking – I still have time till three o’clock when I need to be home. Kids have a dance classes today and I’m in charge of driving them there.

At the far end of the bridge I noticed another water tank. Now they are empty but it was a time when the water was kept inside, as a protection in case of forest fire. And the pipes were stretching to the next trestle at the Wolf Creek. It is located about 3 miles away from Cochran pond and I badly want to see it, but not today. I don’t have enough time to make it and be on time at home, unfortunately.

Soon I started to hear weird noises, whistles and honks. For the very first moment I even thought it is a train! I looked around and tried to calm myself down, because the awful condition of rails will not allow any train be here. However it is sounds just like train, what it can be in that case? And finally I understood that somewhere pretty far from here timbers are working.

Couple times I noticed the big piles of trees branches that were leftovers from past timber work. Soon I checked my phone and realized that it is time to turn back. Oh, how disappointing… But I need to.

Walking back is usually faster so I spotted the car sooner then expected. And all my hike took about three hours.