BigWeather's Blog

I didn’t exactly have a great night’s sleep — woke up every hour but was up for good around 6a due to the bright sunlight blasting through the thin curtains.  Michelle, Genetta, and I went down for breakfast at 8a.  Sabra had a wonderful spread of bacon, eggs (a mixture of chicken and duck), and pancakes.  Additionally there was orange juice and coffee to drink and cherries to nibble on, should we want.  It was all very tasty and the conversation — about her life, cooking at high altitude (hint: it is harder), kids, and all of the places she has lived as well as of course our story.  She was a caretaker of the B&B up until the beginning of last year when the previous owner wanted to sell it.  She decided to take the plunge.  She also cooked for a few camps “in the area” (which, in this country, meant within a hundred miles or so) at higher altitudes.  San Luis Valley was at 8,000′ and cooking was manageable with a specialized cookbook but camps at 10,000’+ were beyond even that help and demanded that she do the baking at the B&B and take it with her.

We left shortly after 9a, arriving at the Cumbres & Toltec depot at 9:15a.  We bought some stuff (magnets) and got our tickets.  We then milled about a bit while I snapped some pictures of the locomotive and cars then climbed on board our Deluxe Tourist car, car B, shortly before the 10a departure.  We had two tables, each with two seats, so we all four had a nice window seat.  We ensured that Michelle was facing forward as well so she wouldn’t get sea-sick.  A hostess offered drinks (we each got a cool metal tumbler) as well as danishes and other snacks to tide us over until lunch.  Ours was the second-to-last car on the train.  This was great since the steam locomotive’s smoke was less likely to affect us (cinders in the eye really stink, something I learned on a steam train to Danville, Virginia when I was young).  Just in front of our car was an open air observation car with a docent present to point out things (the hostess in our car filled the same role when we were there).  The last car was the Parlor Car, but that was only for those over 21.

The terrain started out very desert-like — the San Luis Valley essentially being a desert (the highest in North America).  Very small bushes, stunted trees, and lots of sagebrush were common.  The docent told us about a movie that Willie Nelson starred in that filmed on the railroad.  A trestle was to be “destroyed” but they used way too much TNT and it was obliterated.  Willie came to the rescue, however, and paid for it to be rebuilt.  I spent the majority of the day standing outside “in” the observation car and would later pay for it with quite the sun burn.  Worth it!  A number of photographers, kids, etc. cycled in and out, including a group of Amish ladies.

As we proceeded on our journey from 8,000′ to nearly 11,000′ we required a number of bends to gain altitude.  Amusingly, we crossed the Colorado / New Mexico border eleven times.  As we ascended trees, small at first, rose out of the scrub, eventually becoming respectable stands of aspen and ponderosa pines.  Sheer cliffs formed by cutting into the rocky terrain loomed on one side while plunges formed the other.  That’s one of the best things about rail travel — it doesn’t require guard rails, gas stations, services, or any of the other necessities of road travel.  Just two narrow ribbons of steel snaking through the wilderness.

The trees finally thinned, growing short again.  Rather than the pale green sagebrush and dusty rocky landscape, however, we were treated to lush green grass and small dark green shrubs as we climbed above the tree line.  We passed through a small town named Sublette perched high in the mountains.  Detached from the road system, historically it had a very small population that existed to help the railroad.  At night the residents would hang a small lantern in a window so that lost hikers and travelers would know that food and shelter was found within.  The residents long gone, the windows of the abandoned town were painted with scenes from everyday life back then — a vase with flowers, a cat, and even a lantern.

We passed through two tunnels.  The second one was cut out of solid stone but the first one was cut out of much softer material that required shoring up with timber beams.  The ceiling was covered in sheet metal because a hot cinder from the steam engine had previously lodged in a roof rafter before the protective metal was added.  It caught the beams on fire shortly after the train had gone through, collapsing the tunnel.  Ooops!  As a further protection against fire from cinders or sparks a small rail trucked car with water followed a short distance behind along the entire route.  Another tunnel-based system was a bar with knotted ropes hanging below suspended above the track at just above the train’s height.  Back in the day train workers would walk along the car’s roofs and being hit with the ropes meant they had to get down or go prone before the tunnel started.

Shortly after Sublette the train stopped at the small outpost of Osier, where we spilled out into two lines for lunch: one for turkey and one for meatloaf.  Meatloaf being slightly, errrr, variable in its composition the four of us had opted for turkey.  Apparently the vast majority of the other travelers did too.  We made our way through the line, getting a tray with turkey (a mix of light and dark), stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy, green beans, a roll, some cranberry, and chocolate cake for dessert.  It was quite good!  Afterwards we had a little time to browse a small gift shop but ended up buying nothing that I can recall.

Around 2p we piled back onto the train and continued on our journey.    Once cresting Cumbres Pass we began our descent toward the town of Chama, New Mexico.  Still above the tree line we saw large herds of cattle in the lush valleys as well as vacation lodges completely unconnected to the grid.

As we re-entered the forest, the docent told us to be ready for the “blowdown”.  Rather than clumsily describing what it is, I’ll take the liberty of quoting Wikipedia:

Boiler blowdown is water intentionally wasted from a boiler to avoid concentration of impurities during continuing evaporation of steam. The water is blown out of the boiler with some force by steam pressure within the boiler. Bottom blowdown used with early boilers caused abrupt downward adjustment of boiler water level and was customarily expelled downward to avoid the safety hazard of showering hot water on nearby individuals.

Anyway, it was awesome!  An impressive cloud of vapor and a loud hissing sound.

Near Chama the docent pointed out an old wooden structure straddling the track.  He said it was used in the scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade when young Indy swings over the circus train (pulled by the very same locomotive) — cool!  On arrival at Chama around 4:30p we climbed onto a motor coach for a one hour ride back to Antonito.

Ms. Young had recommended a small hamburger stand, G-6 (from the metal door handles), near the train depot.  As there was no seating in the restaurant and it was waaaay too hot to eat outside on the patio we decided to get it to-go and eat it back at the B&B.  Unfortunately though we had a key to the front door the screen door was latched shut and knocking on the door didn’t meet with an answer.  Undeterred, we ate the burgers, fries, and onion rings in the car.  It wasn’t too bad at all, basically Char-Grill.  As there was still no answer to our knocking we headed off to show the ladies Cano’s Castle.  On return I finally called the B&B and she came out and unlatched the door.  She was very apologetic that she had forgotten to leave it unlatched.

Bushed, we staggered upstairs and watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade on the DVD player in the ladies’ room.  It was amusing seeing the train scene go from desert (near Antonito) to forest (near Chama) instantaneously — which in reality took over six hours.  It was really neat when the B&B showed up on-screen.  After the movie I offloaded pictures and headed to bed about midnight.