Tehachapi Loop, di loop

Like some boyhood designed trainset, the Tehachapi Loop is a stunning piece of ingenuity and engineering. In the 1870s the railroad company needed a route through the mountains from Bakersfield. The problem was that the steam trains could only climb a 3% gradient maximum. Near to the town of Tehachapi (where I am hiding from a storm in my tent tonight) the valley was too steep. The solution? A 1/4 mile section of track that looped 360 degrees over itself. This was just enough to gain the 50 feet or so in height to allow the train enough puff to get up the hill. Brilliant.

I puffed and wheezed up a few hills too myself today. I've developed a bit of a bronchial fluid on my chest, which makes me sound like I've been smoking too many Woodbines. Don't worry, I am very brave, I'll be ok.

It was a day of 5 climbs culminating in the road alongside the Tehachapi Loop, by far the most interesting and enjoyable, aided as it was by a nice tail wind. As I climbed the road approaching the loop I heard the classic US train whistle as a train approached. I put the hammer down (OK I sped up a little) and found myself at a lookout point just as the massive goods train with 4 (yes 4) engines, entered the loop. What chance that, I asked myself, feeling like the 8th luckiest man alive that minute, as I got my pictures for the album. 15 minutes later as I continued my climb however, I heard a whistle from a train just behind entering the loop, perhaps it wasn't that rare after all. Anyway, it was a great sight, and apparently it took 3000 Chinese labourers 3 years to build.

My arrival in Tehachapi itself was swift on a rare tail wind. Then, just as the rain started falling, I realised I had overshot my campground, and had a 4 mile slog back into the teeth of the driving rain and wind. My reward for persistence, rather than curling up by the side of the road, crying, and dying of exposure, was to be greeted at the campground with hot (well more like warm) showers - a feat of engineering to rival the Tehachapi Loop in my book.