I like to start a written piece with an interesting but trivial tidbit then segue into the idea that I want to examine. But it’s getting late, tomorrow will be busy and I need some good sleep. Getting to it: The last four days have been like falling down stairs but today has been worth all the bumps. Today I took a ride on the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad. It runs 64 miles between Antonito, Colorado and Chama, New Mexico, a narrow gauge system established in the 1880’s between Durango Colorado and Alamosa, Colorado. Antonito and Chama are both situated at about 8,000 ft. elevation and the train ride goes up and over Cumbres Pass at just over 10,000 ft. so you’re in high country all the way.
The ride takes about seven hours altogether. The steam engine was built in 1925 and by steam engine standards it is relatively small. With a coal tender (it burns coal) and nine passenger cars in tow the ride is slow. The views are grand in scope and the constant clickity-clack belies a ride that is neither smooth nor measured. Moving car to car requires one hand on the back of the next seat every step or guaranteed you land in someone’s lap before you get to the end of the car. The seating ranges from plush chairs at period correct tables in the expensive cars to comfortable school-bus-like seats in the more affordable cars. Big windows slide up and down like a school bus.
The train ride was nice and the throw-back technology to the 1800’s gave us a historic if not adventuresome sense of place in time. But the star of the day was not the hardware. There were 150 passengers, maybe more and there was no question about why we were there, especially today. At altitude the forest is mainly spruce and fir but as the terrain gets more vertical the Aspen show up on the mountain sides in clusters and groves that can reach for miles it would seem. The locals call the Aspen “Quakies” as they make a quaking sound in the wind. I lived out here just a hundred miles Northwest of here and since I moved away 50 years ago it’s always a sort of ‘home coming’ and I feel like I belong.
Those Quakies, their leaves shimmer in a breeze with a shiny surface and a dull, flat green underside. It is a sight that defies description and the sound is equally indescribable. But that’s not the part that we came for. In early October those shimmering green leaves start to pale and then turn the richest, most dazzling yellow. You have to see it to believe and that is why we all chose this day to make this slow, patient, unencumbered odyssey. I can only speak for myself but I trust that many others would agree; Fall colors are more than just yellow quakies against a verdant green mountain side. But little white clouds in a cerulean blue sky, they grace the mountain and it’s golden dusting like only nature can. I’m not good with flowery prose but saying something like, “the blue and white and green and yellow are so cool.” it just doesn’t meet the need.
We rode a charter bus from Chama back to Antonito where I said thank’s and best wishes to friends I hadn’t met before today. On the train I sat beside an old man with a Canon camera like mine. We were taking photographs out the same open window. He was a retired biology teacher and his wife had taught 5th grade in San Antonio, Texas. Small world; we had lunch together at 9,000 ft. at a mid-way stop. The building reminded me of the ski lodge at Arapaho Basin only the crowd was too old and they didn’t have on ski pants. An awesome, all you could eat buffet. I had spinach salad, BBQ pork and a scoop of green chili casserole.
I’m about done here. Sometimes when I’m tired I make a blog post without the necessary edit and revision. I can blame it on exhaustion or sleepy eyes or any number of made up reasons and give it wings with a clear conscience. This is one of those times.
The ride takes about seven hours altogether. The steam engine was built in 1925 and by steam engine standards it is relatively small. With a coal tender (it burns coal) and nine passenger cars in tow the ride is slow. The views are grand in scope and the constant clickity-clack belies a ride that is neither smooth nor measured. Moving car to car requires one hand on the back of the next seat every step or guaranteed you land in someone’s lap before you get to the end of the car. The seating ranges from plush chairs at period correct tables in the expensive cars to comfortable school-bus-like seats in the more affordable cars. Big windows slide up and down like a school bus.
The train ride was nice and the throw-back technology to the 1800’s gave us a historic if not adventuresome sense of place in time. But the star of the day was not the hardware. There were 150 passengers, maybe more and there was no question about why we were there, especially today. At altitude the forest is mainly spruce and fir but as the terrain gets more vertical the Aspen show up on the mountain sides in clusters and groves that can reach for miles it would seem. The locals call the Aspen “Quakies” as they make a quaking sound in the wind. I lived out here just a hundred miles Northwest of here and since I moved away 50 years ago it’s always a sort of ‘home coming’ and I feel like I belong.
Those Quakies, their leaves shimmer in a breeze with a shiny surface and a dull, flat green underside. It is a sight that defies description and the sound is equally indescribable. But that’s not the part that we came for. In early October those shimmering green leaves start to pale and then turn the richest, most dazzling yellow. You have to see it to believe and that is why we all chose this day to make this slow, patient, unencumbered odyssey. I can only speak for myself but I trust that many others would agree; Fall colors are more than just yellow quakies against a verdant green mountain side. But little white clouds in a cerulean blue sky, they grace the mountain and it’s golden dusting like only nature can. I’m not good with flowery prose but saying something like, “the blue and white and green and yellow are so cool.” it just doesn’t meet the need.
We rode a charter bus from Chama back to Antonito where I said thank’s and best wishes to friends I hadn’t met before today. On the train I sat beside an old man with a Canon camera like mine. We were taking photographs out the same open window. He was a retired biology teacher and his wife had taught 5th grade in San Antonio, Texas. Small world; we had lunch together at 9,000 ft. at a mid-way stop. The building reminded me of the ski lodge at Arapaho Basin only the crowd was too old and they didn’t have on ski pants. An awesome, all you could eat buffet. I had spinach salad, BBQ pork and a scoop of green chili casserole.
I’m about done here. Sometimes when I’m tired I make a blog post without the necessary edit and revision. I can blame it on exhaustion or sleepy eyes or any number of made up reasons and give it wings with a clear conscience. This is one of those times.
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