{"id":306,"date":"2011-08-21T16:48:14","date_gmt":"2011-08-21T20:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marksisco.com\/blog\/?p=306"},"modified":"2011-08-21T16:56:54","modified_gmt":"2011-08-21T20:56:54","slug":"306","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marksisco.com\/?p=306","title":{"rendered":"From Train to Trail"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Train Conductor and Boilerman<\/p><\/div>\n

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Conductor and Boilerman Watch Backpackers Unload at Needleton Trailhead<\/p><\/div>\n

The train ride was a fun experience.\u00a0 One of the things that impressed me was the personnel operating the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge (D&SNG).\u00a0 These guys were the “real deal”.\u00a0 One often finds new technology underneath the covers and behind the facade of today’s replication of the retro.\u00a0 Not in this case.\u00a0 This was THE steam engine and train of years gone by, not a replica.<\/p>\n

Checkout the Conductor and Boilerman in these images, and tell me they don’t look authentic to the first of the century!\u00a0 Hats, overalls, gritty faces, callused hands, coal stained denim and skin, broad shoulders, Paul Bunyan-esque boots\u00a0 …\u00a0 They were both impressive and professional.\u00a0 The Conductor handled every backpack personally, loading it into and out of the cargo car.\u00a0 The Boilerman ensured the engine operated flawlessly, and at the stops he looked over everything closely from rails to cars to the locomotive.\u00a0 And trust me, we could afford no slip-ups on the ride because the rail bed ran literally on the very edge of 1,000+ ft. cliffs.<\/p>\n

I could not help but translate these images into B&W.\u00a0 The textures and implied time frame would allow no alternative.<\/p>\n

This is the point at which we exited the train.\u00a0 As you can see, there were many backpackers unloading at the Needleton trail head.\u00a0 The Conductor told us about 60 packs were loaded for this trip, and 50+ the day before.\u00a0 And as a matter of fact, there is a sign at the trailhead which mentions that 100,000 backpackers enter this trail yearly.\u00a0 Some take on extensive camping and challenge the (3) 14’ers in the area, while others work their way along a portion of the trail for a day hike.\u00a0 Jerry, Betsy, and I were simply amazed at how few people we saw during the 5 days we were along the trail and in the basin!\u00a0 I venture to say we only saw 20 people or so, in spite of the numbers entering the trail each day.<\/p>\n

This is where the Vibram soles meet the dirt!\u00a0 The beginning of 5 days of backpacking and camping with no cell phones, transportation, or contact with anyone except those we would see along the trail.\u00a0 We are at approximately 8,500 ft., and in about 4.5 miles we’ll be near 11,000 ft.\u00a0 As for the train …. it would be on it’s way momentarily.\u00a0 This is Monday, and we have a date to rendezvous with it on Friday at 4pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The train ride was a fun experience.\u00a0 One of the things that impressed me was the personnel operating the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge (D&SNG).\u00a0 These guys were the “real deal”.\u00a0 One often finds new technology underneath the covers and behind the facade of today’s replication of the retro.\u00a0 Not in this case.\u00a0 This was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,14,5,10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marksisco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marksisco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marksisco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marksisco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marksisco.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=306"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/marksisco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":315,"href":"https:\/\/marksisco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306\/revisions\/315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marksisco.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marksisco.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marksisco.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}