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kevin_standleeToday was the last day of the trip. We took our time getting out of Bishop, partially because Lisa's digestion was acting up from all the food we've eaten on this trip, and partially because we wanted to buy more things from Schat's Bakkery before we left town. About 11:30, we set out on the last leg of our trip home.
Here was our route for today. This is not the quickest way home, but it picked up a few points we wanted to see, including a section of US-395 that I last traveled some thirty years ago when I was still in high school.
I took this picture from in front of our hotel when Lisa and I walked to the Bakkery to pick up a couple of loaves of bread and some of their very nice cookies. The views from here in Bishop are really impressive. I never appreciated it that much at the time I lived here.
Our first stop was the Laws Railroad Museum.
Just north of Bishop on US-6 is the Laws Railroad Museum, which preserves portions of the ex-Southern Pacific, ex-Carson & Colorado Railway narrow-gauge lines, and also numerous historic buildings in the Owens Valley.
This map shows the C&C narrow-gauge line at its maximum extent, when it ran from Mound House, Nevada (junction with the standard-gauge Virginia & Truckee Railroad) to Tonopah Junction (junction with the Tonopah & Goldfield Railroad) over Montgomery Pass and down to Laws, California, then on to Owenyo (junction with the standard-gauge Southern Pacific "Jawbone" branch) and the line's southern terminus at Keeler, on the shores of Owens Lake.
This view south from the museum looks toward Keeler. The C&C was intended to run from the Carson River (which it did do) to the Colorado River (which it never reached). Darius Ogden Mills (part owner), reportedly said, "Either we built the line 300 miles too long, or 300 years too early!"
The portion of the route from Mound House to Tonopah Junction was standard-gauged to facilitate interchange with the V&T and the T&G. T&G interchanged with the C&C by then folded into the Central Pacific and later Southern Pacific) at Mina, and the SP extended the line north from Fort Churchill to meet its own tracks at Hazen, abandoning the line to Mound House.
The narrow-gauge line from Tonopah Junction to Laws was cut back over time, and SP shut down the narrow-gauge operation entirely in 1960. This view is north from Laws toward the also-now-closed talc mine in Laws and in the general direction of Mina via Montgomery Pass.
The standard-gauge portion of the former C&C is still in operation from Fort Churchill (connected to Hazen) to Thorne, the latter being how it serves the Hawthorne weapons station. The line south of Thorne is long abandoned, which is why you can't take the train to Westercon 74.
Among the artifacts on display here is a restored narrow-gauge flatcar of the very obscure Bodie Railway & Lumber Co Number 8. This car was found in a wrecked state near the site of the former isolated railroad (which was used to transport fuel wood to the gold-mining town of Bodie; the line never connected with any outside railroad). The wooden beams of the car were a write-off, but the metal fittings were cleaned and restored, and specially-milled new beams (which thus had the original measurements, not the "modern" ones) were used to rebuild the car.
We could have easily spent all day at the museum, which we've visited before, but today we did not have enough time. Perhaps someday we'll be able to come down to Bishop again and spend a full day investigating the large number of things here.
Rather than continuing north on US-6, we returned toward Bishop and took US-395 north. We made a brief detour to the house you see here in this photo. This is a mobile home that my father bought and had installed in a huge mobile home park, and in which I lived from 1979-81 while he was stationed in Bishop with the US Forest Service. This photo is rather hastily snapped because we didn't want to worry the current occupant too much. I'm vaguely pleased to see that it's in good condition, and that the wooden fence (which I helped my father install) is still there. I've had some bad luck in the past few years in visiting my former childhood homes.
So after a short moment of nostalgia, it was time to get serious about heading north. The portion of this trip between Bridgeport and Minden is a piece of highway that I had not been over since I left Bishop in 1981.
The Sierra Nevada mountains are your constant companions on this trip as US-395 fights its way up over several summits of 8000-plus feet.
At the Crestview Rest Area, we spotted a woodpecker drinking from this water source, after which it flew up to a nearby tree and started pecking away at it.
At the same rest area you will find this not-entirely-serious plaque placed by the E Clampus Vitus, which is itself a not-entire-serious organization.
Approaching Lee Vining, Mono Lake appears in the distance. If you come to Tonopah from the Bay Area during the summer, the straightest route (CA-120 from I-205 and I-5) will take you through this area and east to Benton, then further east on US-6.
Although badly affected by the diversion of water to Los Angeles, Mono Lake still has its famous tufa formations.
Lisa, who was feeling better by the time we got to the railroad museum, did most of the driving today, as she had gotten more sleep that I did. (I've had to be up at 4 AM the past two days to do Day Jobbe for a few hours.) Nevertheless, both of us were feeling pretty tired, and while we enjoyed the view from 395, I stopped taking photos. As darkness fell, we continued north into Reno, made a brief stop at the Sparks Nugget to use the restrooms, and set a course for home, where we arrived around 7 PM. After seven days and 1062 miles, our Loscon/Westercon trip was done and we were home.
There will be little time to rest, however, as the first leg of our trip to Worldcon starts on Monday afternoon. We have less than a week to repack, reload, and prepare for our three-week around-the country train trip.
Here was our route for today. This is not the quickest way home, but it picked up a few points we wanted to see, including a section of US-395 that I last traveled some thirty years ago when I was still in high school.
I took this picture from in front of our hotel when Lisa and I walked to the Bakkery to pick up a couple of loaves of bread and some of their very nice cookies. The views from here in Bishop are really impressive. I never appreciated it that much at the time I lived here.
Our first stop was the Laws Railroad Museum.
Just north of Bishop on US-6 is the Laws Railroad Museum, which preserves portions of the ex-Southern Pacific, ex-Carson & Colorado Railway narrow-gauge lines, and also numerous historic buildings in the Owens Valley.
This map shows the C&C narrow-gauge line at its maximum extent, when it ran from Mound House, Nevada (junction with the standard-gauge Virginia & Truckee Railroad) to Tonopah Junction (junction with the Tonopah & Goldfield Railroad) over Montgomery Pass and down to Laws, California, then on to Owenyo (junction with the standard-gauge Southern Pacific "Jawbone" branch) and the line's southern terminus at Keeler, on the shores of Owens Lake.
This view south from the museum looks toward Keeler. The C&C was intended to run from the Carson River (which it did do) to the Colorado River (which it never reached). Darius Ogden Mills (part owner), reportedly said, "Either we built the line 300 miles too long, or 300 years too early!"
The portion of the route from Mound House to Tonopah Junction was standard-gauged to facilitate interchange with the V&T and the T&G. T&G interchanged with the C&C by then folded into the Central Pacific and later Southern Pacific) at Mina, and the SP extended the line north from Fort Churchill to meet its own tracks at Hazen, abandoning the line to Mound House.
The narrow-gauge line from Tonopah Junction to Laws was cut back over time, and SP shut down the narrow-gauge operation entirely in 1960. This view is north from Laws toward the also-now-closed talc mine in Laws and in the general direction of Mina via Montgomery Pass.
The standard-gauge portion of the former C&C is still in operation from Fort Churchill (connected to Hazen) to Thorne, the latter being how it serves the Hawthorne weapons station. The line south of Thorne is long abandoned, which is why you can't take the train to Westercon 74.
Among the artifacts on display here is a restored narrow-gauge flatcar of the very obscure Bodie Railway & Lumber Co Number 8. This car was found in a wrecked state near the site of the former isolated railroad (which was used to transport fuel wood to the gold-mining town of Bodie; the line never connected with any outside railroad). The wooden beams of the car were a write-off, but the metal fittings were cleaned and restored, and specially-milled new beams (which thus had the original measurements, not the "modern" ones) were used to rebuild the car.
We could have easily spent all day at the museum, which we've visited before, but today we did not have enough time. Perhaps someday we'll be able to come down to Bishop again and spend a full day investigating the large number of things here.
Rather than continuing north on US-6, we returned toward Bishop and took US-395 north. We made a brief detour to the house you see here in this photo. This is a mobile home that my father bought and had installed in a huge mobile home park, and in which I lived from 1979-81 while he was stationed in Bishop with the US Forest Service. This photo is rather hastily snapped because we didn't want to worry the current occupant too much. I'm vaguely pleased to see that it's in good condition, and that the wooden fence (which I helped my father install) is still there. I've had some bad luck in the past few years in visiting my former childhood homes.
So after a short moment of nostalgia, it was time to get serious about heading north. The portion of this trip between Bridgeport and Minden is a piece of highway that I had not been over since I left Bishop in 1981.
The Sierra Nevada mountains are your constant companions on this trip as US-395 fights its way up over several summits of 8000-plus feet.
At the Crestview Rest Area, we spotted a woodpecker drinking from this water source, after which it flew up to a nearby tree and started pecking away at it.
At the same rest area you will find this not-entirely-serious plaque placed by the E Clampus Vitus, which is itself a not-entire-serious organization.
Approaching Lee Vining, Mono Lake appears in the distance. If you come to Tonopah from the Bay Area during the summer, the straightest route (CA-120 from I-205 and I-5) will take you through this area and east to Benton, then further east on US-6.
Although badly affected by the diversion of water to Los Angeles, Mono Lake still has its famous tufa formations.
Lisa, who was feeling better by the time we got to the railroad museum, did most of the driving today, as she had gotten more sleep that I did. (I've had to be up at 4 AM the past two days to do Day Jobbe for a few hours.) Nevertheless, both of us were feeling pretty tired, and while we enjoyed the view from 395, I stopped taking photos. As darkness fell, we continued north into Reno, made a brief stop at the Sparks Nugget to use the restrooms, and set a course for home, where we arrived around 7 PM. After seven days and 1062 miles, our Loscon/Westercon trip was done and we were home.
There will be little time to rest, however, as the first leg of our trip to Worldcon starts on Monday afternoon. We have less than a week to repack, reload, and prepare for our three-week around-the country train trip.
