Stone Marker next to Tracks

I felt great as I left Tunnel 0 that next morning. It's Friday and I'm heading into occupied territory(the city). I  felt that things were getting a little bit easier and realized I'm getting in shape! I guess I should have started the hike on that Friday instead of six days earlier when I wasn't in that great of shape!

I passed "Gator Creek Golf Course" around noon, so I dropped in at Dingus McGees for lunch. Way better than granola and water based protein drinks! After leaving, I found a stone marker of some sort by the tracks and soon I was neck deep in Auburn. This was a different kind of railroad hike. Up until now I had been surrounded by forests and seclusion but now I was hiking next to parks, schools, and backyards. Awkward! I stopped at a gas n go to buy a cold energy drink. While standing outside, a little girl named Hazel walked up and handed me a dollar. I thanked her and refused the gift. Her mother said it was her allowance and she wanted to give it to me. What a precious soul! I told her that I have a job and I'm on vacation! I was willfully tearing myself up!

I started back toward the tracks and wandered right through the middle of a classic car show right next to a giant cement statue of a coolie honoring the Chinese railroad builders. SO COOL! As I hiked toward my next destination, I realized that it's Friday night! High school football game, speedway races, soccer matches, and a whole lot of partying. By dusk, I had reached BLOOMER CUT, an 800 ft long slot dug with picks and shovels through a hill. It was dug in 1864 and during the digging the foreman lost his eye in an accidental powder blast. I couldn't find his eye, I looked though!

I slept in my tent that night because earlier, while looking for a spot to drop my pack, I encountered a baby rattler. We sparred a bit then I warned it that if ever I see him again, he would be grown up and I would eat him! I knew mama was nearby and I preferred sleeping alone, so I pitched the tent on a dirt road next to the tracks heading into Bloomer cut.

I was awakened later that night by a different noise coming my way. While still half asleep, I unzipped my tent just as a 4x4 truck went zooming by right next to the tracks. Since my tent was on a knoll over from the tracks, had they been on that dirt road, they would have ran me over without even knowing they hit anything! Ah yes! Booney crashing on a friday night!

Waiting My Turn Through The Cut!

After a harrowing sleepless night, I was up early and nervous about the next bit of my journey. I had to pass through the Bloomer Cut without meeting a train while doing so. Running with an 85 lb. pack isn't an option, and there's not a lot of space inside the cut for train and hiker together. I waited at the entrance for a train to come by and as soon as it passed, I was on the move!

Early on, like day one, I made it my first priority to memorize the sound of an approaching train. The rails actually "hiss" when a train is a few hundred yards away. I committed that sound to memory and used that memory several times throughout the journey to dodge sure death.

Another thing I learned is that every car has its own unique sound, sort of like a fingerprint. One would have a high pitch squeal, one would have a lower pitch squeal, one would have a rolling thump thump thump. I found myself accutely aware of these differences and, although quite loud, I started enjoying their sounds. Call me crazy!

I came to a 1000 foot long tunnel named Tunnel 18. This was a unique tunnel because it had two places(one on each side) where the tunnel was cut out. They reminded me of cat ears. I found out that they were cut out so the taller trains could fit through the tunnel. Immediately after passing through the tunnel there was a trestle overpass crossing I 80. I sped across it and over Interstate 80. Now that was wild!

I then entered the historic town of Newcastle. Since it was Saturday, there was some kind of something going on there and many people were walking around the various booths and stands. I was the two hundred and eighty five pound hiker in the room! I don't weigh that, silly, that was my combined weight with all my gear!

I sat my pack outside a junk peddler's shop on a stack of wooden boxes and enjoyed a sandwich outside of the Newcastle Cheese Shop. While I was eating, the junk peddler made a big scene and I had to move my pack to the top of the table where I was seated. That poor grumpy guy needs to go on a hike!

Penryn Post Office

Several times since I embarked, the train's engineers had blown their horns and thrown water bottles to me(or AT me...). Sometimes the bottle would explode on impact, but other times they would roll and I would scurry over and try to pick the bottle up with a 90lb. pack on my back. I got very good at using one foot and my hiking stick to draw the water up to where I could snag it with my hand before falling over. After leaving Newcastle, I was hiking through rolling foothills and it was very hot! I didn't expect to be so desolate so soon and I ran out of water! I did mention that it was hot, right? I actually prayed and said,"God, PLEASE help me find water!" Well, I didn't go but perhaps fifteen yards and there right in front of me was a bottle of water!! I quickly retrieved it and just as quickly opened it and drank the water! Problem was,... it was as hot as tea water! I prayed again and said,"Thank you God for that water. Please remind me that if I need water again to ask for COLD WATER!"

The tracks started to straighten out and the hills started to level out as I moved toward the next destination. I passed a nice neatly groomed huge yard with a lady out gardening in it. I asked her where we were and she replied,"This is PENRYN!". Shortly, I came to a beautiful building whose front was all Granite. It was the Penryn post office. To the left rear side of the building, a drinking fountain had been built so I sat down on its' ledge and removed my pack. I stood up to peel my shirt from my back and as I was doing so, I heard the worst sound ever! My pack fell off the ledge and landed on my solar charger! Yikes! The charger didn't stand a chance! After finally getting my pack back onto the fountain, I was wrecked! Will it still charge? How long will that take?  How much longer will I need it? Only time would tell...

The Site of The First Roundhouse in Rocklin

After taking a "Break" at the Penryn Post Office, I knew I'd better get moving so I hustled down to my next stop. The tracks separated and it seemed like forever until they joined again. Soon I was in Rocklin. There is a train depot on the corner of Rocklin Rd. and I found a couple of hotels and strip malls about a mile from the tracks. I got a room, called Bill George, and hunted down a nice restaurant for dinner. Bill offered to put me up for the night, but I already had a room. DANG! We planned to meet in the morning and Bill would not let me continue my journey on foot through Roseville. The rail yard that once was located in Rocklin moved to Roseville in 1906. That yard has expanded to a giant conglomerate of tracks, train cars and a hundred or so engines. To enter that yard would be an instant arrest by the railroad cops called "BULLS"! Bill was so cool! He drove me all around the area showing me the Big Gun granite quarry, and the Old Roundhouse in Rocklin, then he drove me over every vantage point possible of the Roseville yard! Every place we went was amazing and to be quite blunt, I was and am a bit star struck with Bill. He authored the book that I followed on my hike! Are you kidding?? I'm in his car checking out the Transcontinental Railroad historic sites as he recites each site's history!! OK, I'm undone!

That morning that Bill picked me up was Sunday, May 10, 2015. It was Mother's Day, and it was also the 146th anniversary of the completion of the TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD commemmerating the driving of a golden spike into the joined rails in Promontory, Utah, signifying the unification of East and Wild West! Asian imports going east, and European imports going west. WOW! Sounds like History! Who Knew!?

TCRR Western Sierra Nevada Mountain Base Plaque

Eventually, my time with Bill was up. He drove to the Haggin Oaks Golf Complex. Yes, I like to golf but no,that's not why we ended up there. Bill took me to a spot by the first tee of the Arcade Creek Course and showed me a plaque commemmerating the beginning of the Western Sierra Nevada Mountain Range. The western "end" of the mountain range I'd started this crazy hike from ended near here! The plaque reads:

First Transcontinental Railroad
Western Base of the Sierra Nevada
On January 12, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln decreed that where the Central Pacific Railroad crossed Arcade Creek the western base of the Sierra Nevada began. The hardships of railroad construction through mountains resulted in increased government subsidies; these funds gave the company impetus to finish the transcontinental railroad.

We said our goodbyes and I started hiking down Auburn Blvd. for a mile or so and found a H.I. Express where I got a room and slept in a real bed again! The solar charger was packed away now since electricity was readily available and I ordered a pizza for dinner. Hmmm, somebody likes pizza!

The next morning, I headed further down Auburn Blvd.(including a part of it which is also a section of the old LINCOLN HIGHWAY, but that's another hike in the future) to Marconi where I crossed over the freeway, and found the tracks on the other side. I hiked along the frontage road next to the tracks and crossed over them a mile or so later on El Camino Ave. I found the light rail station and rode it over the American River...I didn't dare try crossing the river on a trestle bridge! Way too scary! I disembarked at 12th and "I" station and hiked from 12th street to 3rd street through the middle of the city! I found the Amtrak station and conveniently, a VAGABOND Hotel across the street! Another bed to sleep in!

Theodore Judah Monument

Before bedding down, I had a lot to see. I was a stone's throw from the California Railroad Museum and Old Sacramento. I went through the museum and then wandered through the entire area taking in the history surrounding me. At the end of the street is a large granite memorial dedicated to Theodore Dehone Judah.

Theodore Judah was the original promoter of the idea of a railroad going over the Sierra Nevada Mountains. He found the investors that were needed to begin that monumental feat and they in turn pushed him out after he got the government to pay for the building of the railroad! Judah surveyed the original route for the railroad and was Chief Engineer in the beginning.They began the construction in early 1863 in Sacramento and Theodore Judah died in November of that year before he could even see a train travel ANY of his track! Yes, he got screwed!

The next morning I boarded the California Zephyr and rode a train back to Truckee on the very tracks I had hiked. 100 miles back home on the last leg of an incredible journey. Oh ya! Gotta do that again!...NOT!