FC's Journal #16 - June 21, 2003 - 12:15 am
Hey ya'll. I'm gonna' try and make a start at giving what all has happened over the last few days, but I might have to stop half way through 'cause John and I might go to a show. John's place has an injured kitten... It's the most sad thing ever. It can't be two months old, but it's back was injured just after birth. She can't use her hind legs. She drags herself around by her front paws... It's so sad. But supposedly she's getting better, and one of the kidz here is trying to rehab her. Anyway, here's a bit of the story of the last week and a half...
The last real update was written shortly after Ari and I split up. I was a little upset and I had just gotten back from a lunch I treated myself to... I had had a beer, so I was perhaps a little more melodramatic than normal. Anyway, after lunch and email I decided I was gonna' go to Tacoma and catch south to Portland. I took the bus from Seattle to Tacoma (a suburb of Seattle) to the BNSF yard. I sat for a few hours in some bushes waiting for a BN ride south... But the only stuff coming through was Amtrak, CN, and UP trains. No BNSF rides, even though it was their fucking yard. So after a while I figured, fuck this, I'm gonna' take the next UP train that comes by and hope that it goes down to Portland. I know that UP and BN share trackage rights all over the place, so it seemed like a good bet. Well, it wasn't long 'til a southbound UP DS train came by. I caught a well car on the fly, only to discover that there was the BN DS train I was waiting for on the other side. They were both coming through at the same time. Even though I could have taken the BN train, I figured that I might as well take the UP train at this point and see where it goes. It headed south on BN trackage and left the city. This was right at dusk; the sunset in the harbor was amazing. At this point I felt amazingly liberated. I was traveling on my own, for myself and no other, and even if I ended up in the middle of nowhere, it would be on my terms. I promptly went to sleep... Little did I know that while I was headed for Portland, I was to end up in the middle of nowhere.
I woke sometime during the night to discover that I was in a huge city. I guessed that this must have been Portland. Due to the fact that I was trying to make it down the coast to Dunsmuir (northern California) and I knew that UP ran all the way down the coast, I decided to stay on and see if it kept on south. I noticed that I was now on UP trackage, so it seemed like a good bet. I went back to sleep. Hours later I woke to find that I was now cruising along next to a huge river in the middle of a beautiful gorge. As my senses returned to me I noticed that the sun was rising in front of me, not to left as it should have been. Oh shit! Where the hell am I going? I looked at my train maps and crew change guide. It wasn't long before I realized that I had managed to take the dreaded 'garbage train'. Suddenly the smelly odor of the train seemed a bit more comprehensible... I was headed east, not south. The train stopped about 120 miles east of Portland in a pissant town in the middle of nowhere named Arlington. The train went into a siding and they disconnected power. I walked the train and talked to the crew. They told me that the train was to be taken up the mountain and the garbage was going to be dumped... It would be about twenty hours before the train returned to go back to Portland. Even though I could have tried to hitch back, it seemed like I should just go with the sure-thing and wait for my train.
I went into Arlington for a little breakfast to stock up on supplies. At one point a sheriff stopped me to ask what I was doing... I was headed to the train tracks. It must have been obvious to him that this was what I was doing as there was nothing but a lot of river in that direction other than the train tracks. He even gave me a way out: he said that I was probably hitch-hiking. I decided to tell him the truth and tell him was waiting on a train. He didn't really know how to respond. ‘You know that's illegal?’ ‘Yep.’ After which he just asked me some questions about how I go about riding trains, and then he told me he didn't want to get a call from UP and that I should keep my head down. I told him that I had talked to the workers and they seemed cool, and besides there's no train yard there. It would be easy, I told him. He seemed taken aback that the workers would help me out, but just took down my name and told me I should get out of town as soon as possible. All things considered, he wasn't too much of a dick. Just after he left another truck pulled up... It was a city worker. He wanted to make sure I wasn't being harrassed by the cop. Weird. Anyway, I just basically repeated to him what I had told the cop. He seemed pretty down with it all. Arlington is a really pretty little town, with nice people. Whenever I get around to decided where I'm gonna' relocate to I will have to consider Arlington. The Columbia River Gorge is amazingly beautiful. I spent most of the day waiting in the hot sun hoping that a westbound train would pull into the siding and wait long enough for me to get on... No such luck. A couple eastbound trains stopped, but that did me little good unless I wanted to go to Hindle (I think that's the name). I even considered it, but decided I still wanted to try my luck at going to Dunsmuir. The shitty thing was that all day long I could see westbound BNSF trains passing by on the other side of the river. They all stopped before continuing on. I could have taken any one of them to Portland if I could only cross the damn gorge. It was only a two mile swim, but I decided that I shouldn't try with my gear and all (heh...).
As night fell, I finally went to sleep. I hadn't been able to prior to this due to beating down of the sun. It was inescapable. You might think that all of Oregon is forests and grasslands. Not so. This was basically desert. No trees. Little vegetation. Just sand and rocks and shrub growth and hot sun. Sometime during the night I woke to find my train returning. I ran out to catch it only to discover that it didn't want to stop. I was waiting at the far end of the siding too. What the fuck? Isn't it going to stop? Finally as the units approached me, the train came to a rest... I started running again, even though I was already out of breath. I made it about half way down the train when it started back in the previous direction. At this point I was pissed. I called out to the night, ‘Where the fucking hell are you going?’ It didn't make any sense. I knew they couldn't go back to Portland until they switched the units from one end to the other... So what was it doing headed backwards? I started running back the other way and finally tried to get on it. I rode the ladder back to about where I first started running. Finally the damn thing came to a rest. At some point in there I had tried to jump onto it on the fly and bailed, so now my leg and arm were cut up and bleeding. Here I am hobling along, totally exhausted from trying to find a fucking ridable well, running down the the side again for the third time. Finally when they cut power I decided that I had enough time to walk instead of run. I was halfway down the train when the units passed me. I started running again. Finally I found a couple rideable wells right in front of a workers truck. What the hell... They probably won't care. I got on and sat down and rested. It wasn't long before I realized that I was sitting in broken glass. The damn thing was filled with shards of glass... I ditched and got on the next rideable well. Same story. And the third as well. Finally I decided I would simply throw all the shards over the side... There wasn't really that many. It wasn't dangerous, only inconvenient and not really something I wanted to deal with at this point. The train started up and I slept for about an hour before waking up. I wanted to make sure I got off the damn thing in Portland and not end up back towards Seattle... I hadn't slept but about three hours in the last day at this point. While certainly not torture, this is important for the next part of the story... But that will have to wait until the next posting... I'm not going to the show with John, but I want to give my fingers a rest and send this one off. Maybe I'll even work more on this later tonight... Okay, hope all is well out there... ---FC
FC's Journal #16, part 2 - June 21, 2003 - 1:11 am
After we arrived in Portland I got off and took the bus into town. This was just after sun up. I got into town and hung out for a while, reorganizing my pack and trying to track down a cafe called 'Sisters of The Road' I had heard about. After looking all over the place, I finally tracked it down only to discover that it didn't open for another hour. I sat and rested until then. A prostitute asked me if I wanted to go on a 'date'. New experiences abound. After the Sisters opened I realized that it was mostly a homeless clientele and that I would be better off else where. I bought some food and headed to the Burnside skate park as it was just down the road from the train yard... I watched kids skate for a while, but it wasn't long before a GM train came by. I ran the six blocks to the first road the didn't have the tracks blocked. I got to the train just as the last rideable car passed me by... Shit. I walked back to the skate park. Just as I started to lay down my pack, I noticed another train headed southbound.... I ran back to the train and caught a grainer on the fly. I almost bailed, but I got on. I rode the train into the so-called 'golf course yard' 'cause it is right next to a large golf course. This is the same yard where a week later I would get caught at gunpoint by the bull. Anyway, this train stopped. Almost immediately I could hear a worker bleeding air out of the reservoirs on the cars. I knew this train wasn't headed anywhere for a long time. I waited for him to pass by before I stuck my head out... Well, well... There just happened to be a fully made up southbound pig train waiting right next to me. I found a nice ride and waited next to the train for it to air. When it did, I got on and shoved my gear under the semi truck's axels and slid in behind it. We left the yard no problem, but then stopped just outside the yard. I looked down the bull run and could see a truck headed my way. Fuck this. I bolted off the side and ran into some tall weeds. The truck passed by. I decided to wait where I was until the train aired up again. The bull patrolled the train a couple times and then the train aired up... I ran and jumped on again. My gear and I sat under the axels. We headed out, no problem. Hahaha... Fuckers. I caught a pig train (it's pretty easy to see riders on pigs) in the middle of the day while the bull patrolled the train. I felt pretty good. Maybe it was karma that I would be caught on a pig train a week later here...
I stayed awake to the next crew change in Eugene. When we pulled in, it was late afternoon... I saw a guy at the northend of the yard waiting to try and catch on the fly. My train came to a rest on the mainline... I knew we wouldn't be here too long. I crawled out from under the axels... I had rigged my gear up so that it was hanging from the underside of the semi... I figured that it wouldn't be able to be seen there. If something came down the bull run, I would simply crawl off the side of the train and hang off the opposite side and hide behind the wheels. As I sat and watched the bull run, I heard a noise behind me. Six punks were crossing the highway to the train yard, not a hundred yards back. I ran back to talk to them. They were headed to Dunsmuir as well, but were unwilling to risk riding a pig train. Just as well, I didn't want extra heads to be seen on my train. The warned me about Klamath Falls and 'Roger the Dodger', the nearly mythical bull of K Falls. Shortly afterward my train aired up. I waved to them and we headed south again. I decided to stay up even though I was hella' tired at this point. I had had about three hours of sleep in the last thirty six hours. As the sun started to set, my eye lids started getting really heavy. I had decided to stay awake for K Falls so that I could hide from Roger... I managed to stay awake thanx to smoking a few cigarettes... I'm sure everyone out there will be thrilled to hear this, but I've taken up the ugly habit of smoking. I'm not addicted yet, nor do I plan to be, but I have started smoking occasionally when I need something to keep me awake or I am really pissed off or bored. I know it sucks, but whatever... I'm a big boy. I can make my own decisions.
Anyway, we finally arrived in K Falls. I had my gear stowed away and I was ready for anything they had waiting for me. As we pulled into the yard, a worker was standing next to the train. Was this the dreaded Roger? I slid deeper under the axels. Finally the train came to rest... We were on the mainline again... We wouldn't be waiting for long. I just hoped that I could evade the security of the yard until then... I watched down the bull run for the impending spotlighting of the train... Nothing happened. I waited a full half hour longer. Still nothing. What's up? Finally, so little was going on that I drifted off to sleep.... I woke when the train aired and started moving. What a fucking joke... I had heard that this yard was hella' tough, but it seemed more like the opposite to me. Of course nearly a week later I would be caught here as well... As we headed over the road, I collapsed from exhaustion. I woke and we were in a siding. After about an hour of sitting I decided to walk up to the front of the train and ask the engineer what was up... Pig trains are intermodal and IM trains are supposed to have priority... Why were we waiting so long? I hung out by the lead unit for a moment, but no one was around. I walked inside and woke up the engineer... I must have scared the hell out of him. After apologizing to him, he assured me that we would be moving soon and that we would be stopping in Dunsmuir. We were about twelve miles outside of town right now. I walked back to my car and got on and promptly went to sleep. I should have gotten off...
I woke when the train started moving again... I looked up and saw workers all over the place. If I didn't know any better, I would say I was in a yard. Then the sign, Dunsmuir, passed us by... What the fuck? I had slept through the train starting up again and stopping in Dunsmuir. I looked down, only to discover that we were going way to fucking fast for me to bail. FUCK! I had slept through the fucking crew change! We headed southbound towards Roseville... It was a mere two hundred miles south of Dunsmuir... I think I will break for the night now... God, I'm not even half way done with this story yet. Probably closer to a third of the way. Okay, so ya'll will have full email boxes for the next few days while I try to pound out the rest of the story... Hope all is well. ---FC
FC's Journal #16, part 3 - June 21, 2003 - 5:49 pm
Hey ya'll... After the train took off in Dunsmuir and I discovered that I had missed my crew change, I was hella' pissed. Here I had stayed up for most of the previous two days to try and make sure I make it to Dunsmuir in time for Hobofest. It was now Friday morning, the beginning of the festival. I was going to have to go a good four hundred miles out of my way just to get back to Dunsmuir, never mind the fact that Roseville has a reputation of being a hot yard. Great... Suffice it to say, I was very angry for the better part of the next day. As the train rolled through the mountains of northern California, I was amazed by the beauty of the surrounding country, but it was little consolation to my loss. I decided I would get off the train the first time it slowed down and try to hitch back. At first I thought I might be able to just walk back to Dunsmuir as the train crawled through the mountain passes. Unfortunately, thirty miles an hour is still way too fast to get off, so I stayed on. When the train finally went into a siding, I was already forty miles south of Dunsmuir. I decided, fuck this, I'm gonna' try and hitch back. It's only forty miles.
I got off of my pig and walked up to the onramp for the nearest interstate. No traffic. I waited about ten minutes and saw one car. I was gonna' be here a long time. I had considered even trying to hike the forty miles back to Dunsmuir (it would take me a little over a day at a good pace), but I was almost out of water and entirely out of food. I was in the middle of no where as well, so I couldn't find any place to get provisions. After a couple of hours of screwing around, I decided I would go back to the railroad and see if the train was still there. By all counts it shouldn't have been, but low and behold, it was. Pig trains are intermodal and should have priority over everything else (sans Amtrak). Why was this train sitting for so long? It had now been nearly two hours since it had stopped. As I later learned there was track maintenance occuring south of Redding and north of Klamath Falls, and this was slowing all traffic down considerably. I crawled back onto my pig train and went to sleep.
Several hours later, after a total of five hours of waiting, a northbound train blew past us and we aired up. I had decided that even a trip to Roseville and back would be less inconvenient than trying to hitch-hike from the middle of nowhere. I hung out on the pig, hoping against all odds that we would slow down while passing a northbound train in a siding... This is somewhat unlikely as the train that stays on the mainline usually rockets past the other train. We passed through Redding. About fifty miles further south, thankfully the train slowed to pass a northbound GM train. As the train slowly crept up to the siding, I could see that the northbound was UP as well. It would be heading through Dunsmuir. I got my gear ready and waited for us to approach the train. Though we were going slow enough for me to safely get off the train at this point, we were still a good half mile away from the other train. If I got off now, I wouldn't be able to get to the other train before it took off. I hung off the side of the train, ready to toss my gear the moment the train sped up... It started to do so just before we reached the other train... I waited until we were going about as fast as I could safely get off. Even by the time I threw my gear we were going at a good clip. I jumped off just as we passed the lead unit of the other train. I bailed. I flipped over, but wasn't injured other than a couple scrapes and bruises. As I picked myself up, I realized that I wasn't alone. The engineer of the lead unit was standing no more than ten feet away. I picked up my gear and asked him if he minded me riding his train. He acted as if he saw hobos flip off of trains all the time and said that as long as I didn't ride the units, I was welcome to ride their train. I started running down the side, hoping that I would have enough time to find something rideable. I came across a nice grainer, but it was just a couple cars behind the units... I wanted something further back. After running down about half the train, I came to an open boxcar.
I looked inside only to discover that it was already inhabited. I asked the woman if she minded if I rode as well. She said I should climb aboard. As I got on I realized that there was another woman on board as well. Crazy... Anyway, they were on their way to Hobofest as well. S and V were from Los Angeles. They had taken Amtrak from LA to Roseville and then ridden this boxcar north. It had taken an incredibly long time, as they had been riding for nearly 15 hours and had yet to make it to Redding yet. Apparently the track repair was slowing everything down enormously. This was the first ride for S and she wasn't enjoying it very much. V had ridden off and on for the last five years, and had learned from some of the 'VIP hobos' (for lack of a better term). There's a bunch of riders that help to put out the crew change guide and are known coast to coast as influential in modern train riding. She had ridden with L from Santa Cruz and was friend's with Brakeshoe. Anyway, after we got north of the track repair in Redding the train started to pick up speed. We passed back through the mountains and S and V started taking pictures from the boxcar. S was a film student and V was a photographer by trade. After a while we finally came to Dunsmuir again.
It was fortunate that I was riding with people who knew where the camp was, 'cause I had no idea where to go once we got off the train. We walked into town and headed to a grocery store. We bought food and beer and readied ourselves for a weekend of partying. We bumped into some other riders... Then made our way to camp. Many hobos go by their real names, but some have 'rail names' as well... We met people with names like 'Red Red', 'Train Doc', 'Adman', and 'Brakeshoe'... Some of which I had already met. Arky and Butternut were there. It was good to see them. I was excited to tell them all the stories I had from the previous month, as they were ready to talk my ear off as well. About fifty dirty tramps were crowded around the campfire, all swapping stories and sipping beer, when the local sherrifs made an appearance. They came in to try and break up the camp... Little did they know that someone had secured a camping permit for the site months previous. They forced people to leash their dogs and put out the campfire (even though we had a fire permit as well). Finally they left after discovering that there was little more that they could do... This wasn't the last trouble we would have with them.
But I think I must break again for now... I will continue the story later (perhaps tonight?). I am doing well. I still haven't decided what I am going to do about my legal crap. Part of me wants to turn myself in, part of me wants to bail and go down south to meet up with Arky and Butternut, part of me wants to go home, and part of me wants to go to Oakland to hang out with the girl I met the other night... Regardless, I think I'm done riding UP trains for a while. Also, I'm giving serious thought to not riding with anyone else ever again, unless I am really good friends with them. I don't think we would have gotten caught in K Falls if there wasn't so many of us... And I know I wouldn't have gotten caught coming back into Portland if I were by myself. I wanted to get off the first time the train slowed down (several miles south of the yard) but Sam convinced me to stay on. Even when I saw a truck way down the line we could have bailed, but didn't. I like Sam... He's a good guy and I'm not trying to blame him, but I wouldn't be in this mess if I had done what my instincts told me to do. Anyway, ya'll have to wait until I can recap what all happened in both cases in more detail. Okay, hope all is well. ---FC