Trip Report Socially Distancing along the Transcontinental Railroad

Stephen

Who Dares Wins
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Much like a few weeks ago when we went out along the Pony Express Trail, Heather and I decided that we needed to get out and experience the world beyond our zip code. Word of our PET trip had reached a handful of family and friends, so this time we had a caravan of five vehicles as we traversed the historic Transcontinental Railroad grade.

Everyone met at the Sinclair in Corinne, where we got to see a drunk driver in a Mazda6 slam into one of the support pillars at the station then speed away after he bought a 24 pack of Coors. Some people start their Sunday’s differently than others I suppose! After that excitement we made our way to the Golden Spike National Historic Park, which is open to wander outside, you just can't go into the museum. So the people who hadn’t been there before poked around a bit while the rest of us stood around in the parking lot discussing our thoughts about the end of the world.

Our next stop was down at the Spiral Jetty, and for the first time in a long time, the water was right up to the edge of the Jetty! Can’t remember the last time I saw the water that high, so that’s a good sign for the lake!

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Also, much like Simpson Springs on the PET, I’ve never seen so many people at the Spiral Jetty.

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As we headed back towards the start of the TCRR’s West Auto Tour, at least twenty more cars were puttering towards the Spiral Jetty. To paraphrase Firefly, “It’s getting crowded in my desert.” Once we hit the actual TCRR though, traffic disappeared, just our group and the open road; always a relaxing feeling!

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We stopped in Kelton for lunch and wandered around looking at the cemetery and the remaining foundations. It was beautiful and sunny for the hour or so that we were there, and aside from the occasional UTV’r blasting past with no regard for the people around them, quite peaceful. But finally a storm started to blow in, so we packed up and headed on west to Terrace.

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After Kelton is my favorite part of the TCRR because when you are up on the grade and it just pokes out into the horizon like an arrow, it really does feel like it must have on those early trains. And with low clouds diffusing the light, just beautiful.

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When we pulled up to the cemetery at Terrace, the temperature had probably dropped 15 degrees from when we were at Kelton and the rain was starting to move in. So we only stuck around for a few minutes before mounting up again and making our way to Lucin.

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Conditions had deteriorated even further when we rolled into Lucin. The wind was intense and driving the rain. But Lucin is such an interesting place that we decided to brave it and wader around for awhile looking at the dugouts, foundations, and artificial lake.

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From Lucin we made the short jaunt down to the Sun Tunnels, and amazingly, the sky cleared and the wind stopped right after we pulled up! So everyone had a good time playing around in the tunnels, taking pictures, and soaking up some sun.

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Next up was the 52-mile slog from the Sun Tunnels to I-80 along the perpetually washboarded Bar TIL Ranch Road. Surprisingly, only about half of it was horrible. But that was enough!

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Our final stop of the day was at the “entrance” to the Bonneville Speedway. Having just rained and the clouds low, it was showing off it's surreal glory. It’s also here that I found that I had likely clipped a spike on the TCRR with my right front. So I spent the time swapping tires while everyone else was enjoying the scenery. But hey, at least it gave me an excuse to by some KM3’s when I got home!

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Everyone had a great time and it was another successful “social distancing” trip, so I’m sure there will be another one in the not too distant future!
 
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