Lots of trains interupted my sleep last night. Only one came thru without blowing his horn. The room was warm enough to have the window open all night, and of course that only amplified the noise. But it really didn’t bother me. Got up at 7:30, had breakfast at 8 when they opened. Good thing too, ’cause I got my choice of seats, they filled up fast with hotel guests and locals. Had the “Train Wreck” – fried skillet of potatoes, eggs, ham, cheese, red peppers and salsa and sour cream. Toast too. A much bigger breakfast than I normally would have. The westbound Empire Builder came thru about 8:30. Again I believe thats a bit late. I figure delays because of the forest fire near Leavenworth.
At 9:30 I grabbed my sandwich out of the fridge and loaded my pack and headed about 6 miles up the road to the Iron Goat Trail Interpretive Site. Clicking this link will open a .pdf map of the trail. The trailhead parking is actually about midway between the true beginning and end of the official trail.
The temp out was moderately warm, probably 70 by the time I started up the trail. The first mile of switchbacks, getting up to the railroad grade, was moderately steep. A good start but the heavy breakfast definately slowed me down more than normal. From there on, 3 miles up to Wellington, site of the 1910 avalanche disaster, was mostly level rail grade. Took me two hours, I didn’t rush it. One tunnel to explore at the beginning, and a 1/2 mile concrete snowshed at the end which the trail went thru. Many interpretive signs to show the avalanche event in Wellington years ago. Lots of history. Saw the west end of the first Cascade tunnel which is no longer used.
After I ate my deli sandwich from the night before(which was very tasty by the way), I slowly headed back down the trail. I got back to the Windy Point overlook at 1:15 and sat on a rock waiting for a train to come E or W bound thru the current Cascade tunnel. At 1:55 nothing had come so instead of continuing to sit in the sun waiting, I decided I could probable “spur” a train to come by heading back to the truck. Sure enough, 100′ down the trail I hear one coming up the valley. So I turn around and head back to Windy Point. 5 min later the train slowly eases into the tunnel, all empty coal cars.Well, my day is now complete! My total hike mileage is approx 8 miles total for the day, the first mile being most difficult, the rest very easy.
After arriving back in “Sky”, I took a shower, then grabbed my book and sat on the front sidewalk/porch in a wonderful mid 80’s breezy shade, enjoying the late afternoon and waiting for more trains to come by. I chatted occasionally with other guests or locals who walked by. There was one more empty coal train sitting out front of the hotel with two pusher engines idling, and they sat there for an hour. Then a westbound stack train showed up, and before it had even finished passing, the waiting coal train started heading east. Wow!!! Some real Action!!! It was just so relaxing at this point to sit there with a cold drink for about 2 hours reading and watching the town go by.
At 5:30 I had dinner in the mostly empty cafe(compared to last night when it was quite busy). The eastbound Empire Builder came thru at 6:35, more on time than last night. At 7:10 I went down to the bar to get a drink and see what else is going on. The Seahawks were on and two older(they looked in their 60’s) backpackers came in to relax. They said they’d just arrived at Stevens Pass at noon today off the Pacific Coast Trail. 145 miles from where they started near Mt Rainier in 13 days. They had one overnight at the lodge at Snoqualmie Pass to clean up and rest, then back out on the trail north. We all chatted with the owner of the hotel for awhile, then I headed back out to the front porch to read some more and gaze at whatever comes by. I stayed on the porch there until about 9, after dark, still quite warm out.