As I write this, my train, the Amtrak Coast Starlight, is atop the Cascade summit heading west toward Eugene, OR. We are in a narrow defile surrounded by blowing snow and six foot high snow drifts. The engineer and brakeman are outside digging the snow out of a switch that is frozen so we can proceed! Wowsa!

Late Monday when I posted the picture of a train in the snowdrift I must have been prescient eh? ;-) At dawn this morning we began a glorious trek into the mountains north of Redding, CA. As the sun came up, every view was a jaw-dropping scene of deep-piled snow, frozen power lines, and white draped fir trees. Spectacular is the only word for it.

This is a picture near Mt. Shasta, CA of a smaller cinder cone known as Shastina. The dual perspective is to compare this with the image below which was taken Wednesday morning through the same observation car window of the Santa Barbara Channel which is about an hour north of Los Angeles. California is an incredible place for the diversity of weather and scenes.

Well we are beginning to move again, so I guess I’ll make it to civilization and be able post this. Cheers to all.