FL9

Our first stop after leaving the Orange Caboose on Saturday morning was at the “Goat Lick” overlook.  When I had shot the mother goat and her kid yesterday I had been standing on the shoulder of Route 2; but there is an actual overlook you access from an off the road parking lot and a short walk down a paved path.  As the Flathead River carved out the valley over the centuries, in this spot it exposed a cache of minerals spread over a steep slope that the goats come for miles around to lick by instinct for their health.  Five of them were present this morning, moving vetically with the same ease as you or I would move horizontally.

Returning to the parking area, we looked across at the Sheep Creek trestle just as one of the helper sets was drifting back downgrade to Essex.

On the radio we could hear an eastbound approaching Essex to pick up a helper set, so we headed furhter east to the Java area that we had bypassed yesterday.  I drove up the access road next to the railroad overpass over Highway 2, and discovered the Java East switch where the line expands back to two tracks to climb eastward towards Marias Pass.  Looking west I could see the famous big bridge over the Flathead River and Java Creek just east of the Java West switch where two tracks became one to cross the trestle.  Driving back up the highway a few hundred yards we found a dirt road that led back towards the bridge.  The road was partially blocked on purpose with boulders, but there was enough room to drive the Trailblazer down the middle with a few inches to spare on each side.  At the end it opened out into a small clearing next to the tracks with a good view of the bridge.  Looking back up the trail we had just driven down offered a great view of the woods and Running Rabbit Mountain in the distance.

I could tell right away that the best lighting for this shot was going to be in the spring or early summer when the sun was more to the north.  Right now in the fall with the sun in the south the light was right down the nose, and was not good from either side.  I thought about getting up close to the track for a head on shot, but then the big bridge would hardly be visible.  I considered moving on, but since this was our first time here, I decided to take the shot anyway and plan on a better one sometime in the future.  Before long we saw the train coming along the huge gravel bank above the river at Java West and then start across the bridge as I took a vertical shot to show the depth of the canyon here.

I flipped back to a horizontal shot as the BNSF 7673 East was about to reach the end of the bridge next to our location.

The sound of the head end power attacking the grade was soon replaced by the relative silence of the cars on welded rail.  This only lasted for about a minute, and then was overshadowed by the sound of the two turbocharged SD40-2’s shoving hard on the rear as they appeared on the bridge.

The helper crew gave a friendly wave as they approached Java East.  I’m sure they see as many railfans as they do goats and bears and elk on their multiple daily trips over the pass.

We negotiated our way back through the boulders, and quickly caught up with the train as we scouted for more angles.