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Austin to Seattle - A Train Travelogue
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Chandra Mouli
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Seattle - San Jose
After my stay in Seattle for couple of days, I took the ``Coast Starlight'' to Los Angeles. From Seattle, the ``Coast Starlight'' takes the southern route along Puget Sound coastline upto Olympia, WA. We crossed the Puyallup river and entered Tacoma, WA. From here we could see the Puget Sound coast and the Olympic Mountains to our right. We saw the very impressive Tacoma Narrows bridge (This bridge collapsed soon after its construction, and the disaster was attributed to `resonance' -- engineers learnt about the destructive potential of this well known physical phenomenon after this accident and it resulted in a thorough redesign of this suspension bridge and bridge constructions all over the world !) We left Puget Sound behind and entered Olympia, the capital of Washington. We passed through Winlock, known as the `Egg Capital' of the world, due to its large egg production. (Wenatchee, I remembered, was the `Apple Capital' of the world, and soon to be seen, Longview, is the `Smelt Capital' of the world -- lots of capital towns indeed in this state of Washington !) As we crossed Toutle river, near Castle Rock, we could see the volcanic, Mt. St. Helens. It seems this town was fully covered with volcanic ash during Mt. St. Helen's explosion in 1980. We reached Longview, another little town which experienced the fury of Mt. St. Helens. Columbia river was flowing to our right and the state of Oregon was on the other side. Before entering Portland we had a beautiful view of Mt. Hood. Since Portland is a meeting point for the Burlington Northern and Southern Pacific, the train switches railroads here and hence we had about 20 minutes to get out and walk around the station. When we left Portland, we entered the Willamette valley. The Cascade Mountains were on our left and the Coast Range on our right. We do feel the presence of being in a valley and get a beautiful view of both mountain ranges. The scenery is great with dense forests, many waterfalls and lush green mountain slopes. We entered Salem, the capital of Oregon. From the station we could see the capitol building and a not-so-pleasant looking statue on top of it. Albany, OR, was our next stop. This is a major lumber center in Oregon. With some difficulty we could spot the `Three Sisters' mountain peaks far away. We passed by the beautiful country side with tiny houses and lush green fields. Near Springfield, OR, the train started to climb the Cascade mountains and the terrain becomes totally different. The train passes through the Willamette National Forest. We saw spectacular views as the train climbed the Cascades -- it was very steep. We passed the Salt Creek Canyon after several hairpin bends. We could see the Willamette Ski resort and tall Douglas Fir trees lined up all along the route. We entered the Cascade Summit and reached Chemult, OR. Several tall peaks were visible from this town all around us.
From here the train follows the Willamson river. We reached Klamath Falls after sunset and the views of the tall peaks under moonlight was dramatic. Early morning the next day, the train reached Sacramento, the capital of California. At Richmond and Berkeley the train joins the BART metro system of San Fransisco. After we left Richmond, we could see the beautiful Golden Gate Bridge and the San Fransisco skyline. From Oakland all the way to San Jose it was like traveling inside a city. The walls on either side of the railroad tracks were covered with ugly graffiti reminding us that we are passing through the inner city. The ``Coast Startlight'' reached San Jose at 12.00 noon, almost 2.5 hours late ! I got down in San Jose to meet few of my friends and took the same train the next day to L.A.
Chandra Mouli
