WED: First stop on my way south to LA: Alabama Hills.
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| Alabama Hills / Sierra Nevada (background) |
Unfortunately I couldn't reach the launch here with my rental SUV: conditions seemed good for a possible flight on this North facing site. I was even prepared to make a flight, land at the bottom, stash away my gilder somewhere and hike back up to my car ;-) But in addition having to carry my glider up to launch would probably have been a bit too much for me...
I then continued to Horseshoe Meadows, passing another possible launch: 'Walts Point'.
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| Walts Point |
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| ...what used to be Owens Lake... |
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| Horseshoe Meadows (2950m) |
After another 2 hours driving I reached Tehachapi, having passed huge solar power farms.
Why go to Tehachapi? Because I wanted to see the so called 'Tehachapi Loop'.
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| train going down the loop - 'filling' the complete 360-turn |
This is similar (but on a much larger scale) to the 'loops' in Switzerland: RhB in Brusio (Bernina line), SBB on the Gotthard line), MGB (Matterhorn-Gotthard-Bahn) in Grengiols (with cog wheels) or on the DFB (Dampfbahn Furka Berg) below Gletsch (also with cog wheels). I have been really lucky, as just after a short wait a very long freight train (total of 7 engines: 2 in front/ 3 in the middle/ 2 at the end) went up the loop while at the same time a (rare) passenger train came down the line :-)
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