Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide
Sorted by date Results 51 - 68 of 68
The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) covers 2,663 miles of rugged terrain following the ranges of California, Oregon and Washington. Most hikers start at the Mexican border and, if they finish, complete the hike at the Canadian border. They gain significant altitude as they cross the towering Sierra Nevada and Cascade ranges. The National Park Service designated the route as a National Scenic Trail in 1968. It was completed and dedicated in 1993. The trail goes through western Antelope Valley and over...
At full build-out, the California High-Speed Rail (HSR) will have stations in eight of the 10 largest cities in the state, including Bakersfield and Palmdale. While Tehachapi does not meet the criteria for "big," the proposed track alignment through the Tehachapi Valley leaves open the possibility that one day a station could be built to serve the Tehachapi community. "We plan for the future. We made sure the alignment is long and straight," Project Manager Juan Carlos Velasquez told a crowd of...
Our friend, Noel Dees, was the middle child of five children. He was born November 3, 1918 – eight days before the end of WWI, in Wirt, OK, an oil boom town. His father worked in the oil fields and the family came to Calif. in 1923. His Father worked for Shell Oil Co. and they first lived in LaHabra for almost a year, then moved to Brownsville, Tex. hoping for more money. After 10 months, the family was back in Calif., this time in Long Beach, but his father always liked Mojave and when Noel was...
Two snowstorms blanketed the Tehachapi area like holiday bookends a week apart at the tail-end of 2016 -- one starting just before Christmas Eve morning and one on New Year's night, ushering in both festive days on a palette of dazzling white. Rather than being light and dry and forming a winter-long base, the Tehachapi area snow typically is wet and, in the absence of sustained freezing temperatures, melts quickly. According to the weather web site Mountainbase.com, located at Oak Knolls in...
Road construction update for Dec. 2016...
The California Highway Patrol Mojave Station (Mojave Area/Inland Division) opened its spacious two-year-old facility at 1313 Hwy. 58 (not the weigh station at Cache Creek) to the public on Aug. 6, 2016. Officers were on hand to answer questions and demonstrate their tools, including less lethal shotguns, tasers, drug-sniffing dogs, car seat education and impaired driver education. Lt. John Williams is commander of the Mojave Area, which is recruiting men and women between the ages of 15 and 21...
If there were any serious objections to the proposed route of the California High-Speed Rail (HSR) track over the Tehachapi pass, the 45 people who attended the project community update July 20 in Tehachapi were pretty quiet about it. The single question from the audience following the HSR Authority presentation related to fire safety along the electric rail line. People got answers to their questions from a dozen project engineers and managers who fielded questions one-on-one in a relaxed...
Wait, what? – February blew in with a snowstorm that closed Hwy. 58, and Post Office patrons met with puzzlement when they found that the counter was closed on Feb. 1 (see sign). Postal customers accepted the closure with good grace. The most common utterance (detected as Forde Files stuck 65 Save Mart-purchased stamps on a batch of mail) was "What happened to 'Through rain and sleet...?'" According to Wikipedia, the phrase is not an official Post Office motto. It is an inscription on a post o...
Kern County representatives who spoke at the El Nino preparedness meeting Jan. 9 at the Veterans Memorial Hall in Tehachapi offered valuable advice that can – and will – save lives. It's easy to say "Get prepared," but harder to actually sit down and plan it. Red Cross volunteers at the meeting helped attendees jump-start the process by giving out information and Go-Bags filled with life-saving items such as light sticks, emergency blankets, face masks, water and emergency ponchos. Here is som...
Living in a mountainous area such as Tehachapi lends itself to being able to enjoy outdoor activities. One of the many activities that people enjoy here is hiking. As most of you know, the Pacific Crest Trail runs just east of Tehachapi through the windmills and north of Hwy 58, through the eastern Sierras. On occasion, when hikers come into town to take a break from their long trek on the trail, I will get a call to work on someone's painful heel. This brings us to the subject of Plantar...
The Tehachapi Replacement Critical Access Hospital (circled), wrapped by the hills of the Loop Ranch, already stands like a beacon of light above Hwy. 58, the freight train tracks and the city. Construction is moving smoothly toward opening in 2016. The U.S. Post Office on right of the hospital looks attached in this long lens photo taken facing north from across the valley, almost at Highline Road. The white water tank to the right is on the Loop Ranch; the dun-colored water tank to the left...
Lancaster native Tony Schoen began working as a financial controller in the nascent wind industry in 1988 and rode the boom-and-bust roller coaster until he retired from that business in 2004. For 16 years he worked in a small building on the hillside south of Hwy. 58 in the middle of the wind turbines. Describing himself as "a local desert rat," Schoen (pronounced "Shane"), 61, told the Kiwanis Club of Tehachapi of his experiences under Zond, Enron and GE. Schoen first worked with James G.P....
Advance team, engineers share progress at community meetings California High Speed Rail (HSR) Authority has jettisoned a proposed track alignment across the Lehigh Southwest Cement 40-year expansion quarry and Oak Creek-area wind farms in favor of a more westerly route through Cal Portland Cement quarry property. HSR engineers have been meeting with Cal Portland executives to work out the better of two proposed routes through their quarry. Much of the HSR track through the property would be...
Works of art are to be appreciated. I often look at paintings, quilts, ceramics and any attractive work that has been labored over and finished to perfection. It is a pleasure to admire such efforts and appreciate them. I say this because now, as I drive down Woodford-Tehachapi Road, I cannot help but admire the fine paving job that has just been completed. Mostly though, I had to admire the lines painted to show us "our side" of the road and the turn off sections. They are so mathematically...
Hard working, focused and very talented are the best words to describe Cory Lockwood. Raised in the hills of Tehachapi, California, Cory has spent the majority of his life racing. During his two-wheel racing career he has successfully competed in both motorized and human-powered bike events. His talents for two wheels began with motocross from a young age, where he moved through the ranks to a local pro level. After racing motocross, bicycling became his main focus. He began competing in USA...
High Speed Rail Authority Southern California Regional Director Michelle Boehm, briefing the Greater Tehachapi Economic Development Council March 4 on the progress of the $68 billion project, indicated that the exact route through the Tehachapi Mountains has yet to be settled. Two possible High Speed Rail (HSR) routes on the east side of Tehachapi Summit are under consideration (see map). On the west side, the route will negotiate the narrow, steep ascent that the Southern Pacific conquered in...
Engineers designing the California High-Speed Rail (HSR) must move mountains – and people, houses, roads, orchards and maybe a corral or two. Farmers and residents at ground zero in the first segment of the first HSR track to be under construction – a 29-mile stretch from Madera to Fresno – are faced with the reality that they are expected to get out of the way. In spite of funding difficulties and vociferous opposition to the project, it appears the train has left the depot. The next const...
I have been told on more than one occasion by my soon to be sainted mother, that – as a child – I had the unique ability to simultaneously astonish her and be the chauffeur on the ride to crazytown. Returning from a cross country trip in the summer between Second and Third grades, I would let my parents know when we were in the vicinity of any railroad tracks that we had crossed, driven along side of or been anywhere near the previous time through; whatever part of the country we happened to...
