Follow Those Tracks

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 be in. At about the same age I was taken aside and quietly rebuked by mom and Pastor Gruamann that it was considered poor form to jump up and run out of church to watch the train go by; even if it had just blown it’s horn for the grade crossing two blocks away. Where I grew up in Riverside was conveniently centrally located one mile in either direction from Union Pacific and Santa Fe mainlines heading east out of Los Angeles on their way to Cajon Pass. I rode my bike many a mile following any spur track that switched off of the mainline. I mean, hey, it had to go somewhere.

The explorer mentality is still with me to this day. Not long after moving to Tehachapi fifteen years ago, I started eyeballin’ those tracks that cut across Highway 14 as you head west out of Mojave. Before the Hwy 58 bypass was constructed, all that you could see of those tracks was that they headed north, around the Mojave Airport and then deliciously disappearing into the desert. They had to go somewhere. As time went by I found myself wondering, intrigued and fascinated by the mystery of what adventure could be found by following those tracks. Where did they go? For what purpose did they exist?

My wife has pretty much always enjoyed the sharing of my wanderlust mentality, even when we would end up in places that we probably would never have gone to intentionally. When they were younger and full of wonder, our two boys enjoyed the trips to nowhere just for the sake of going there. As they got older, it got less and less cool to do day long road trips with the old folks. Today was different. Today we were going to all follow the tracks. I mean, hey, they have to go somewhere.

Using a map would be cheating. This Saturday morning we would follow the tracks with only our eyes, intuition, imagination and dead reckoning. Heading north on Hwy 14 out of Mojave the tracks come in and out of view across the landscape. We found our way through Cantil and Roberto, remnants of towns still surviving in the desert. When trying to keep the tracks in view from the car you don’t always recollect what road you turned down or the number of the highway. As long as the tracks are still in view, all is well. At some point in the desert is a place called Searles Jct. and we decided to follow the tracks towards Trona, Calif. Come to find out that in Trona they mine soda ash and have their own railroad that interchanges with UP there at Searles Jct. On the way to Trona we make an absolutely wonderful discovery. There, rising out of Searles dry lakebed were the Trona Pinnacles. This otherworldly landscape is made up of over 500 tufa (calcium carbonate) spires formed from minerals in underground springs that bubbled up into the lake thousands of years ago. I don’t remember if we went the ten more miles into Trona, but we had quite a fun day exploring. The pinnacles have appeared in dozens of SciFi TV shows and movies – including Star Trek, Lost in Space, Battlestar Galactica and Planet of the Apes. We followed the tracks, officially known as the Jawbone Branch, into the desert and discovered another world, complete with bizarre geological formations, learned some local history and had a great time doing it. I urge everyone to get out there and follow the tracks to somewhere you have never been before.