Travel report : North Carolina - 08-24-2009
| All right: It´s train chasing for today! After breakfast we want to follow the Natahala Gorge train and take some nice pictures. A few video clips should alse be feasable. The gas tank is still half full, the navi system is prepared, only our stomachs need some grub. We took care of the latter in the station area and were ready half an hour before the train left. Well, you don´t need much time for an omelett and a cup of coffee... | |
| After we stated that we had to make a right some 500 yards behind us, we made another U-turn to take US-19. Just behind Bryson City city limits, we found a dirt road leading into a park. Great! Enough space to park the car and find a suitable photo spot. Convienently enough, the train passes the river on a more than 100-year old bridge. This guarantees for nice pictures... | An aerial view of our photo spot: |
| The caboose had just passed by and we were back into the car, cutting a few curves. To my surprise, one or two serpentines forced me to cut down to 20 mph. But an automatic transmission can also be handled like a manual one... After 9 miles of curvy roads we had to state thet the track and the road diverged too much and once again, we had to turn around and go back. On US-19 again, we went to the Nantahala Outdoor Center. Directions were quite simple: stay on US-74 and make a sharp right at the entrance. We just made it. Somehow, we must have been a bit faster than the average because it took another 15 minutes before the train´s arrival. Only, it didn´t stop (as we were told). This guy went right through the station! Which initiated an alarm-start on our side... | |
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| Back into the car after the bridge scene and then the Charger could show it´s capabilities. Speed limit? What´s that? After a short spell on US-19 we had to leave it again since Joern discovered a small side road featuring a grade crossing on his navi. right turn, left turn, park the car and wait for things to come was one. | Again, the foto spot from a bird´s view: |
Not only railroads were at stake, Mother Nature also had some to show off:  |
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A shady space for the car was quickly found. Hmmm, alcohol and fire arms are not permitted here but shooting works also without them :-))
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| A couple of miles further down US-19, the next announcement: "Make a right at the next chance." Heard it, did it. In a 90° right turn, an old trestle was basking in the sun and in front of it was enough space to park the car. Joern took care of the right side while I stayed at the left, camera and video cam ready. | I also have an aerial view of this spot, Lower Alaska Rd.: |
The next foto spot was the Nantahala Outdoor Center:  | |
| From now on, the right of way parallels the road, only on the other bank of the river. Complicating the situation (from a photographer´s point of view ) was the fact that the area is heavily forested and there are only a few spaces where you can stop and park the car safely. Statement from my right side: "In about 600 yards is a side road to the right; take it." Pity, the car doesn´t have a classic handbrake: Those 600 yards suddenly were very short. Well, if I can´t drift, I have to brake. Turn the wheel to the right for 270° and put the pedal down again. Now, we found ourselves on a dirt road leading to a gravel facility. Since that was private property we decided to stay on the dirt road and wait for our train here. | |
| After having "played" with sideroads for another three or four times, we found a wide open area directly at US-74. So we perched up here and waited for the train. We heard it well enough... only we didn´t see it coming up. Suddenly Joern, who was on lookout, told me that the train wasn´t a train any more but only locos. Darn it! So we headed back to the outdoor center and waited there. This time, the train stopped and we had a nice blarney with the conductor (Thanks Toni!). After all, he had to kill an hour overlay here. Inbetween, we heard the comments from the riders who of course saw us following the trains. Some of them were quite funny and we had a blast relaxing at the center. After that, it was back to Bryson for a decent cup of coffee. The rest of the day was declared as siesta and used to sort out the pictures. | |
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© 2009 by Erhard Baltrusch, Hamburg, Germany