Sacramento Saunter

On our first morning in Sacramento The Sprout woke up early. Much to early for the rest of the team so I bundled her up and took her out for a walk. I decided to head over to the California State Capitol Mall. There were a bunch of waymarks in the area I wanted to visit and a benchmark that was historic in nature that I wanted to see as well. The Sacramento Longditude-Granite Meridian Stone-1888 is one of the original survey markers for a very early survey in The West.


The park is really beautiful and The Sprout had a blast walking about and looking at the different sites. I was able to place several waymarks in the area in addition to the many that were already there. My favorite surprise of the day was a El Camino Real Bell that I didn't know was there. When I had researched them before coming down it looked like the closest would have been out of my reach to visit or waymark.


After we had wandered through the park a while I got a call from Mrs. Bean. She and The Bean Himself were up and ready for some breakfast and the day.

Into California

I woke up early and wandered around the streets for Weed doing a bit of geocaching and waymarking before loading up the family and heading on south. I was able to grab Fore Edgewood and photos for a few waymark visits and postings. I wanted to make a stop in Dunsmuir. This is a town full of rail related history and I thought The Bean Himself would like to roam around a bit. Our first stop was a short hike to Hedge Creek Falls. While there we grabbed a geocache. Hedge Creek Falls is a lovely little fall with a trail under and beneath the cascade. The trail goes on out to an overlook of the Sacramento River with a view of Mt. Shasta to the north.

Next we stopped at an old steam engine display. It was Southern Pacific 1727, a class M-6 Mogul built by Balwin.


After the hike we wandered the picturesque streets of Dunsmuir. The main drag is almost lost in time with its town clock and the California Theater along with the other historic structures through town.


We spent a bit more time here than we anticipated and stopped in at the visitors center then wandered around down by the turntable and the Amtrak Station. We stopped in for a coffee at the Brown Trout Cafe and then headed on down the road.

We didn't make it far because I had heard of a unique caboose motel that was nearby so we dropped in to see it for ourselves. Rail Road Park Resort has over twenty cabooses that have been converted into motel units. Also on site is a Shay style locomotive Class 70-3. One of only 5 examples made by the Willamette Iron and Steel Works in Portland Oregon that survives.


The resort sits at the base of Castle Crags and is a beautiful location to relax.

We asked permission to wander around and look at all the caboose....(cabeese?) and The Bean Himself had a blast looking at all of the different logos and pointing out his favorites which all happened to be Santa Fe's.




We continued south for a bit and stopped to do a few geocaches that I had read about. After a short hike we came upon the location for the first geocache, Old I-5: Bridge to the Past. It is on an abandoned arch bridge along a section of old Highway 99. I waymarked it as the Harlan D. Miller Memorial Bridge-Dog Creek Bridge- near Vollmers California. Next we drove beneath the bridge and found Master Builder and got another perspective of this fantastic bridge.

We finally hit the road in earnest and made a straight shot for Sacramento where we checked in and then went out for dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory. The restaurant is located in a former depot of the Western Pacific Railroad. It is a great old structure that heralds an era gone by.

California in April

In early April we took a little vacation to visit Sacramento and the California State Railroad Museum that is located there in Old Town.

We left after work on Wednesday and drove until we reached the metropolis of Weed. It was around 27 degrees and it was a bit surprising getting out of the van and into the cold night air.