Day -2
5/14/2023
Corvallis, Or to Northern California
Click here for location (Go Live: 5/16/2023)
It’s hot in Corvallis as Amanda and I load our backpacks into the back of my parent’s car. I hope this bodes well for conditions in California where snow is still hampering efforts, even on the southern sections.
This is it. We’ve gone through each of the boxes of spares and winter gear we are leaving behind in Corvallis and gone over all the instructions we can for parsing it out to us later on the trail. Toothless the Transit Van has been left with friends for safekeeping in Seattle and the last week has been a flurry of packing and transporting boxes between our temporary home in Bellingham and a nearby storage unit. Emails have been sent, instructions printed out and hours have been dedicated to carefully mapping out our route. The final step is to head to our local Amtrak station where Amanda and I will board a train and head south to the Mexican border.
My sister Katie is already in the car. I help Amanda stack her backpack in the back before we all load in. The Willamette valley is in rare form as we speed down Highway 99. The sunny weather has allowed the vegetation to explode in the last week or so and it reminds me of how I used to feel on the last day of school each year,and the promise of a long sunny summer ahead. “It still hasn’t hit me this is actually happen,” I say aloud to the car. Amanda murmurs in agreement. “You two are going to have an amazing time,” Katie chimes in from the passenger seat.
We arrive at the Albany train station a solid 30 minutes before departure. This is a hold-over from the many experiences we had in Germany missing trains by seconds. We wait in the car for a while, until around 4 pm until Amanda’s antsy-ness prompts us out of the car and into the station. Upon entry, we find that the train is delayed by 20 minutes. “Classic Amtrak,” Amanda says with a smile. We wait for a while in the lobby, talking excitedly and also watching the delay time creep up before I finally tell my Mom and sister they don’t have to wait around. Katie suggests that they head back to the house to pick something up they had forgotten and we all stand to embrace for a goodby. Just like that, Amanda and I are by ourselves waiting in a small station for a train headed south.
We wait another 40 minutes in the train station before the announcement is made to head out to the platform for the Coast Starlight 11 southbound from Portland. Excitedly, we pick up our bags and head outside. The train rolls up close to 45 minutes late and we are directed to the back where the sleeper cars are positioned. A kindly conductor welcomes us aboard and shows us to our room - a spacious cabin, by train standards, with a connected bathroom and sink station. We set our things down as the conductor gives an orientation and the train begins to pull away.
We read until dinner time, enjoying the way our world has suddenly come to a near standstill. At 6 pm we head to the diner car to enjoy a surprisingly enjoyable meal. The route has turned east from Eugene and is heading into the mountains. My steak arrives as the train passes the flanks of Lookout Point Lake and we talk about the weekend and the many weekends yet to come.
After dinner we return to our room and read some more, looking outside after every page to enjoy the dying light on the mountains of Southern Oregon. “We are going to walk all the way back” Amanda says. “Yes we are,” I say in response “still can’t believe it.” Eventually I am too tired to read and shut my Kindle down before passing out to the steady rocking of the train.
