Amtrak and Hike

Argh.  It’s been kind of an upsetting day.  We spent the morning watching live coverage of the train derailment in Washington.  Given the degree of destruction involved, it’s a miracle more people were not hurt or killed. For those of you who may have missed the coverage, an Amtrak train derailed on an overpass over I5 near Joint Base Lewis-McChord.  The track belongs to Sound Transit, and today was the inaugural trip by Amtrak on that rail.  There has been a long project to get the Amtrak trains off a route along Puget Sound that's bogged down by curves, single-track tunnels and freight traffic.  it did not work out so well for anyone.

That’s the train, and one of the cars hanging on to the freeway.  A subject of some discussion on the news was how in the heck they would get the log trucks turned around. There is another one behind the one you can see.  A lot of heavy equipment is going to have to be brought in to remove the wreckage.  I5 is going to be closed for some time. 

This just defies comprehension.  See the little Kia Soul on the left? They lived.  No one on the ground was killed by the falling train cars.

Talk about the golden BB.

After awhile it was time to go outside.  The clouds moved out and it warmed up some.  We went out to the Sarasota Trailhead, and then on up the Cat Mountain Trail.  The desert is just luminous after it rains.  Everything is so bright.

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The hummer continues to claim the feeder as his own.  He spent most of the day hanging out, drinking and grooming.  Here he is working on his back.  Given the length of his beak, there are parts of him that can’t be reached.  If they were nicer birds they could groom each other, but noooooooooo.

So, that’s it from the SW and the GPNW.