OTT Day #0- July 12, 2018- The Longest train ride to Klamath Falls

And then we were stopped on the track for 4 hours outside Westfir. 

Let me back up. I boarded the Amtrack train just a mile from my house, excited to meet up with Karey and Aliza in Portland, then Deann and Bill in Albany. Most of our journey was uneventful, with a visit to the dining car for beers and snacks and chit chats with each other and a couple of other passengers. Did you know that there is a hidden cabin somewhere in the woods around Oakridge? The older fella on the train told us about it. Gold and lots of it. Maybe on another adventure....

So, other than being a little late, we were still on track (pun fully intended) to arrive in Klamath Falls around 10:00pm, ride a few blocks to our hotel, The Maverick Motel, and get a few hours sleep before Wes Nile, from Hutch's Bicycles was going to pick us up to shuttle us to the trailhead at Cave and Lily Lakes, in California...

Then... we stopped, just outside of Westfir, Oregon. And for those that are unaware, Westfir is outside of Oakridge, where most folks don't have cell reception. The reason for the halt was that a freight train in front of us had struck a car on the tracks and they needed to get it cleared and investigate. "An investigation can take a while. We could be here for hours!" Deann mentioned. And we were. For 4 hours, our train did not move at all and instead of 10:00pm, it was going to be closer to 2:15 am that we'd get into Klamath Falls. Of course, without cell reception, we couldn't tell Wes, so he would still be picking us up at 6:00am.

As you can imagine, after departing the train, loosely strapping our bags to our bikes, riding to the hotel and settling it, we crashed out for our 2-hour nap!