August 27 Work Session

RPI held another work session Saturday, August 27, but this one had a special distinction:  probably the hottest weather we have experienced yet during a work session.  The high at Llano that day was 108.  Temperatures along the line almost certainly got as high as 105 and maybe higher.  As President Leland Stewart said, "this is not a record I ever want us to break."

We did get some work done but almost entirely at the wye before leaving and then during the trip down to Kingsland.  I brought a wheeled weedwhacker and attacked the northern spur, and also worked my way toward the western spur.  Here's a photo of the results on the north side (Mike and Valerie Businger are coming up in their MR-19-A-3):

And, before taking off, I took the following photos.  The first is of Jerry Light, Marty Reimer and Leland Stewart next to Lou Houck's Northern Pacific motorcar (an M-9).

Then Lou came out from behind his motorcar and we got him in the picture as well:

On the way down to Kingsland we saw quite a bit of wildlife, including three foxes, a buck, several does, a fawn and a skunk.  Fortunately no one got sprayed.  We stopped frequently to cut back branches and mesquite and to dig out crossings, although the Chamas Ranch crossing was, to our surprise and pleasure, graded so we had to do only a minimum of work.  I asked Leland to stop before one of the tall steel truss bridges so I could cut back some heavy brush with a gas-powered hedge trimmer I acquired recently.  Here's what is looked like after I cut it back:

The brush was closer to the tracks before I worked on it, so I think the hedge trimmer had an impact.  There's lots more brush like this to cut in that area, but it was already getting hot so we decided to leave that job for a cooler day.

We had lunch at Spyke's, down by the Campa Pajama Lane crossing, and then went up to Scobie Spur and turned around.  The rest of the session was primarily devoted to getting back to home base in one piece as we were slowly grilled by the sun and heat. 

Participants in the work session included Leland Stewart, Jerry Light, Martin Reimer, Michael and Valerie Businger, Lou Houck, Ron Pereida and George Gray.  All of the cars, with the exception of Jerry's Gator, were poppers.  The entire group adjourned to the Llaneux Seafood House afterwards to cool down and have dinner.  It was a memorable session for both the heat and the wildlife.  We did cut back a lot of vegetation but there is still more to do.  Hopefully, by the time Oct. 8 comes around, the heat wave will have subsided and conditions will be more favorable.