We are up at a reasonable hour as we are heading for the "Dalles' today, after a good nosh for breakfast we pack up and head over to the Depot at Bend, to check out the SD28 and GP38-2 that are still idling in the yard.
We find the entrance to the Depot but see the usual Tresspass signs, we stop the car short and I walk up to the depot and knock on the door which was answered by a very large gentleman with a gruff voice. I produce my KiwiRail Locomotive Engineers ID card. "Hey man how can I help you" after some chatter I ask "Any chance of taking a couple of pic's of those units in the yard?".
Rudy Molzah was the guys name, and could not do enough for us, by taking us across the tracks to photograph the units. We ask Rudy about the units, they are used on the local which will not run out until later on in the afternoon to switch local industries.

We give Rudy one of the old "Toll Rail" baseball caps I have, and he tells us that we wont see any movement until that evening. We ask about the snow we see on the mountains and hills, on my previous visits to the area about the same time of the year the mountains were void of snow.

Rudy tells us that the snow falls this year fell in record levels all around the country, and that the snow melt was going to prove a problem, this we would see further on in the trip.
We bid farewell to Rudy and head north.

We make our first stop at the "Crooked River Bridge" that passes over a deep chasm, being a tourist stop, I was hoping that we would catch a train on the bridge like I managed to film on the bridge on the last visit here.But that was not to be, but worth the stop to take in the view again and check out the new road bridge that spans the chasm, and to talk to others who were taking in the view.

On arrival in the 'Dalles" we head to the Motel that we have stayed in on a number of occasion's before, and get a pleasent surprise when the owner remembered us from the previous visit. We stow our gear and decide to go over the Columbia River to Wishram on the Washington side and see what is around.


Yep! same old story, we see three UP trains over the other side of the river, all heading west towards Portland. Not to worry the view is great, but the bloody wind is fair blowing.
We head down the hill to Wishram and stop to buy an Ice Cream, down towards track its all quiet, they are building a new platform for an Amtrak stop. I spot a guy walking around which is the crew building, and again get the "Kiwi Rail" card out."There will be nothing for a while as they have a work window on, that train over there is waiting for a crew, how long! be sometime before they arrive" Yep you can take some pictures, but let me know when you go"
We take some shots, and bid farewell to the crewmember and head towards Horsethief  Lake back down the road.

On the way back we note a new walkway has opened up around Black Butte, we pull in to check it out. After a good 20 minutes of walking over rough ground we arrive where we want to be and the view of the track and the river are views are superb, but the lighting is morning light.

We park in the carpark, by the Ranger Station, and go to check on the entrance fee to park which was $5.00 on last visit. The Rangers informed me that the fee had been abolished but parts of the park were closed to the public and as you would guess a couple of the good spots were gone.
Still I enjoyed a good chat with the Park Rangers, they were suprised at my knowledge of Lewis & Clark on there travels through this area in 1805. I was even further educated on the history of this area one of the Rangers pointing out an spot on the Oregon side of the river, where the old "Oregon Trail" wound down out of ths hills to the river.

Back to the Motel, it was going to be a good day tomorrow!.