shaun_sager4
Pretext
In the arid outskirts of the Atacama Desert, SPC DILOTOQ snakes through the loops as KM119 Desvio as a radiant sunset forms above. Bursts of smoke emit from the EMD trio as they notch out of a long climb to a temporary respite at the summit of the loops. We believed the middle section of the SPC to be largely inaccessible after discovering the only mapped road had largely been reclaimed by the rocky earth. However, fortune granted us favor on our final day as we found a long access road that spit out at the center of the railroad's grueling climb. Roads, access roads, dried up riverbeds, and marks created by wind patterns can be quite indicernable at a bird's eye view. We made it just in time for the day's pair of trains to begin winding through the loops.
But fortune cometh and fortune leaveth as the same access road that granted us a brief peek at the wonder's of SPC's Middle Section became the trap that would foil our trip 8 months later.
It was not far from this location that we would first encounter the security escorts, who, needless to say, were not particularly happy about us being so far away from the main highway. If only I had discovered this road at the beginning of our first trip—might have conquered the spectacular instead of idling on what ifs.
Pretext
In the arid outskirts of the Atacama Desert, SPC DILOTOQ snakes through the loops as KM119 Desvio as a radiant sunset forms above. Bursts of smoke emit from the EMD trio as they notch out of a long climb to a temporary respite at the summit of the loops. We believed the middle section of the SPC to be largely inaccessible after discovering the only mapped road had largely been reclaimed by the rocky earth. However, fortune granted us favor on our final day as we found a long access road that spit out at the center of the railroad's grueling climb. Roads, access roads, dried up riverbeds, and marks created by wind patterns can be quite indicernable at a bird's eye view. We made it just in time for the day's pair of trains to begin winding through the loops.
But fortune cometh and fortune leaveth as the same access road that granted us a brief peek at the wonder's of SPC's Middle Section became the trap that would foil our trip 8 months later.
It was not far from this location that we would first encounter the security escorts, who, needless to say, were not particularly happy about us being so far away from the main highway. If only I had discovered this road at the beginning of our first trip—might have conquered the spectacular instead of idling on what ifs.