Tehachapi's Loop and Bakery

The first day in a new place is usually spent exploring the town and getting information from the visitor center on things to do. But recent campground neighbors had already alerted us about our first priority. They told us to be sure to check out the German bakery in town. Mark has never met a bakery he doesn't like, so it was one of our first stops in Tehachapi.

We split a generously-sized bierock (ground beef and cabbage in a baked sandwich for those non-Germans out there) and a lemon bar (eaten but not pictured). We also split the samples that they always keep on the counter. Today's samples were harvest loaf and garlic bread.

We know they always have samples because we were back for a second trip the next day about closing time. We bought a raspberry and chocolate cheesecake, and a slice of Nuss Ecken (almond triangle). Because they were about to close, they also threw in a free loaf of bread for each of us. We are loving Kohnen's Bakery!

We found that Tehachapi is a railroad town. As we approached the depot, a train arrived right on cue.

We stopped in at the town's train depot museum, which was restored by thousands of volunteer hours in 2008. A month before moving their priceless collection of train memorabilia into the newly-refurbished building, it was burned to the ground by careless fireworks.

But they had fire insurance and a builder with a penchant to bring it back exactly as it was in the early 1900's. We really enjoyed our tour led by a volunteer docent with a love for all things railroad. Dennis gave us an entertaining tour.

He very often leads school children through the museum, and one of their favorite things is to ring the train engine bell. We think Dennis enjoyed our reaction to that louder-than-expected bell.

One whole room of the train depot is filled with the explanation of something called the Tehachapi Loop. This is an aerial view of a topographical model they had on display. When the railroad company was trying to link the east to the west, they found that the Tehachapi pass was the lowest point through the mountains to get to the west coast.

Even with these smaller mountains, the incline was too steep. The track to get over the Tehachapi pass would still exceed the 2% grade that engines can pull. So one creative engineer proposed a loop that would wind trains in a circle through the pass. We headed out to the pass to see it for ourselves. Denisa is sitting on a rock overlooking the now-famous set of tracks known as the Tehachapi Loop.

Given Dennis's directions, we had made the drive about ten miles outside of town to see the loop for ourselves. We left the car parked beside the road, and made a hike for the best vantage point to see a train go around the loop.

We settled in for the show, but didn't see any trains. So we tried to amuse ourselves while we waited. Denisa wandered around taking pictures of the wildflowers that are just opening in the mountains.

Mark took a picture of a hawk soaring overhead--but still no train.

We took a zoomed-in picture of the cross at the top of the hill--placed there to commemorate two railroad employees that lost their lives in an accident here. But still no train arrived.

We got as comfortable as possible on that rocky perch and were surprised at the good cell phone signal we had. Denisa used up way too much battery surfing about places to visit around Tehachapi. But still no train arrived.

We even tried to take a nap on the grassy slope. It had now been an hour and 40 minutes since we arrived, and we were getting bored with waiting at the loop. Denisa finally announced she was heading back to the car to get some paper to do some writing. You can barely see her as a tiny dot in the middle of the next picture as she was making the long walk back across the valley. That's when she heard the train whistle!

She ran all the way back to our viewing spot on the mountain! But she found out there was no need to hurry. Even at just a 2% grade, it's a slow process for those engines to pull all those cars into the loop. Our first picture of the train shows its approach from the right, beside highway 58.

It took two more minutes before the engines made their first appearance through the tunnel at the beginning of the loop. There are five diesel engines working hard to bring this train around the circle.

Another couple minutes, and the train has made it around the loop. The picture below shows the engines now passing over the tunnel, on top of its cars beneath. The train has made the complete 360 degrees of the Tehachapi Loop!

It's a long train, and we can see the engines approaching around the left to double back on itself again. The engineer has several opportunities to see all those cars he is pulling, that are usually a mile behind him.

After 100 minutes of waiting on that train, it was worth it to watch the entire process unfold before us. We were just leaving our spot on the mountain, when we were surprised to hear the whistle of another approaching train. We decided to watch again, but we moved to a different viewpoint.

This train came to a complete stop. We're not sure if it was really struggling to get up that consistent incline, but it was a super-slow trip through the loop this time. We watched as the three engines pulled through the tunnel to start the show.

There are several houses and some grass pastures completely encircled by this circular train track. We thought that these horses looked a little bored from their close-up view of the trains that many people traveled from afar to witness.

It took six minutes before we saw the entire display unfold from this new perspective.

It's at this point that we heard the third train's whistle and realized it was patiently waiting down the valley until this second train passed. We moved further down the trail to watch this third train make its way all around the loop.

We continued walking towards the car, and couldn't believe it when we heard the fourth train whistle sound. We stopped there by the brass memorial plaque beside the road, to watch the fourth train make the loop. We couldn't believe that after waiting over an hour and a half to see the first train, there were three more stacked behind it just waiting to make the pull up the Tehachapi Loop.

While we were in the neighborhood, we also made the stop by the new Cesar Chavez National Monument. Just designated as a monument in 2012, it already has a lovely courtyard. We recognize the name of this famous Hispanic leader because we have seen streets named after him all over the south. We now know that he was the leader of the movement to improve the conditions for workers in the agriculture industry in the south.

This spot was chosen for the national monument mostly because Chavez and his wife were buried here. This was also the spot that many of the strikes were orchestrated for the agricultural workers. We didn't spend much time here because there really wasn't much to see, and we still don't know much about Cesar Chavez. But we read that this monument is a "work in progress" so we're hoping that it will get more informative with time.

So far, we are really impressed with our new home town and the things to see in the area. We've already decided to extend our expected four-day stop to take advantage of the weekly rate at Mountain View Campground. We wonder how many trips we can make to the German bakery in seven days?!?