Its time to watch trains “in the wild” again. From Sacramento I took a different turn going north towards the Feather River Canyon. This railroad, connecting Oakland, CA and Salt Lake City, UT was built by the Western Pacific a little over 100years ago. Being late in the game of crossing the Sierra Nevada this stretch of track features a lower grade than other mountain lines in the West but at a price of extraordinary engineering and construction. Besides numerous tunnels the Feather River Route is known for engineering marvels like high flung steel trestles and bridges. The most famous, and – to some extend- also known to people not into trains, is the arrangement of the Keddie Wye. Three branches of track, connected in a triangle shape arrangement form a wye. So far so good, but this particular Wye is special in a way that two of the sides of the triangle had to be built on bridges spanning Spanish Creek. Rail fanning is fun along this line (besides of low rail traffic levels and growing timber). Highway 70 parallels the rails pretty much all the way from Oroville to Portola providing easy access to a lot of spots for watching the trains. The road has been upgraded in recent years and traffic is relatively light so that pulling off and on does not turn into a suicidal mission. I made the village of Quincy, CA my base, enjoying the classic flair of the Ranchito Motel.