BLU WGN (my Subaru) sits on the shoulder of California Highway 44 in Lassen County, pointing north. This is in northeastern California, north of Westwood and northwest of Susanville. The point of this photo is to document a trip I took in 1970 and to honor fellow travelers Jamie Frank and Dale Burns.

In my college days there were a few "youthful indiscretions," many of which involved the illegal riding of freight trains. Housemate Jamie Frank and I---and Jamie's friend Dale, whom we had visited in Palo Alto---were in a boxcar when we rode through this crossing during a ride from Stockton, California to Klamath Falls, Oregon on a Western Pacific freight train. (Western Pacific is now part of the Union Pacific empire.) From Klamath Falls we headed north to Bend, Oregon and Wishram, Washington (on the Columbia River). From Wishram we continued to Vancouver, Tacoma, and Seattle.

We had boarded the train in the Western Pacific freight yard in Stockton. The ride took us through Sacramento, Marysville, Oroville, Keddie, and Westwood. Not long after passing through Westwood, we rode from left to right through this grade crossing. I have absolutely no memory of this place, as it was dark, the landscape on both sides of the track for miles is nothing but evergreens, and the passage of 36 years tends to dull one's sense of recollection. Thus when I visited this area in 2006, not a single thing seemed familiar. Nevertheless, I paid homage to the long-ago event by mentally toasting Jamie and Dale.