This is just something I thought some of you might find interesting. No trains. Just a leisurely drive from the desert to the mountains. link to Creal Branch • Railroading in the Moj...
Videos like this are super cool to watch 30-40 years in the future. My dad took videos like this of our hometown back in the 1980s and it's so neat to see what's changed.
Hey Mark, Frank Smith here...Me and Andy racing rc cars in your back yard, remember? This ride/drive brings back memories. I worked at Cal-Portland from 83-88 as a shift electrician and made that drive over the pass for what seems like a bazillion times. Thanks for posting it!
@@MarkClayMcGowan Yeah, all good here. Been in Washington state since 2001. I'll look you up next time i'm down there. My daughter and grandkids are in Bakersfield. Glad to see your still dirt biking it. Sucks to see all them wind generators. All that land now closed off.
Also, sometimes when demand is low or for other operational reasons, some windmills may be offline at times. Most of the time though 95% or higher are working just fine. The 35 year smaller Mitsubishi mills are nearing retirement and those old ones are now mostly inoperative.
If this is the road to the Buddhist Monastery (which was once the Camp Earl-Anna owned by the Burbank YMCA) it was once a dirt road which was transited by dozens of huge school buses throughout the summer filled with kids and counselors despite the sharp turns and climbs. what you called Orange Lake was once part of a large ranch called Luigi's if memory serves. They would provide the horses for the Camp ER for daily rides throughout the area clear of people but full of Nature.
The Scouts and YMCA usually used the camp further up in Mountain Park as it had bunkhouses and a kitchen house, but that road has been paved since at least the 60s. However, they could very likely have used this place as well and camped in tents. It was Arnds Lake (not Orange, Sorry for the okie accent!), for the family who owned it when I was a kid. We used to fish there once in awhile. Even though I lived in Tehachapi until the early 90s, I didn't keep up with the goings on of such things.
Back in the day we would go to top of Oak Creek Rd and inner tube down the snow. Haven’t seen snow there like that in decades. Maybe if we had started using non-carbon energy sooner we’d still have snow.
Lovely to see the area away from the railroad, what beautiful country. As for all the non-functioning wind turbines, somebody is making a lot of money from all those subsidies for green energy, just not the consumer
I was driving through South Texas yesterday and accidentally came across CP 2816 (steam locomotive) southbound around 60mph through Sinton, TX on its final Spike. You might have already known about that. Great videos By the way, I like your channel. Also, what are your thoughts on the RU-vid channels of distance signal and hyce?
Hundreds of thousands of desert habitat acres have been industrialized by wind turbines and solar panels. The climate will not bend to political will regardless of how many turbine and solar farms are built. Neither source of renewable energy can sustain itself without government subsidies. Fossil fuel, cheaper, better, more efficient, but hated the the ruling party. Thanks for ride. The scenery was much more pleasing before Gavin industrialized it.
Strange that I don't remember this road at all. But cetainly remember Tehachapi-Willow Springs Road! I guess Oak Creek rd must start somewhere around the Monolith concrete factory (or whatever it's called now). Is that little Monolith ghost town still there?
Oak Creek Rd only runs east/west between Mojave and the east base of Oak Creek Pass. Tehachapi-Willow Springs Rd ends at old 58 just west of Monolith. The town was abandoned in 1971, and demolished in 1973. The store remained open until 1974. There's nothing there now but the trees.
There is seed money to get the windmills going but not ongoing. These windmills are highly profitable. Some of them have been there for over 30 years. The kids coming up today are going to need a way to make electricity. Burning oil and coal is not only bad for the environment, those products are finite.
Where did you hear that wind or solar are highly profitable? The stock market has never reflected that. Do some research on how many green energy companies have failed, even after receiving government money. Also, the manufacturing, transportation, construction, and maintenance of wind and solar rely on the burning of, and use of, refined fossil fuels. I have no aversion to wind or solar, but they will never answer America's energy needs. The only long term energy solution is nuclear. Maybe the fearful will die off and in two generations, the world will begin to understand that. What happened at Chernobyl could never have happened anywhere else in the world. It's time to stop being afraid, and start planning for the future. Thanks for checking it out, and for sharing your opinion.
Yes. Although no AMA races were ever held in Tehachapi or Mojave itself, plenty were held in the desert between Mojave and the Red Mountain/Cuddeback area. The Barstow to Vegas race was also a D-37 event.
I disagree. Anything that helps relieve the California grid (which they do inconsistently) isn't a waste, but they'll never replace fossil fuel or nuclear energy, and they'll never pay for themselves.
