Dr. Roger Plata stands on the north end of Goat Canyon Trestle.

On November 21, I led a hike to Goat Canyon Trestle, in the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Joining me were Dee Scheuerman, supervisor in the restorative dentistry department, and Norma Lesko of Faculty Dental Offices.

The hike started two miles west of Dos Cabezas Mine and followed the San Diego & Arizona Railway gradually up Carrizo Gorge. We went through several tunnels and a number of wooden trestles. After about five miles, we came to a dynamited tunnel entrance. There was a road that led around the closed tunnel. The south entrance to the tunnel was also dynamited. As we rounded the edge of the mountain, we could see the famous Goat Canyon Trestle. This trestle, at 600 feet long and 200 feet high, has the distinction of being the highest, curved wooden trestle in the United States.

For over 50 years, the San Diego & Arizona Railway rumbled up Carrizo Gorge freighting the agricultural bounty of Imperial Valley to San Diego. Very little of this track is straight. To prevent the abrupt drop from 3000 feet in the mountains to below sea level in the Imperial Valley, this railroad had to pass through the narrow Carrizo Gorge. The rail is cut into sharply curving walls of crumbling rock, over wooden trestles and 17 tunnels ranging from 287 to 2604 feet in length. The second tunnel south of Goat Canyon Trestle is the 2604-footer. The grade for this railroad is mild, only 1.4 percent. So the hike was an easy one.

Norma Lesko and Dee Scheuerman joined Dr. Plata on the hike in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

This railroad has been called the "impossible railroad" and since the mid-1980s, it has become the "impassable railroad," and will soon be relegated to the pages of history. There are several reasons for this.

In September 1976, Tropical Storm Kathleen dumped eight to 10 inches of rain which washed out parts of Interstate 8, half of the town of Ocotillo, and blocked or severed the San Diego & Arizona line in a least 150 places. Repairs were made and in 1981 operations resumed, only to be hit by a raging brush fire. Several of the wooden trestles were destroyed. Goat Canyon Trestle seems to be one of them. The north 100-foot portion looks different from the rest of the 600-foot long trestle. The center portion looks to be of newer construction with new, square timbers, compared with old, round poles.

The Goat Canyon Trestle is truly an impressive feat of engineering. Because of the mild grade, the hike along the railway is easy. But because it is a three-hour drive from Redlands to the railway, you need to get an early start in the morning.

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