"Training" During a Tour
 

Many of you have seen my now world famous video capturing train noise at Husky Haven Campground along the GAP. Well....I think I have outdone myself. Forest Service campground Sloway on the Clark Fork River between Superior and St. Regis, Montana. The upside is that the trains drowned out the noise from nearby I-90. :D

We fell a day behind a trio of cyclists leaving Williamsburg, and then caught up with them after we spent the night at Mineral, VA, on the TransAm. They had slept behind the Mineral fire station, woke up all night with trains coming through and blowing their horns 75 feet away, rode 12 miles to a B&B and rested the next day. We spent the night in the same fire station back yard and slept fine. We heard one train before we went to sleep, and another after we woke up. Maybe CSX suspended operations on that line the night we were there?

Oh, my daughter had just graduated from a college adjacent to one Norfolk Southern main line, and we lived half a mile from another major track.

One of my favorite camping spots. Looking one direction:
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...6fc928b544.jpg
From the same spot, a photo taken the other direction:
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...b2784d3a93.jpg
Camping along Lake Baikal, and fortunately the not a huge number of trains on the Trans-Siberian tracks.

Heh! I remember the camping at Mineral FD well. The trains would blow their horns for the length of the field where we were camping. Add to that the "ding, ding, ding" of the gates lowering at the 1st St crossing...

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...beecc00b9d.jpg

Troutville VA was even worse. The green roof at top of photo is the picnic pavillion where all the cyclists camp...

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...07ec86eaa0.jpg

Very similar to my case, only the tracks were across the river. You can see the roadbed in the photo.

There must be some public grade crossings in that area. Federal regs. require the horn at all public crossings unless what is called a "quiet zone" has been established. Establishing one usually costs a good deal of time and money, which is why you generally see them in well-to-do communities. Whitefish, MT is a good example. The road that leads to the state park (and passes through a residential area) on the edge of town crosses a busy BNSF line. While the trains still skirt the edge of the park, they no longer blow their horns at the crossing due to establishment of a quiet zone.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...2626aa5adf.jpg

Traffic volume on a line can vary by the day of the week. Could also have been a track outage for maintenance or even repair due to a derailment.

gave me a good chuckle this morning.

I have often read posts about how terrible the traffic or train noise was in a given place. When it was somewhere I had camped i try to think back and never remember being kept up by the noise. If it was on the TA or other route where I was with family I ask them and they usually say they slept like a baby. I guess I have lived near traffic and train tracks enough of my life to be used to them.

I have often slept in roadside picnic areas in places like Texas where truckers pull in and out of them all night long. Still, I slept fine. The places where noise kept me up at night were almost always where there were other campers or drunken partiers making noise. Once or twice it was marauding raccoons, but never trains or traffic.

Topography plays a large roll. The above video was short in a valley. The noise is amplified. And the fact that the grade crossings were right across from my site meant that the horns were blown at the worst possible moment. With that said, I don't remember being disturbed much while sleeping. Last year I slept in a restored caboose less than 50' from a main line. Same thing. Very little disturbance. One time I was awoken is when the head end of a train stopped right next to the caboose to wait for a meet.

Ouch reflected off the water and in the valley really amped it up! Played this on my phone and it was loud!! I'll be sure to carry along some earplugs if I ever tour, just in case.

most of us have had experiences, usually loud people or whatever, that taught us that earplugs are worth always having in the toiletry kit--they weigh practically nothing and helping to get a better nights sleep is just a huge thing--even moreso as you get older.

I have used the trains in Europe several times , so span longer distances and get out from under storms
causing flooding..


Used to live in Junction City Oregon. it got its name from being a railroad junction ..


I have even used my earplugs in 'family friendly' commercial campgrounds ..

Funny how we get used to things. I personally would be raging and would be kept up all night with trains blowing horns. I hate them. A noisy campground with some people partying will make it a little more difficult for me to fall asleep, but not bad, and won't wake me up again. I'll sleep fine.