Next time the conductor says “all aboard” to Kara and I, we may think twice. I planned this sweet train ride for us while Kara was out visiting. I have been dying to ride this thing, but the wheels have been off the big locomotive so it hasn’t been running as scheduled this summer. Finally, the website said they were up and running, but they were running a smaller train, only taking a 16 passenger car, and the ride would be a little longer than usual. I called to confirm and the guy was very energetic and excited about this first run of the summer season. We arrived and took a tour of the train yard. It was pretty interesting and was a great story about how this railroad came to be in the hands of private ownership. We learned more about how developers were trying to take away their land and a pretty sketchy story about the Supreme Court later on during the ride from the owner. It was a little hard to believe how that all went down.
We finally started rolling about 40 minutes late. There was only one other group aboard, a Canadian couple with their grandson. We were going really slow and the owner kept talking about what a big hill we were going up. It was a gradual incline and maybe a big hill as far as trains are concerned, but I wasn’t buying the story about it being the biggest hill in the pacific NW that a train has to climb. Maybe a train of this size, but I think a few details were missing from that part of the story too. Anyway, the train was backfiring and we were putting along, until….yep, we ran out of gas. We waited until some guy brought us some more gas and we were off again….slowly. We were supposed to watch for beavers because they had been building a lot of damns in the area and we might get a glimpse of one. Okay, maybe we were just supposed to watch for water over the tracks, compliments of the beaver activity, but Kara and I had some fun turning it into a much more exciting story involving the elusive beaver.
No beavers here
We also had some lovely purple flowers pointed out to us which were actually weeds that grow all over the place, but I think he was trying to keep our minds off the fact that we were going at a snails pace, the train kept backfiring, everyone seemed a little nervous, and Kara and I kept busting out laughing. How many times can you hear one of the crewman say “How are we going to get the passengers back,” before you crack up? Why wouldn’t he just acknowledge the fact that the ride was not going well and end it? We actually didn’t mind, but just couldn’t believe that we continued on in the fashion that I’m about to tell you with a 7 month pregnant lady, 2 old people, and a 4 and not even 2 year old. The liability on this experience was endless if something had happened. Kara was the only one that was fit to take this ride and they should have provided her with a cooler of beer and a helmet cam. Plus, it would have been nice to know exactly what was in store since we only signed up for a train ride.
Ryker was pretty oblivious to the whole situation and seemed to enjoy himself, so that's really all that mattered.
So the train eventually came to a stop. The jury is still out on why. This is where all the talk about the court case came up so I think that the tracks were blocked by developers that were “trying to take their land.” Apparently, they are not allowing access through an area. I’m not sure why we wouldn’t have gone a different route if this was the case though. We could have been out of gas again or they were just trying to salvage some sort of ride for us, because it was so disorganized. Anyway, our carriage was awaiting us. We loaded into a 1970’s station wagon, complete with at least 10 flies, mosquitoes, and a couple spiders. There was one really big, ugly spider that we had to hop over to get into our rear facing seat, but it was cool, Kara checked it out thoroughly to be sure that we weren’t going to be poisoned by it. I wanted a picture of the station wagon pretty badly, but I didn't want to take it in front of the guy so I had to pull a picture off the internet so you have a visual.
This probably isn't the exact model, it was no where near this good of condition, and was an orangish color, but you get the picture.
I tried to get some pics of us inside, but it didn't work out. Here's the best I got of the interior.
So there we were, rumbling down a dirt path through a pasture wondering where we were headed next. Kara and I couldn’t stop laughing, but this was the first time Ryker actually seemed apprehensive. I think the fact that we had just basically climbed into the trunk of a station wagon and he wasn’t in a car seat was a little unnerving to him. I was a little concerned about the car seat aspect too, but we were only going about 20 and in a pasture. That didn’t last for long though. We soon turned onto a highway for a short stretch down to our next stop. I think about this time the Canadians were wondering what kind of laws there are in Washington. Yep Canadians, we use car seats too, but our guide today was a bit of a rebel as far as that stuff goes. He never buckled his kids in, why start now? Maybe it was our fault, maybe we were supposed to furnish our own car seats if we were worried about it. Once out of the station wagon, we loaded onto a hand cart….an old school cart that you pump on each side. Our guide instructed the kids to stand in the middle, one on each side, and hold on to a thin bar. I mentioned that my kid was under two and might fall off. He told me that I could stand behind him. He crawled on behind the other kid and that left the Canadians, Kara, and one of the train crew to pump. I felt bad, but it was for the best that I wasn’t pumping because there was only about a foot of cart to stand on and I probably would have fallen off trying to keep the pumper bar from hitting my belly. Kara said she was a little uneasy about falling off at times, but it didn’t help that the cart was wet and we were wearing flip flops. So we were off. I thought we were taking the hand cart to meet another connection to get back to where we started or I would have just stayed behind with Ryker. I really did not need to be riding on this thing. Nope, I soon found out we were just going to ride it up across a lake trestle and back. It was probably about a couple miles. At one point, the tracks had to cross a road and everyone voiced their concerns that a car was coming. We were advised that we would beat it! Kara started pumping like crazy as fast as she could. I think the better option would have been to wait for the car to pass, but hey, what do I know, I’m no conductor! Once we got over the lake, Kara asked to use the port o potty. The answer to that was to use the one on the train. It was better. There was a reason she had been holding it for the last hour. It was disgusting and the tallest toilet we’ve ever seen so there was not even the possibility of hovering. The real reason she couldn’t use it boiled down to more politics/tensions between landowners and the railway line. I would love to get more details on what is going on with that. I think I’ll do a little research to get the whole story. We headed out again, the poor Canadian Grandma’s back aching from pumping, Ryker and I contributing to the backache with our freeloading deadweight. Not once did the conductor offer to trade her places, even though her grandson would have been much safer with her behind him. He wasn’t hanging on very well at times and the guy wasn’t even paying attention. At one point I reached over and put his hand back on the bar and the Grandpa thanked me for keeping an eye on him. We made it back passed the blackberry branch hanging out over the tracks, with me telling the pumpers with their backs to it when to duck, and back safely to the station wagon.
At this point, Kara and I contemplated calling someone to come get us since we were on a highway and would be easy to find. I don’t think our Canadian riding buddies would have like it though. They mentioned a few times that they were glad they weren’t alone on this adventure.
At this point, Kara and I contemplated calling someone to come get us since we were on a highway and would be easy to find. I don’t think our Canadian riding buddies would have like it though. They mentioned a few times that they were glad they weren’t alone on this adventure.
This truck is pretty close to the condition of the station wagon. The Canadian's asked me if I thought we'd be riding in that for a leg of our trip as well. I would not have been surprised if he had told us all to load into the back.
We loaded up again and began our rumble through the pasture. I don’t know who was worse off Kara with her full bladder or me with Ryker sitting on my pregnant belly. Once arriving back at the train, the Canadian man with us, came back to be sure I was going to be able to roll out of the trunk of the wagon. I handed Ryker off to Kara and got out just fine, but it was pretty humorous that he was so concerned when none of the crew was. I wouldn’t have wanted the attention anyway, but it was just one more example of how clueless they were about any liability. Once back on the train, we were all pretty relieved. We voted not to stop at the waterfall because at this point, we were all ready to be done with our ride and just wanted to get back to our cars as soon as possible. We soon found out our votes don’t count anyway. We had to stop at the waterfall to load onto our “putt putt” car for the final leg of our trip. We had thought we were home free now that we were safely in our seats of the train headed in the right direction toward our cars. The putt putt car had a sweet sign on the back that pretty much summed up our trip - “Safety First.”
While we headed up to check out the waterfall, Kara was searching for a bush to duck behind, since she still had not mustered up the courage, or found a step stool, to use the sweet toilet on the train. We’ve seen our share of small, gross bathrooms, having spent quite a bit of time on fishing boats and we aren’t exactly the squeamish kind, but this one takes the cake. The little boy had to use it during the trip so his grandpa just held him up over it. I told him if it had been my kid, I would have just held him out the back of the train, rather than make him go in there.
There was a crewman herding us all to and from the waterfall so she never got the chance to break away from the group.
As we arrived back at the train, they were getting the putt putt car ready.
We all loaded on and just as we were about to leave the conductor yelled at a crewman to bring us the gas can. I was in the front of the cart with Ryker on my lap holding on to the one vertical post. Kara was in the middle with nothing to hang onto but the roof. The rain was pelting Ryker and I in the face as we went and there was spray coming off the roof. Ryker had rusty water on his face that I kept trying to wipe off to keep out of his eyes. Kara reached over to put his hood up and I noticed that her hand and arm that she was holding onto the roof with was covered in rusty water too. We couldn’t stop laughing as we cruised down the tracks at about 35mph. The Canadian Grandma looked horrified ever time I looked back at her. She had the "comfy" rear seat with the backrest and had a death grip on the pole behind her. When we finally pulled back into the train yard, our feet were covered in rust that sprayed up from beneath the cart and it was 2:00. Yep, it was supposed to be 10:30 to noon. We laughed hysterically all the way to the car and found Ryker something to eat. He was asleep in the car within minutes. He must have been more tired than hungry, but apparently it wasn’t ideal napping conditions during our train trip with rusty spray beating off his face and Kara and I cracking up. After all this, I can’t even say that I won’t be back because I really want to see how the ride is when they are running the real train and there are more people. I have friends that have ridden it and loved it, but their experiences were much different than ours. I think it will be a few years though and I’ll be taking someone to help me with the kids just in case it turns out crazy again. Hey Kara, I hoped you enjoyed your visit! I’m glad we could find some excitement. We forgot to thank you for the sweet train ride, strike that, train experience. Best money you ever spent, huh?! At least we got some good laughs in.
Good riddance train!
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