Our family was invited to go camping with several other families for the weekend and so on June 13, 2003 we packed up and headed for Montana.  I had just gotten my driver's permit a week earlier so I got to drive!  We passed through Spokane, WA without seeing a single train.  At St. Regis, MT we took the exit and headed towards Paradise.  Along the way we saw 3 semaphores still intact on the MRL 4th Subdivision.  At Paradise we continued onto Plains, MT where we saw MRL 114 along with a couple of ballast cars and a caboose.  Then taking a couple side roads we arrived at our friend's property.  When we arrived I noticed that we were just across the river from the MRL!!  Anyway just about then an eastbound 9 car MRL train rumbled past (MRL 126, 112).  We proceeded to pick a good spot and set up camp.   Then my dad and I decided to get out and see a couple of trains before supper.  

    In Plains we bought some batteries for my scanner and then headed for Paradise.  We had just passed a cool spot for westbounds but decided to keep going and look for another couple spots.  Well to our chagrin just as we rounded the next corner the S-KCKPTL came into sight.  Since we hadn't heard anything on the scanner about any other trains we decided to follow it to Thompson Falls, MT.   At Thompson Falls it stopped in the siding to wait for an eastbound.  Turning around we drove back to an S-curve and set up for the eastbound.  In about 10 minutes it arrived and we got some awesome video and photo footage.  By that time it was 6:00 and we headed back to camp.  That night most everybody sat around the campfire and talked while I took several long night exposures of things.

    Because of a bunch of trees, to actually see the trains I had to climb up 30 feet into a tree and so the next morning found me climbing a tree when I heard a whistle.  There were several times when I heard the train too late to climb the tree and once when I just didn't feel like climbing.  The first train of the morning was an eastbound manifest at 10:55am (BNSF ????, ????? ATSF(BNSF) 3104).   At 11:30am the westbound Montana Rockies Rail Tours train sped by (MRL 652, 651).  The next train was the gas local heading east at 12:35pm (MRL 230, 252, 235).   After lunch an eastbound stack and auto rumbled up the canyon and past (BNSF 4300, 8057, FURX 6715).  At 2:00pm another eastbound with auto came through (BNSF 8064, 6341).  After that my dad and I decided to take a hike up a ridge and around so we left.

    On the way up the mountain we saw a westbound hopper train with 55 cars (BNSF 4160, 4478).  We continued on up and then towards a little road that showed up on my dad's GPS.  We finally came to the "road" which was more like an overgrown trail in some places.  After another hour of hiking the road quit!  Since it was then already 6:00pm we figured we had just better head down the mountain to a forest service road which would take us back to camp.  We finally arrived back to camp at 8:20pm after hiking over 10 miles and gaining over 4,000 feet in elevation then coming back down.  Needless to say we were both tired and hungry.   After a good supper we both went to bed a little earlier than the previous night.   When we woke up the next morning we packed everything up in the car, said goodbye to all of our friends there and left.

    Just out of Plains, MT we saw the westbound gas local for the day (MRL 253, 252, 265).  We had decided to take a different route home going through Sandpoint, ID instead of back down to I-90.  At Thompson Falls we saw the eastbound Montana Rockies Rail Tours train with 12 cars (MRL 252, 251).  The tracks were pretty empty from then on except for the UP yard at Sandpoint, ID (UP 3527, 3238, CP 9720, 8645).  At Hauser yard there were 2 westbound stack trains (BN(BNSF) 7881, 7884 CP 9021) and (BNSF 4316, 1093).  At 2:20pm we arrived in Spokane, WA and saw an eastbound hopper train (BNSF 1089, 5376).  In Yardley there were several engines sitting around (BNSF 5287, 4994, 1109, BN(BNSF) 2973) as well as the Kettle Falls local with 10 engines and manifest (BNSF 2265, 2876, 2276, 2372, 2373, ????, BN(BNSF) 2898, 2873, 2286, ????).  Just as we arrived and eastbound stack pulled in to re-crew (BN(BNSF) 6364, BNSF 7337, 6793, 7318).  The last train we saw was 1 engine at the Amtrak station in Spokane, WA (Amtrak 144).  It was a great camping trip and the scenery was awesome.  I also enjoyed driving there and back!  Until next time!