Oct 23 2008
Last Run to Metaline Falls aboard ‘The Leaf Train’
Last year Kerry and I went with fellow KXLYer Jeff Humphrey and his family on what is officially called the “North Pend Oreille Valley Lions Club Excursion Train Ride.”
We call it “The Leaf Train” for short.
This year, Kerry’s parents were up from Phoenix. Natives of New Jersey with a long interlude in Huntsville, Alabama, they were hoping to catch a glimpse of the changing of the seasons, something that they don’t see much of down in Sun City West. There’s no better place to take in the autumn colors than the two hour drive north from Spokane to catch the Leaf Train.
For the uninitiated, the North Pend Oreille Valley Lions Club has been running trains every fall from Ione north to Metaline Falls and back since 1981. For a handful of weekends, as the leaves turn from green to shades of pale yellow and burnt orange, the train heads 10 miles up the valley toward the Canadian border and back.
With each ride hundreds of people swaddled in winter clothing - it’s not exactly warm on The Leaf Train, especially if you’re sitting in one of the open cars - clamber aboard with kids and cameras to spend an hour and a half taking in some of the greatest scenery of the Inland Northwest.
Pictures really don’t do the ride justice … you really need to see it for yourself. Unfortunately if you weren’t on the train with us this last weekend you missed out and won’t get a chance to take the Leaf Train until next fall.
While you’re waiting for the next trip out of the station, check out the video I shot on one of the last runs of the Leaf Train this season.
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