What he remembers the best is the approaching sound of iron on iron. The power of the freight train was stunning, up so close. The rush of fear and excitement was compelling, but it all started in a much more calm and tranquil state.
He and his older brother had been road camping all over the highlands of British Columbia. There were many stories to be told but this one had to do with a simple night of roadside camping. They had had a great time in the wilds but now they just needed a mellow night of sleep before heading back to their respective lives.
Sitting around the campfire their conversation volleyed from one thing to another, encouraged by an old friend Jack, but the sleeping bag was not far off. Or so he thought. Up high on a bluff, overlooking a dark valley, they could hear little, but for the sloshing of the river as it cut its way, continually creating the modest canyon. Something else inhabited that canyon, something that was not far from becoming very present.
Shhhh……he asked of his brother. “Do you hear something, “he questioned. “Let’s go bro.” And with that they jumped up and started to scramble down the steep incline of brambles, gravel and dirt. Out of control they descended, grabbing roots as they tumbled and slid, until they came to a sudden stop a couple hundred feet below the campsite.
They lay there at the bottom laughing only to be silenced by the thunderous noise approaching. As the old iron horse came closer and rounded the last bend the lights shown on a large boulder wall directly in front of them. They were only 10 or 20 feet from the wall and by the time their compromised thinking capacity could calculate their actual location, the iron horse was on them.
What he remembers the most is the raw power. He lay there in the grass on the edge of the slope and absorbed the industrial display. As the train passed by, car by car full of coal, he absorbed the reality that the train was only a few feet away from the soles of their boots.
And for the record, the climb back up to the campsite sucked.
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