Overnighter: Bear Creek to Blankenship (52 miles)

The overnighter kicked off with 10 people instead of the original 9. It ended up being a solo dude, a young couple, old couple, group of 3, and a grandma with her granddaughter. Arnie convinced the boss man to let us put in at Bear Creek which is the furthest put in we have on the Middle Fork. It is by far the most beautiful stretch of river we got. 90 degree banks with goats and canyon walls. I planned on gear boating the first day, and Arnie had packed the gear boat super loaded on both ends so I couldn't even see over the bow. The boat also weighed in at about 3000 lbs fully packed up. Gear boating is just plain fun, your in the boat by yourself all day which was about 16 miles to Muir Camp. We rolled in at about 4:00 in the afternoon with plenty of time to set up camp. People milled around until we started cookin up the Hawaii chicken. I ended up making my cobbler for dessert and the goobs loved every bit of it. The second day was Arnie's gear boat day and we had pushed off around 11 heading for Moccasin Camp in the Nyyak Flats. The weather wasn't looking to great but by the time we stopped for lunch in the Flats it was clear skies and 85. Arnie pushed ahead and we took our time at lunch so he could have camp set up by the time we got there. Rolled into camp around 4 again without even looking at a watch. Little more relaxing of a day the goobs swam, we went on a hike to a little side creek, and spotted a bunch of wolf, moose, and elk tracks. Grilled up some bacon wrapped steak, potatoes, with dutch oven brownies for dessert. It started to rain on the second night and we woke up in the rain as well. We pushed off for the whitewater and Bryant ended up rowin bonecrusher in a celebratory naked gear boat. After the whitewater the gear boat took out at West Glacier and the guests wanted to keep goin on a 8 mile trek to Blankenship through the scenic section. About a mile into the section I yelled to Arnie to keep a heads up for a yellow kayak because of our earlier incident at the beginning of summer. As we're rounding the island Arnie went river right and I went left. Just as we come around my goobs go there's a yellow boat in that log jam! I instantly didn't believe them but as Arnie comes into view he spots the thing too. Bryants boat as Arnie recovered it was stuck about 10 feet deep in a solid log jam. Smelling like shit and filled with silt, rocks, and sticks he dragged it out to the gravel bar. Sure enough the drybox, throwbag, and water bottle were all still attached with beaners to the seat. I crack open the drybox like it were a treasure chest to see that not only is it completely dry with mold all over it but my camera came to life. About an hour later I plugged the croded phone in and that too sprang to life. EPIC overnight trip followed by a freakin miracle find. Only in Montana are things gonna be alright. We said farewell to our goobs collected our bookoo tip and started off the night. The day we lost the boat we said it will call for a party if we ever find the damn thing. So we unpacked the trip drinkin cold pbr then headed er to Glacier Grill for pizza and the start of our night.




Muir Camp



Muir Camp Kitchen

 

My tent site at Moccasin Camp





Moccasin Camp



Far away in Northwestern Montana, hidden from view by clustering mountain peaks, lies an unmapped corner - the Crown of the Continent

I've been slightly lacking on the whole blog idea. There's been alot going on and it's better to run through it all by pictures. The Going to the Sun road has been open for about a week and a half. Meghan, Bryant, and myself drove it on a beautiful day although there's still 12 foot snow drifts up at Logans Pass

There was also the yearly disco party over at the South Fork Saloon. Wild River represented by dressing in fashion and dancing our faces off for 4 hours

Sarah, Me, Sara, Bryant, Norma

Bryant, Sarah, and myself also climbed Apgar which you can see Wild River from an aerial perspective.

Meghan also had to go back to Eau Claire, she had tried getting a job at the local gift shop but that fell through and her Sheels job wanted her back by the first. It was an awesome time and I feel she loved every second of it. Me, Bryant, and Arnie have a 3 day two night overnighter coming up. It's my first which I am completely jacked for. We packed today and with 9 goobs we're gonna have alot of shit to bring. Below is the pile of stoves, food, groover, goob, bags, tables etc. We head out Sunday from what we considered rustic camping here to go off on the river with about 45 miles to run.

Many of things

Many things have happened since last. First off we went ziplining through Big Sky Mountain in Whitefish. We got hooked up through work and it was unreal check out the video below. Trips are up and I've been doing lots of food trips. Meghan and her friends drove up here about 3 days ago on a whim and she loved it so much she decided to stay. Crazy stuff. Basically its been busy and its getting hard to write about daily things because I'm always off doing things. Had an awesome family from Indiana today in my boat and they offered to feed Dave, his gf, Meghan and myself a steak dinner with apple cobbler for dessert.   Probably one of the best meals I've had since getting out here. The grandpa of their group, Glen just put up his name on the number one spot for Jon's swimmer list because he popped out at Jaws. Knarly line but he fell out because he paddled air and went head over heels. Bryant and myself are also gaining a little more respect in our managers eyes because we're now up on the board for solos, trip leaders, and plenty of dinner trips. Still lovin on life right now and finally making money in the process.