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.

Never know what the night will hold

About time summer rolls around West Glacier, today it is sunny and 80 out but at night it drops down to 40. I've started on a portion of my project and discovered that the beetle is in fact here although the forest is so dense that the trees being affected are going to be hard to see from the NASA images I have. I also had found a map that is most likely going to be my main source to get at these sites because its so rugged and there's no trails in the Great Bear leading to them. I would love to get mega indepth with it but as tourists start rolling in my time off the river is growing thin. For the capstone project I feel my information is suffcient enough and if needed I can grow on it as an independant study or something along those lines. As far as the river goes its been great, Mikey P and myself had another full day but this time we put in all the way up at Bear Creek. That made for about a 30-35 mile day which is almost double what we normally do. My first dinner trip didn't end up showing up after they paid and everything so that was a little dissapointing. I was so stoked to do it so our manager let me take the one today that I'm currently waiting for at 2:00. After the river yesterday the our whole "new" gang loaded up my van with 5 kayaks and 8 people and headed for a small creek inside the park called Mcdonald Creek. It's this baby blue, clear as crystal creek that flows out of Lake Mcdonald and eventually into the Middle Fork of the Flathead. The original plan was to float to the bridge which we quickly decided to tack on another 3 miles and head to Blankenship. Lets just say it was the best float I've ever done for reasons that you only had to be there to witness. On top of the already jammed packed day I was driving back to Wild River and sure enough I see this huge mountain lion walking on the road next to my campsite. It was probably 4 feet long and 3 feet tall just hangin out in our campground. I relayed the message to people at work n the campground because its kinda sketchy when we walk everywhere. Tomorrow I'm on the board for a scenic with Norma which should be interesting because there is no whitewater at all on the scenic stretch. After that the whole work crew is lined up for a free zipline tour in Whitefish down the ski-mountain. Oh the benefits of working in West Glacier. I'm headed out to pack and organize food for this dinner trip, nothing like making fresh salmon, steak, and chicken river side for a family of four.

 Starting where I believe I left off, the full day trip was superb. Danger and myself ended up taking out a family of doctors which made the trip quite interesting. It was awesome to give people who live in the city an opportunity to just gawk and gaze the whole time taking everything new in. Not only are full day's a day of complete relaxation but we get to eat free lunch as well. The days of the week are blending together very smoothly each with its new level of rafting knowledge. We had a summer solstice work party with the wranglers across the way as well which turned out awesome. Brian had made smoked ribs and trout which was a great meal to end a long day of weed wacking. With trips slowly getting a little more busy, me and Bryant noticed we weren't on the board yesterday so we decided to head to East Glacier and St. Mary's to hopefully see a glacier. Turned out to be the most spectacular views at mountains I've ever seen.

St. Mary's Entrance to Glacier Park

Driving around outside the Park

One of our boats on an overnighter we happended to see going past goat lick overlook.

If you look closly you can see a mountain goat at the top of the cutbank.

After our 16 mile trip down the North Fork today our work put on an activity called the weed rodeo 2011. Bascially the Forest Service came in and partnered up with our boss in order to gain awareness of invasive weeds that are growing along the banks of the Flathead river. We picked weeds for about an hour then headed back to Wild River World Headquarters for a meal. Bryant and myself got to cook for the 30 people that were there on this badass grill that can grill up to 25 hamburgers at a time. It's been great in West Glacier, the tourists are rolling in, the weather is fantastic, and trips are on the daily now.

Shazam

Awesome footage of the Middle Fork during flood stage. Filmed using a GoPro on a remote controlled helicopter.

Can never re-live a first.

Today was an awesome day in my books because it was the first commercial trip in which I get paid for out here. I ended up taking a paddle boat which I'm more comfortable with and the water dropped down to 13,000 cfs. Despite the onslaught of water it has yet to make the river rise. The 2:00 trip consisted of what I thought to be a bachelor group out of Canada but turned out to be a mens christian group out of Canada. It was Robb, Kenny, and myself which made a total of 15 people. Super smooth lines through each rapid and even styled Jaws. The group just loved it although they didn't express it in the form of any tips. After great success for the day we officially made it off the trainee list which is still 5 deep. Next week were already on the board, Bryant with a dinner trip and I landed a full day middle fork trip. Lovin' that I'm finally making some money although the Going to the Sun Road isn't open yet and from what I've heard today isn't supposed to open anytime soon. It's only been 20 days since I've got here and it literally seems like a lifetime ago. Our days consist of so many new things and so many out of the ordinary experiences that time is either flying by or time is just not a factor to the lifestyle. It's wierd to think that there's still two months to go and we've just now got through training. So many more trips are still to come adding to the ever increasing summer customer average of 33,000 people last summer to commercially raft the Flathead River. Finally going to get off the river a little tomorrow and hit up a hike in Glacier. Apgar Mountain seems like the best bet if the road is finally clear of flood water. Blue skies and no rain for the first time in about 8 days im off to a semi dry camp.