Blackfoot River, Montana
Journal entry July 22nd 2005, 4:15 PM, bombing down a two lane highway someplace outside of Missoula Montana. We're following our good friend and guide for this trip, Randy Moss (also purveyor of fine BBQ at a great restaurant in Missoula called Knuckleheads) as he exceeds the speed limit (is there really a speed limit in Montana?). This seems to be the beginning of many white water trips regardless of the river or location.
We have some class II stuff today so we're running a solo and a tandem both bagged out for floatation. You can see the solo there in the foreground. Randy's "classic" Ford wagon is a more than adequate canoe hauler. It's big, comfortable, and not the first car normally broken into when left all day at the put-in.
This is where we put in. A beautiful spot.
In the middle of the picture below, a deer looks at us as we drift past getting set up for the first little drop.
Randy Moss in his natural habitat.
Here's a good example of a boat rigged for white water. Notice Travis' thighs are strapped in and he is kneeling on the seat? Also in front of him, the main part of the boat is filled with an air bag so if we swamp out (fill with water) the boat still stays buoyant. This removes the greater worry of taking on water and sinking as the boat can't possibly fill up. All we have to do is keep it mostly upright. We're just dodging some stones at this point.
And below you see the tell tale signs of a rapid just moments before I drop the camera back into it's nice safe dry bag. There's a roar of water rushing, the horizon along the water line disappears, and usually the river makes a sharp turn or narrows. We would just send Randy down first and then follow him for the most part. No scouting of the rapids was necessary. Looking back on it I wonder if we really thought that out well, but that's what we thought then (just kidding Randy)...
Clearing that rapid we kind of race along and engage in horse play. Hey, no cutting us off you dork! I tried to get some white water action shots a little later. Because of the problem of having to put the camera away in the event of an unscheduled swim, I didn't get much real white water action.
Like this. Moments before a rock garden with a quick drop!
Sometime later we go through shadow. This was Montana in summer, where it's daylight until 10 at night and those long summer evenings seem to go on forever.
