Bear Creek, Bitterroot Range

This past weekend we made a trip up to Bear Creek in the Bitterroot Valley. A warm spring day coupled with fantastic whitewater and good company made for an awesome trip down this Western Montana classic. 

To gauge the flows for this run, the difference between the gauges on the Bitterroot River at Darby and Victor should have about 600 to 800 cfs difference. On this day we had a flow difference of 800 cfs, which seemed like a great level. 

The drops were nice and padded, but not pushy and there were plenty of eddies available. The section starts off with a great slide, the "Big Easy" shown in the video. Below here there is some classic Montucky mank that plummets down a narrow chute, before reaching Airplane Turn. After this is another fun boulder garden, and then you are off to visit the Tijuana Crack Whore, which goes surprisingly well. Below here are some more fun low angle slides before Hotel California, which we portage this run, and then the grand finale of Brave Bear Falls. Matt decided to fire off the falls, while I puckered, and opted for a nice lil portage. 

Here is a short video from the day that Rosalynn was nice enough to film for. Enjoy!

Kootenai Creek

With the temperatures finally warming in the valley, and some light rain over the weekend, we were finally able to get some good boating done. Kootenai Creek lies down the Bitterroot Valley, about 40 minutes Southwest of Missoula, MT. It is a short, but sweet section of creek, and easily accessible with a 10 minute walk. The creek itself consists of some boogie ledges, a nice little 10 foot drop, some more boogie, and finally a fun set of ledges and a slide at the end of the creek. The entire run is maybe a half mile long, but its proximity to town, and the ability to easily run multiple laps make it a worthwhile endeavor.

Looking upstream toward the put-in. The biggest drop is visible just under the tree.

Yesterday, we had a good crew consisting of Myself, Jesse Dagle, Shawn Robertson, Frank Preston and Jason Shredder. Between the five of us, we had two swims, a pin, two oddly wedged paddles, and one broken paddle. Not to mention the two rock-check-to-bounce-to-face-plant maneuvers executed flawlessly by Shawn and I. Having said that, this creek is super fun, and in my opinion, underestimated.

Martin Belden running some delightful Montucky mank.

Jesse managed to capture a few shots of the day, but sadly the carnage went undocumented. Until next time, that is.

Martin Belden 2012 Kayaking Promo

Thank You Astral Buoyancy!

I would like to give a huge Thank You to Astral Buoyancy, and Bryan Owen for their continued support during the 2012 season.

In this sink or swim world that we live in, Astral continues to help the swimmers amongst us stay afloat.

Stay tuned for more updates as the weather warms, and good lines!

Big Creek Scout

Looking upstream from the first creek crossing. It is hard to tell from the photo, but there is good gradient upstream from this point.

Big Creek in the Bitterroot National Forest lies just west of Victor, on Highway 93 South. Today we spent the afternoon hiking upstream looking for potential sections to paddle when the temperatures rise in the spring, and the goods start flowing. Getting out of the house with a late start this morning meant that we only managed to hike around 4.5 miles up the creek, most of which was relatively flat and heavily treed, with a few steeper sections.

Rosie and Wrangler chillin, literally, on the bridge.

According to Google Earth, the creek flows out of Big Lake, which is around nine miles from the trailhead and it is around this upper section that the creek starts looking real nice. Even today, during the middle of winter, Big Creek was flowing with a remarkable amount of water, and had very little wood in the channel, which is rare for the area. We have been told that the upper reaches of the creek contain many bedrock sections, and a potentially huge slide coming down form the lake. Hopefully soon, we can make another trip upstream and find out for ourselves.

Big Creek flowing through one of its mellow pools.

Enjoy the photos from the day!

Number 1

When we first arrived back in Montana after a failed attempt to relocate to Portland, I began to despair that this would put a major hold on my kayaking for several years while I finish up school. Not wanting to give up so easily, I began to do a little research, and found, much to my surprise, a plethora of potentially untapped whitewater, fresh for the picking. This blog will chronicle the explorations of Montana Whitewater rivers and creeks.

While it is still the middle of winter here, the snow has not yet begun to fall, and though I lack a boat, or a paddle for that matter, the exploration is due to commence. I start school next week, planning to major in watershed restoration, and thus, will have my hands more than full with a course load including biology, chemistry, and calculus. However, I don't plan on letting that stop me from fulling exploiting my weekend warrior status to begin snooping around the nearby drainages in search of the goods.

Stay tuned for more updates from Montana Whitewater and pray for snow!