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.