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Alberton Gorge (Clark Fork River) and
Buffalo Rapids (Flathead River)

By Brian Burns

Alberton Gorge (Clark Fork River), August 24th, 2002

Eleven people turned out for this Class III white water run in western Montana, from the put-in at Cyr to the take-out at Tarkio. Cheryl Knapp, Lindy Swartz, and Jerry Williams represented the kayakers, while Jill and Bob Kassa paddled the only tandem canoe. Marlene Williams was in her inflatable and the following people showed up with solo canoes: Tom Smith, Dick Sutter, Larry Wright, new member Todd Neel in a classic Mad River ME, and yours truly.

The river flow was around 3000 cfs, and the air temperature was in the 70's for most of the trip. There was plenty of swimming going on (Cliffside I & II, Tumbleweed, Surfer Joe, and Fang Rapids come to mind), so many of us got to practice our rescue skills (as well as our sidestrokes).

Most of the group met at the Stagecoach Inn in beautiful, downtown Lozeau, MT, after the float for dinner and colorful entertainment (a country guitar player named Tom). SCKC member David Lawrence and Brooke (raft guiding at the Gorge) also entertained the diners with some fancy swing dancing. Montana at its finest!

After dinner, most folks went home, but five of us camped at Big Pine campground on Fish Creek so we could get an early start for the Flathead River trip on the following day...

Buffalo Rapids (Flathead River), August 25th, 2002

After a fun day on Alberton, five of us (Marlene and Jerry Williams, Lindy Swartz, Todd Neel, and I) got an early start from camp and headed east on I-90 to the Hwy. 200 junction. We had breakfast at the truck stop there and then we were off to Ronan, MT, to pick up day-use permits (required by the Flathead Indian Reservation) to float the Flathead River.

We left a couple of vehicles at the Buffalo Bridge take-out and proceeded to the put-in which is directly below Kerr Dam at the south end of Flathead Lake. (Trip Coordinator note: Don't take a trailer down the dirt road to the put-in unless you want some very challenging backing up practice...).

This float is short but beautiful. After leaving the damn dam area, the river runs through a narrow gorge in a series of four rapids in the seven mile run. They are all Class III and are named Ledge, Pinball, Eagle Wave, and Buffalo. Lindy was the trip's only swimmer as she turned over at the top of Ledge and ran most of the rapid upside down in her kayak. She's pretty good at holding her breath!

Todd was finding some very interesting sneak-routes through the rapids, as I think he had enough swimming on the previous day.

The river flow was 9000 cfs, creating some wild hydraulics in the narrow gorge. Whirlpools and eddy fences would form and then disappear.

After the last rapid, there is still a couple of miles of moving water before the take-out. A Montana thunderstorm moved in on us during this stretch and we waited it out using the shoreline brush as a windbreak.

At Buffalo Bridge we were surprised to see SCKC member Dick Easterly and his group who had just finished a three day trip down the lower Flathead from Buffalo Bridge to Dixon, MT.

Dinner at Ronan with a view of the Mission Mountains capped off a very fun weekend with a great group of boaters. Thanks to all who came along!