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Women's Weekend VII - Flathead River

By Tracy Wilson-Burns

The tandem canoe had wrapped itself around the large boulder in the middle of the rapid, but the two women paddlers had swum safely to shore, and now stood shivering on the banks as the dark clouds threatened.

Hail tore through our campsite, the wind whipped the tarps from our hands as we tried to cover our kitchen area.

The stove wouldn't light, a bear walked through camp, the portage was overgrown with bushes, the mosquitoes created a black cloud of torture, the keys to the shuttle vehicle were on the hip pack that sank in the murky depths, the shuttle rig blew a head gasket.

I volunteered to write this trip report before thoroughly thinking it through. What fun is it to write a trip report where nothing goes wrong? What was I thinking? You're about to read about the perfect paddling trip, and I'm faced with the problem of keeping you from falling asleep while reading about it. Maybe I'll throw in the bit about the flying cows.

Eight women participated in the seventh annual Women's Weekend this year which took place along a 20 mile stretch of the Flathead River, from Buffalo Bridge to Sloan Bridge on the weekend of September 21-22. Trip Coordinator, Megan Roland paddled tandem with Wendy Green, Julie Goltz paddled tandem with Claire Carpenter, Mary Wright paddled tandem with Kim Morse (Kim's first canoe experience on moving water!), Sheila Wagner-Harless paddled solo, and I paddled solo in my sea kayak.

Our shuttle to the Flathead began with a chilly 6:00 am start from Spokane. After stopping at Stang's in St. Regis for our river permits and taking an unplanned scenic detour to the put-in, we arrived at Buffalo Bridge around 10:30 am. Warm weather greeted us as we began loading our boats. The sky was cloudless, the breeze gentle—nothing at all like the dismal weather forecasts from earlier in the week. We shuttled our vehicles, leaving three at the take-out and one at the put-in, and were on the water by roughly noon.

We paddled leisurely and spotted plenty of wildlife: geese, cows, and various raptors. One member of our group spotted a large herd downstream on river right, they weren't cows, what were they? Elk? Deer? No, they were cows. No, they were elk. No they were geese. They were too large to be geese, they must be cows. As we approached the herd, digging among our packs for binoculors, the herd suddenly rose up and took flight. What a sight to see—flying cows?

After not too long we stopped for lunch and basked in the sun, then continuing our lazy pace we paddled to our camping spot. A large grassy shelf resembling a golf course lawn (could it get any better?) made for an ideal campsite, despite the spotted presence of cow dung (mostly dried and not too unpleasant). We had full sun for the late afternoon, which extended the warm temps for us as evening set in.

After pitching our tents we set up our dining/kitchen area, a great spot with beautiful views of the white pinnacled sandstone cliffs across the river from us. Then we started bringing out the hallmark of Women's Weekend—Food and Wine! We dined on delicious appetizers of cheese and crackers, organic home grown vegetables and a variety of dips; and a wonderful goat cheese log with a homemade pine nut and peppers relish. We had a pasta and cheese dish, peppers and chicken dish, and a dutch oven vegetable and potato feast. A toast was made to Julie Titone, whose perfect attendance at Women's Weekends was interrupted by her attending grad school back in Ohio this year. Claire's homemade brownies completed the meal.

For the crowning touch to our day of unexpectedly warm, sunny weather we had a full moon to brighten our night. We built a small fire in Mary's fire pan and stood around it for warmth as coolness set in, enjoying camaraderie and conversation before heading off to bed.

By morning, our tents were blanketed in frost, but the rising sun rose on us and it didn't take long before we were discarding layers. We were on the water by 10:30am after a lazy breakfast, and we paddled, still at a leisurely pace, having several sightings of bald eagles and golden eagles along the way. We didn't spot any more flying cows, but were keeping our eyes open.

After several hours of paddling we stopped for lunch, not too far from our take out at Sloan Bridge. Our lunch spot was a large gravelly beach in the sun. We pulled out all sorts of leftovers from dinner and created a lunch buffet of fresh vegetables, dips, rolls, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes; and we divided up what remained of the brownies (not too many remained, they were so good we devoured them the night before!). Megan and Wendy needed to take out at a particular time in order for Wendy to make her flight from Spokane back to Seattle, so they departed after lunch while the rest of us lounged in the sun and continued our WW7 conversations.

It was only a brief paddle after lunch to get to the takeout by about 3:30pm. By 4:00 pm we were on the way home, with Julie/Claire and Mary/Kim handling the shuttle of Mary's and Kim's boat and gear back to their car at the put-in.

The drive home was smooth sailing, and we arrived at our various homes by around 8:00 pm. (Except for Wendy, on route to Seattle). It really was a wonderful weekend! Thanks to Megan for coordinating the trip and to the women who attended for making it such a fun event.