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Floating the Upper Missouri

By Nancy Anderson

Can you get to Lake Maligne by way of the Missouri River? Iris and Olen Wood and I discovered that indeed an inland passage does not exist that connects those two bodies of water. No matter, the weather, at the last minute, looked a lot better on the Missouri than it did on Lake Maligne. So, instead of heading to Jaspar and the rain and wind that was forecast, we opted for the sunny banks of the section of the Missouri between Coal Banks landing, north of Great Falls and Fort Benton Montana, to Judith Landing. That stretch is part of the Upper Missouri National Wild and Scenic River, and scenic it certainly is!

We left on Thursday afternoon and arrived at Fort Benton at 10 pm Montana time. Iris had spoken with an outfitter who met us at that late hour at his office to provide us with maps, tips on camping sites and a really great book on the history, geology, wildlife and floating guide for the river. We opted to have him ferry the car (his is the cheapest rate on the river) saving us about 6 hours of shuttle time. We highly recommend Jim Cummings of Lewis and Clark Canoe Expeditions (1.888.595.3698) for his great service and just being an all around nice guy. We drove on to Coal Creek Landing and camped for the night. Friday morning we were up early, had our boats packed and were launching when I discovered a major problem.

"What the heck is that thing in the bottom of my boat?!?" My whole rudder assembly on the left hand side was laying in the bottom of my boat. AND there were no screws to be found. So, I had 2 holes in my boat right at water level!!! Oh, no. Now what do we do? We were in the middle of nowhere with only some more boaters and a camp host to solicit help from. So, I went in search of screws and silicone with no luck. I was in total despair when Olen came walking down from the car with duck tape and a mysterious package. It seems that someone he knows quite well snores in her sleep and is obligated to provide him with a constant supply of wax ear plugs. So, Olen patched my kayak with 2 wax earplugs in the holes and 3 strips of duck tape on both the inside and the outside of the holes! He absolutely saved the trip for me! I had visions of spending 3 days in Fort Benton instead of paddling the river. Better add wax earplugs to your essentials list!

So, we set off on a 3 day paddle trip that was filled with easy paddling (the average flow in mid-summer is 3.5 miles per hour), shallow peaceful water, beautiful white cliffs gnarled by the wind and water, weird rock formations, wonderful sightings of fresh water pelicans, tons of song birds, some bald eagles, and fabulous meals made in Iris's Dutch Oven. We arrived at our first campsite by 11:30 in the morning. Iris and Olen set off on a hike to the slot canyon nearby. I stayed in camp and took a few nice naps in between dips in the river. The wind came up and we were glad we were off the water. We were camped at Eagle Creek opposite Labarge Rock. Lewis and Clark camped here May 31, 1805 and wrote a lengthy journal entry for their travels that day. The cottonwoods were filled with birds that provided a wonderful wake up call the next morning. After a stunning breakfast prepared in the Dutch oven, we set off down the river to stop at a lovely spot named "Hole In The Wall". Olen hiked up to stand in the hole at the top of the cliff. Iris got our her water colors and got started capturing the cliffs, trees, sagebrush, grasses, etc. I got busy creating a recliner with arm supports out of a log and a couple of rocks. Took another nap. After that, we paddled on to a primitive campsite where Iris and I took a soak in the river and Olen took a nap. You can tell that this was a strenuous trip! We had a really nice evening, but a really windy one. I swear the gusts were 40 to 50 mph and steady. On Sunday, we had about 14 miles to paddle to Judith Landing. We made it in 3 hours. At one point Iris and I had our knees up out of our boats, leaned back, relaxed and paddled with our pinkies in the air. We still make good time even goofing off. Our only mishaps were getting stuck on the rocks in a couple of shallow spots.

I highly recommend the Upper Missouri for scenery, wildlife and easy paddling. The water's shallow, the rapids barely riffles and the weather's great! The book we bought and the maps we had of the different stretches gave a great insight into the history of the river and it was fun to pretend we were back in time and would see the Indians on horseback up on the hills pointing at us, as they did at Lewis and Clark's Expedition, and wondering "What in the world is that on our river?".

Many thanks to Iris and Olen Wood. They could have bagged the trip when the weather didn't look good and left me high and dry. But in true Trip Leader spirit, they just found someplace else to paddle. Thanks a million!