Fighting the Wind Part Deux
After spending two days enjoying Glacier and logging 25+ miles we decided to take a leisurely float down the North Fork of the Flat Head River. Admittedly we got a little bit of a late start that morning (or afternoon).
The plan was that Andrea would bike back to the car once we finished. We scoped out the road and it looked to be a fairly quiet ride back so we found a parking spot and headed down the river. The North Fork moves a lot of water. The section we were on was calm and used by lots of tubers.
But the wind was blowing pretty strongly. It’s been warm here so the wind mostly feels refreshing. Out on the water it was a different story. Unfortunately our plan for a leisurely float turned into a little more work than we anticipated. We were moving downstream, but pretty slowly and the wind was directly agaist us a lot of the time. We lashed our boats together which made a steering and oreientation a lot easier. There was some work involved but it was a beautiful day and it wasn’t nearly as hard as hiking. We soon realized, though, that we would have to start paddling because we were running out of sunlight for Andrea’s bike ride back.
With time against us we paddled hard to stay in the flow of the river but we eventually landed at our take-out and Andrea hopped on her bike for a 14.7 mile bike ride back.
She rode and I collected rocks that almost look like hearts even though it was pitch black by the time she got back.
Andrea- I read an article that described this route and it sounded like it would be an 11 mile float, which is pretty long, but doable if the current is good. Even knowing that we would spend a few hours floating, I thought we had all the time in the world! Starting the float at 3 pm was not the best idea knowing that I had over an hour bike ride at the end. The float ended up being 15 miles long and did I bring my bike light? Of course not! I have to say that both the float and the bike ride bake were lovely even with the added stress of trying to make it back before dark. I got to enjoy a beautiful Montana sunset the whole ride back.
It was after sunset by the time I made it back to the car and I hurried back to find Mike in pitch black waiting on the shore with the boats. Lesson learned: Allow more time than you think you will need for any activity. James had warned us that if we weren’t back by the time they got home, Jenn would start to worry.
