This September trip was blessed with three days of sunshine and six days of wind, rain or cloud coverage.  It was cold.  The trip started out warm.  It was shorts all the way.  We paddled in shorts, we hiked in shorts and we swam in the river.  Our second day was a lay over day at Eagle creek only a few short miles from the put in at (name place).  We spent the day hiking up Eagle Creek and swimming in the river.  Our day ended with wind.  Come our third day we had wind all day.  Forunately someone prayed to the River Gods and we were blessed with a tailwind.  In fact every day that we had wind it was a tail wind, until our last day, we experienced a mild head wind.

We paddled to (name place), where there is a small store that promised to remain open for us.  For Montana we were pretty late in the season for paddling.  The rain that we experienced that day was cold.  In fact at one point the rain was more like slush.  As we pulled into the store, the skies opened up on us and it began to poar and the wind began to blow quite hard.  It was with great relief that I pulled my boat up on the shore at that time.  My experiences paddling in the wind and rain up to this point had been prett non-existant.   Wind of course was my biggest fear on this trip.

This day took it's toll on us.  We sloshed into that store like rats run up on shore.  We were wet and cold.  At this juncture we had arranged for a shuttle car to be left so we could stock up on supplies, i.e. water.  Unfortunately our shuttle car was no where to be found.  As the storm passed us by we sat on the floor of the store and waited on our supplies to arrive.

Our group split up and two canoes went down river to find our next camp site.  To everyone's great relief the rain and wind had stopped at least long enough for us to make camp.

Thus was the same for the next couple of days.  The winds were not as bad nor was the rain, and it always seemed to stop long enough to setup or take camp down and for us to make and consume our meals.  I would say that was another gift from the River Gods.

Stopped for lunch one day, I remember looking up in the sky and seeing three distinct views.  Directly above us was a beautiful blue sky clear of clouds.  Behind us was a sky filled with big white puffy clouds and in front of us was a sky so dark it filled me with fear.  Of all the directions to go, we were headed into a storm.   We paddled into that storm, with our foul gear on and our heads down in consentration.  It was scarey, until I realized that we were going to make it and the storm wasn't going to get any worse.  The fear of the unknown was greater than the challenge at hand.  I must of taken on a good three inches of water in my boat from that storm.

Our next lay over day was the day before we took off the river.  We did some great hiking that day.  As we hiked up the mountain to the plateau above us we found petrified wood.  At the summit we found antlers shed from deer.  We heard the cry of an elk in the next valley over.  From the ridge you could see the elk.   He was magnificent.

Our last day of paddling as mentioned earlier we encountered a mild headwind.  I say mild because it was by comparison of course any headwind make paddling a challenge.   We were only  14 miles or so from the take-out.  Those had to have been the longest miles I have ever paddled.