The big Payoff

[magic_game03]

The Payoff

For many years I was just a hiker but I had bigger dreams. I enjoyed immersing myself in the splendid wonders of nature. Listening to the wind howling past on a high mountain, digging snow caves, watching all the animals of the forest, envisioning the life of the trees around me, being fascinated at how alive the desert was, and being at peace without all the wizzing and wonders of urban life. Yet I am always trying to draw out more from the wilderness environment.

Two great developments happened over the last two years. First, I took up fly-fishing. Second, I bought a packraft.

So last summer (2017) I incorporated the three (hiking, fly fishing, and packrafting) and finally the big payoff happened. For the first time ever I used hiking as a platform for my wilderness experience without it being the highlight.

So here is the outline of the experience. I wanted to packraft the Flathead River through the Bob Marshall Wilderness. I began at Lake Holland and hiked the 25 miles into the Bob to the headwaters of the South Fork Flathead. Floated the packraft to the White River. Set up a lower camp and then hiked up to the Chinese Wall and back down. Floated from the White river to Spotted Bear. Yes I did Meadow Creek Gorge solo (yes, I do have some beta to prove it). Hiked from Spotted Bear over Whitcomb Pk. to Schafer Meadows. Then floated from Schafer Meadows to Bear Creek take-out.

The trip was chocked full of highlights, way too many to detail. Everything from the Chinese Wall, to bull trout that were 30” easy, to running Meadow Creek Gorge. Total trip miles (hiking and floating) was about 180 miles. Total time was 10 days.

Headed back to the Bob in July 2018 to do it again, in bigger water, for another payoff!

[rocketsocks]

The Payoff

For many years I was just a hiker but I had bigger dreams. I enjoyed immersing myself in the splendid wonders of nature. Listening to the wind howling past on a high mountain, digging snow caves, watching all the animals of the forest, envisioning the life of the trees around me, being fascinated at how alive the desert was, and being at peace without all the wizzing and wonders of urban life. Yet I am always trying to draw out more from the wilderness environment.

Two great developments happened over the last two years. First, I took up fly-fishing. Second, I bought a packraft.

So last summer (2017) I incorporated the three (hiking, fly fishing, and packrafting) and finally the big payoff happened. For the first time ever I used hiking as a platform for my wilderness experience without it being the highlight.

So here is the outline of the experience. I wanted to packraft the Flathead River through the Bob Marshall Wilderness. I began at Lake Holland and hiked the 25 miles into the Bob to the headwaters of the South Fork Flathead. Floated the packraft to the White River. Set up a lower camp and then hiked up to the Chinese Wall and back down. Floated from the White river to Spotted Bear. Yes I did Meadow Creek Gorge solo (yes, I do have some beta to prove it). Hiked from Spotted Bear over Whitcomb Pk. to Schafer Meadows. Then floated from Schafer Meadows to Bear Creek take-out.

The trip was chocked full of highlights, way too many to detail. Everything from the Chinese Wall, to bull trout that were 30” easy, to running Meadow Creek Gorge. Total trip miles (hiking and floating) was about 180 miles. Total time was 10 days.

Headed back to the Bob in July 2018 to do it again, in bigger water, for another payoff!

beats the heck outta collecting cookie cutter trails.

[magic_game03]

Have you looked at bike packing/packrafting combinations?

RU still based out of CH NC?

If I had more time I'd consider the bike option but unfortunately I have a 2 year-old and a 4 year-old and they limit how much time I can take off.

Yep, closer to RDU airport though. I have a river raft with a casting platform that I take on the Nuese every now and then just to keep my casting arm loose.

beats the heck outta collecting cookie cutter trails.

Yeah, I never realized it until I broke the mold. It's going to be hard the next time I go backpacking not to take the Alpackaraft. The fly rod had been dragging me down for two years now, but the raft is going to break me.

[rocketsocks]

If I had more time I'd consider the bike option but unfortunately I have a 2 year-old and a 4 year-old and they limit how much time I can take off.

Yep, closer to RDU airport though. I have a river raft with a casting platform that I take on the Nuese every now and then just to keep my casting arm loose.




Yeah, I never realized it until I broke the mold. It's going to be hard the next time I go backpacking not to take the Alpackaraft. The fly rod had been dragging me down for two years now, but the raft is going to break me.

Now study Astronomy, Geology and Botany and see how much fun you can have...it’s endless.

[magic_game03]

Now study Astronomy, Geology and Botany and see how much fun you can have...it’s endless.

A bit presumptuous in my lack of education, are you?

[rocketsocks]

A bit presumptuous in my lack of education, are you?

perhaps, but hey, sounds like your half way there.

[Dogwood]

That's a great scenario. The BMW multi activity trip is so refreshingly organized. Yes, it's exciting out of the box thinking. Wish I knew the Bob better to better understand all the segments of your trip. BMW maps are in storage.



I like your wording "The Big Payoff." How appropriate. So, grasp the validity trips organized in such a way with backpacking/hiking at the core but not solely about hiking have a much greater diversity of enjoyed experiences.



30" Trout. Whew.


Renting a yak on a Channel Islands NP hiking/paddling trip and a light canoe on a Isle Royale NP hiking/paddling/fishing trip got me hooked on combining activities. So worth it! Currently have two paddling(light yak touring boat) hiking trips in the works. A short Congaree NP float/hike in Columbia SC and a longer MST thru paddling 200+ miles of the Neuse River.


Have you looked at bike packing/packrafting combinations?


RU still based out of CH NC?

[rocketsocks]

How bout some photos of the rafting trip, Thad be cool.

[magic_game03]

Second photo: South Fork before Mid-creek take-out.
Third photo: South Fork after Mid-creek take-out.

20170903_154035.jpg
20170903_154035.jpg

[magic_game03]

Well that didn't work so well. This one should be the photo # 2: South fork before Mid-creek take-out.
20170903_120430.jpg

[magic_game03]

Fourth photo: Getting closer to Meadow Creek Bridge. This is a large (perfectly round) suck-hole that I estimated to be around 12' in height and about 6 feet in diameter. You can't see the dimensions of the suck-hole from this angle but let me say that there was an enormous tree sticking out of it like a straw. The suck-hole is right in the middle of the photo where it looks like some rapids.

Screen Shot 2018-01-23 at 1.57.08 PM.png

[magic_game03]

Fifth photo: These are some of the gorge walls. These are only about 30'-40' high. Once you go under Meadow creek bridge these walls shoot up to 100'-150' high.

20170903_153831.jpg20170903_153831.jpg

[magic_game03]

Sixth photo: While this photo will be the least interesting to most I was very excited to get it. I'm standing on the side of a canyon wall about 20' up. In the photo is two bull trout. One female and one male. The trout may not look all that exciting in this image but if you notice the pebbles in this photo...they're not pebbles. I estimated these two trout to be some where in the neighborhood of 30". Not the biggest that I saw but fun to sit up there and watch these two effortlessly streamline in the currents.

20170903_184323(0).jpg

[magic_game03]

Ok, first though. I make no claim to have any video or photo expertise. These were taken on an old Samsung S4. Since I had only one charge (on the phone) I took what I could. Just purchased a Gopro Hero 5 so this July (next Bob trip) I should get some much better video.

First photo: Big Prairie Ranger Station pack bridge. Under the bridge is my green Alpackraft.

20170830_105233.jpg

[Lnj]

Those pictures are beautiful!! What a view! Nice trip. I am one of the jealous.

[Dogwood]

Thx MG. Loved the pics and the mixed activity trip. Yes, that was sharing an out of the box adventure, TU! Didn't know the river looked so scenic. You did portage around the suck hole? Those are big trout. Did they take readily? Were you using nymphs, streamers, dry flies...? You seem like a large guy. Is that the small Alpaca packraft?

[rocketsocks]

Right on gamer! Looks good, thanks for posting.

[magic_game03]

Those pictures are beautiful!! What a view! Nice trip. I am one of the jealous.

I often wonder if the people who spend so much money to travel abroad realize we have our own garden(s) of Eden here in N. America. I too am jealous...wished I lived in Montana. Oh well, another decade and I get these darn pesky kids out of the house and I'm free!

Thx MG. Loved the pics and the mixed activity trip. Yes, that was sharing an out of the box adventure, TU! Didn't know the river looked so scenic. You did portage around the suck hole? Those are big trout. Did they take readily? Were you using nymphs, streamers, dry flies...? You seem like a large guy. Is that the small Alpaca packraft?

Yeah, definitely portaged quite a bit in the gorge. Youtube is a good source for video but nobody has beta of the entire run. There are no huge falls but the hydraulics and obstacles would be almost impossible to survive.

I didn't target any bull trout. The bull season is very limited (catch and release only) and the species is threatened and endangered so I didn't even put a fly in if I saw any. I was aiming for cutties mostly. I cary a small fly box with a mix of about a hundred miscellaneous flys. I change up my rig a lot so I really couldn't say what I was using at any one time. In the gorge some of the depths in the narrows reached 30'-40' so I practically had to treat it as spin fishing. Other times it was nymphing, hopper-dropper, and dry topwater.

[funny to me- probably not to you so hold your nose] Funny story. On the Fifth day I came across this beautiful stretch of sandy beach perfect for camping. It was kind of early in the afternoon and I hate to stop early but I couldn't pass it up. The location had a large stretch of seams and pools great for trout so I decided to just to call it an early day. I setup camp, pulled out the rod and got to work. After about half an hour I had this deep urging to do something different. The day was so nice that I stripped down buck naked and fished for the next hour or so just like that. It was fantastic. Nobody else around, beautiful wilderness, pair of osprey working the same stretch to take back a bounty to a nest, peaceful-rythmic sounds of the river...it was sublime.

Alpackaraft is the Llama, open design, with cargo fly. Hope to get setup with self-bailer by my next trip.



+-+-+ Rocketsocks +-+-+ (you asked not to be quoted so this is my pseudo quote)

Thanks for sticking with me even though I'm a butt-munch. I know I'm a curmudgeon but I still have a heart (sometimes.)

[Dogwood]

I setup camp, pulled out the rod and got to work. After about half an hour I had this deep urging to do something different. The day was so nice that I stripped down buck naked and fished for the next hour or so just like that. It was fantastic. Nobody else around...

Language is xxx rated. I think you started a competitor to hike naked day...fish naked day. Lol

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

[magic_game03]

Now that this thread has some depth to it I’m going to bury a marvelous little secret into it. A secret hidden waterfall that flows through a natural arch. A natural wonder that has never been published to the public of wilderness enthusiast

First, let me attach a bit of relevance to the original posting and how I got here. Whiteblaze is a site that is firmly rooted in the Appalachian trail (duh, everyone know this.) Most thru-hikers go on to do other National Scenic Trails like the CDT and one of the more interesting geological features of the CDT is the Chinese Wall. That’s how I got interested in the Bob Marshall and what led me to packrafting. I wanted to go see the Wall but got sidetracked by seeing all these people packrafting the South Fork Flathead River.

So, in my many hours of research of Montana, and more directly the Bob, I came across this interesting account of a waterfall that had a unique natural arch rock formation too. Now, I’ve seen waterfalls and I’ve seen natural arches but I couldn’t recall ever seeing the two paired.

At first I though it would be interesting to see this place but I couldn’t find any other accounts of it. I kept digging and digging but nothing else surfaced. I almost wanted to write it off but the resource was from a naturalist who was working for the US government so I had to give it some legitimacy. This made me decide that I was going to have to track down the naturalist who documented the existence of this place if I ever wanted to find out more.

A few weeks of emailing various National Forest Service contacts led me to a particular rabbit hole of enlightenment. I only had a last name for the original published document so I wasn’t exactly sure who I was looking for, but a peculiar response grabbed my attention. The respondent didn’t concede or deny knowledge of the existence of this place, but they did respond.

At first she acknowledged that she did work as a naturalist in the Bob but sort of sloughed off any knowledge of this wonder. Then, email after email I chiseled away until I had her trust. She relinquished to me that this place does really exist. (Understandably, I already knew this. I had the documented photo from her report.) So, I too conceded. I promised not to reveal the exact location of this wonder to anyone. Not in person, not by direction, and not by any coordinate location if she would just give me some hint as to its vicinity.

Then in her own twisted acceptance of it’s revelation she sent me a Google Earth image screen shot of its location. I say twisted because oddly enough it was. She sent me a zoomed in image of a miniscule amount of forest that would have taken IBM’s Watson some time to overlay and match up precisely, and that’s if Watson knew to reserve its search criteria to the Bob only. Here’s the real kicker, whether or not on purpose, the Google image was turned 90 deg. counter clockwise. Basically a zoomed in image of wilderness turned sideways.

I countered.

Embedded in the image was the GPS location of the center of the image. Five minutes later I emailed her back the location and how to get there.

So to conclude, this place does exist. It’s not on a trail. You will need some climbing gear or cojones to get there. But if you’re ever in the Bob and you’re looking to see a natural wonder that’s not been published in Backpacker magazine…. go find yourself a natural arch waterfall!

Natural_Arch_Waterfall_(7205003040).jpg