Bob Marshall Wilderness: Prologue

Aug / 3/ 17 - Aug / 6/ 17

MONTANA'S FLATHEAD RIVER… That is our adventure for this year. A wild 1-week hiking/pack rafting trip that includes 7 friends and 25 miles of hiking back in a wilderness with everything we could ever need, well anything that we were willing to carry that is.

We cannot start this story without going back to Thursday, August, 3^rd. The night before our adventure began, when Dan and Dwylin drove out to Bass Pro Shop to purchase some of their final supplies for this adventure they were embarking on.

On our shopping list

1. Mummy Sleeping Bags 2. Fishing Supplies 3. Clothing 4. Fly Fishing Rod (One would argue that 2 & 4 should be the same thing but you’ll see by the end of our adventure… It most certainly was not the same thing.)

The two of them didn’t get home until roughly 10:30 pm, both with the intention of traveling down to Fort Wayne, IN to the airport to rent an SUV for their trip the following day. Now due to some poor planning, Dwylin had to get up at 4 AM Friday morning to pack his backpack and be at Dan’s by 7 so they could drive an hour and a half down to the airport.

Once they got to the airport they discovered very quickly that something was a rye. The big jumbo SUV they expected to receive had been replaced by an SUV with little legroom, and almost NO trunk space. Not ideal when you have 5 big hiking packs to take with you. Going back to the desk for a second try, we learned that was the only SUV or van that they had left. So the two of them headed back north to Dunlap, IN to an Enterprise for a vehicle. While we didn’t get the vehicle we wanted… We received a huge blessing we never expected. We ended up renting a bright red 2017 Ford F-150 Crew Cab, with plenty of legroom for even Landon, a lengthy 6’4”, in the back seat.

Dwylin drove back home to finish packing and to pick up Landon while Dan drove the truck back to his house soon to be followed by our Ohio boys Nate and Caleb. Finally, we were able to get everyone together and set out for our ultimate goal… Montana.

I guess now would be a good time to tell you our differences between last year's Alaska group and this year's wilderness group. This year has 5 familiar faces Dan, Dwylin, Jon, Matt (who flew to MT early to play in a basketball tournament with Jon) and Nate, while adding an additional traveler Caleb Hostetler from Ohio and Landon Miller from Indiana.  Most have probably noticed that Jared isn’t among the list of people, because he is in Ghana, Africa for a year… but he was very missed.

We headed out closer to 1 pm instead of our initial intent of 10 o’clock, but we still left just the same. We headed out through Chicago and on up to Minneapolis and on west. Trying to pick up our rafts in Browning, MT we headed through what seemed to be endless miles of empty roads. Devoid of all life except for the fields beside us and the many eyes in those fields staring back at us!

When the morning came, we wanted some food so we settled with a small restaurant called The Hitchin’ Post in Malta, MT. A good amount of food, but seemingly a bit on the cold side. That aside it was a welcome break from the travel. Just a little later we were able to stop and pick up our pack rafts from the Browning Indian Reservation and headed on to Plains, MT through Glacier National Park.

While well worth the visual experience, but we’re still unsure if it was worth the $30 price tag to drive through the park.

We finally made it to Dan’s parent's place around 4 pm on Saturday. Matt and Jon pulled in from their basketball adventure and Jon was shocked to see that Nate showed up, simply because no one told him that he was coming. A great evening commenced with Dan and Jon’s family with some great conversations and outstanding food. The evening ended with Dan taking the guys on a ride around the block in his old 1979 Ford F-250 pickup, a fun way to wind down the evening.

Later, Dan and his dad were talking about ranches and evidently, they were the only ones interested in the conversation, because it didn’t take long and everyone was asleep.

We woke bright and early Sunday morning ready for cereal and in anticipation of hearing Dan give a devotional at church. We were blessed to be a part of their fellowship meal at the church and devoured some outstanding food. We then headed back to Dan’s parents to pack and head up to Kalispell to get our final supplies at Walmart, and then spend the night at Dan’s sister, Sara and Verlin’s house. We packed up and now we sleep awaiting tomorrow when we leave bright and early to head out for our hike.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to write a new account every couple of days… stayed tuned.