Bob Marshall Wilderness: Chapter 5 & Epilogue

Aug / 11/ 17

Morning came fast and before we knew it, our last day of adventure had begun. Jon was feeling better than yesterday morning but still not great. We believe he got a bit of food poisoning from our summer sausage that didn’t get the end cut off. We made our final breakfasts and began to pack up camp, when “the fishermen” passed by our camp bright and early, and with no acknowledgment of our existence once again. In all honesty, Dwylin would not have had that any other way.

A little while later “the girls” passed us and all of them had jackets on, but it was a chilly morning. It just made us more nervous about getting back in the water. Not long after, followed the “mountain men”, but we need to describe at least one of these guys. I thought they had a shirt under his hat so that it would hang over his neck and protect it from bugs or the sun. As we got closer, we realized that this was not the case. He had himself a big old beard and hair down below his shoulders and the friend with him was your standard bearded guy with longer than average hair. Anyways, these guys also passed us down the river.

We looked around our surroundings and found burned trees and cliffs on both sides. The light reflecting off the water was a welcome sign of a good day to come. Off in the distance, we heard a low rumble that kept increasing in volume as we got further down the river. “I don’t know, that sounds rough,” Jon said with a smile. He continued to say this nearly every time he heard rapids off in the distance.

We finished packing up camp and headed down the river for the last time. One thing we neglected to mention from our last post was that only one guy managed to flip his boat during our first day on the river. Matt ended up flipping twice on the trip, but in all seriousness, it wasn’t his fault. He weighs roughly around 155 lbs spread out over the length of the boat, but with a 45 lb. bag in the front of the raft. So if there is anything I know about weight distribution… this isn’t a good mix.

We managed to record a video of Matt flipping, but there was no audio, but it is still fun to watch.

Dwylin was the only other one to flip his boat, and gratefully, nobody got it on video. We headed off the end of a waterfall with about a one-foot drop. The current would drag you back into the waterfall and you would start taking on water if you didn’t have enough speed to get through the current. First, Caleb didn’t make it through the current and was taking on water. Dwylin was following close behind and also wasn’t able to make it through. Basically, Dwylin decided that if he nailed Caleb at full speed, there may be a chance he can't get out of the current, and he was proving to be right. Unfortunately for Dwylin, he was unable to save himself and took a tumble in the cold water. He jumped up out of the water with a big gasp for air and from the shock of the cold water. He guided his boat to the shore and stood there for a while to catch his breath and to cool off his temper.

We headed down the river again we could hear something faint in the distance, “I don’t know, this one sounds pretty rough” Jon said. Dwylin stayed in the back of the group paralyzed with silence.

We approached the next set of rapids, and boy, were they ROUGH. Our group had been tackling the rapids one person at a time. Dwylin was one of the last to roll through the rapids, and something happened to him that made everyone wish they had a camera rolling. Dwylin's boat took a turn in the rapids that was much sharper than he wanted. He ran ashore on a rock, and the current kept pushing him down the river. So Dwylin’s raft turned around backward, and before he knew it. The raft was now flowing down the rapid backwards, and Dwylin feeling totally out of control took his paddle and started pumping up and down in the air. This motion resembled a weightlifter doing a bench press. (This motion basically represented his total lack of control in this situation, and he identified that) As he continued down the river, backward, he went down another drop in the water level. Dwylin, who had not put his paddle in the water since he spun around, was still content to make it through the rapids without paddling. Miraculously his boat turned around for the second time while in the rapids and Dwylin made it through this experience unscathed.

We came up to some small rock cliffs that had some ledges and the guys decided to stop and jump off. Landon, Dan, Nate, Matt, and Caleb were jumping in. Matt jumped in the water and right as he jumped into yelled out, “I love you Linda.”
(HEY, CONSIDERING THAT I WAS THE ONLY ONE ON THIS TRIP THAT DOESN’T SPEAK DUTCH… I DON’T WANT TO HEAR ANYONE COMPLAIN ABOUT TRANSLATION DIFFICULTY.) Every now and then Dan will do something just beyond his skill level and saw one of those today… watch and see.

It didn’t take long for us to keep on moving and after a few more bumpy areas, we found “The Cliff”. Dan, Jon, Nate, and Matt all decided to jump off, but no one was able to jump off. Dan kept looking like he was gonna jump but just couldn’t do it. So, to ensure that everyone would jump off all the guys agreed to a bet. If one failed to jump off, that meant he owed the others $15 each. Jon and Dan switched places in line and Jon jumped off first. Followed by everyone else, and no money switched hands because of this.

There is a pullout point for the rafts, about two miles from where our cars were parked. Some of the guys have been saying the whole trip that they would like to float the whole way to the end. If you pull out where everyone else pulls out you have a two-mile hike ahead of you. Now, if you keep going down the river you’ll find that the river narrows and that the rapids turn from class 1-3 and after you pass the pullout point it becomes a class 4 and above. Matt, Jon, Landon, and Dwylin pulled out and Dan, Caleb, and Nate continued on down the river, with no life jackets or helmets, basically asking to be killed.  They gave plenty of warning for all those that wanted to continue on down the river.

The four walkers started walking up the path with our bags repacked. As soon as we started walking uphill Dwylin’s left leg seemed to be tight and unable to extend fully. We would find out, after the trip, that Dwylin’s knee was slightly out of the socket. Landon’s shoes were soaked and decided to walk the two miles back in his flip flops. While walking back on the path we ended up seeing our three amigos rafting down the river. Getting in and out of their boats to check the rapids to see if they were too rough to go through.

At one spot Dan was headed down the river and saw that he was heading towards a rock wall so he bailed and grabbed on to the rocks and ended up climbing out as his boat kept going downstream. When Dan jumped out, his boat flipped and kept going downriver. Eventually, we found it stuck in a Whirlpool still upside down. The only problem was that the boat was about 20 feet below them. Caleb managed to find a 20-foot long stick from a tree, and Nate used it to get the boat away from the whirlpool. Once it was out it headed back down the river to a point where Dan was waiting for it. Standing there with his feet on both sides of the river. He waited for the boat to get between his legs and went to grab for it, but the boat was dragged on down the river and out of Dan’s reach. Dan ran after it again and the boat got caught by a rock. When Dan caught up to it again, the raft, seemingly with a mind of its own, managed to escape his grasp once again. So, he had no other choice but to run off down the river. He got in front of the boat and found an underwater shoreline that he could stand on so he jumped in the water and grabbed his boat. This is a story you just wished that you could see it in person, but we have the next best thing. That's right we have a video and we added music to it.

The other group of guys finished their hike back to the trucks and started to clean up. Most changed into new clothes and just wanted to clean their feet. Jon found a used 24 pack of water in his truck and did we ever enjoy that watery feeling. There was just a totally new appreciation for the simple treasures in our lives, but something else caught my eye. It was some sort of structure off in the distance. It had four brick walls and a metal door with a lock on the inside, and a beautiful commode on the inside. Do you want to know the best part was? It had a concrete floor!!! No brush or branches around or even worse animals ready to catch you in a moment of weakness, but this was another step closer to heaven. OK, I may have over emphasized how amazing this restroom was, but for a restroom, it wasn’t too bad.

We were at the trucks for about 20 minutes when our brothers from down under showed up told us about their adventures. They brought up Dan’s experience and how he lost his jacket and some socks, but left with his life. This was a good trade and we all laughed together and reminisced on our trip experiences. We got ourselves in a circle and prayed together one last time thanking God for providing us with safety and also allowing us to get ourselves in precarious situations so we could find joy in the mistakes that we all made. After all, it’s not the safety of our experiences that make lives epic and interesting. It's pushing through the hard moments and reaching your goal at the end. Much like our Christian lives we aren’t meant to live these safe lives with no adversity, but lives of action. Moving in a moment's notice at God’s command, and making it to our reward at the end. Taking our experiences and scars with us all the way to the end. All of this creates the epic story of our lives and our chance to see God working through all of it. Do I wish I wouldn’t have had my knee pop out or a ton of blisters on my feet… yes! I wish that, but I wouldn’t trade that story for what actually happened.

Epilogue

Aug/ 11/ 17 - Aug/ 13/ 2017

We split up from here Dan and Jon headed back to Plains, and the rest of us headed to Indiana. It was about a two-hour drive just to get out of the dirt roads, and another hour and a half to get a cell phone signal. At this point, we all started to receive oodles of messages from family and friends. Nate or Caleb managed to turn this into a competition. Nate ended up with around 16, Matt with about 12, Caleb ended around 22, Landon UNKNOWN, Dwylin got last with 1.

We got ourselves out onto the pavement again and stopped along the road to talk with Dan about how we should leave. Splitting ways was just another punch in the gut that our trip was rapidly coming to an end. We had to head back to Browning, MT to return our rafts. We got there as the sun was fading away, and then stopped at a local subway for the best footlongs of our lives!

Landon started by driving from the park to Browning and then Nate took over for a few hours. Dwylin drove after that so that the others could rest. I feel that Dwylin did a great job driving through the darkness of night while everyone else was asleep, said an anonymous occupant of the truck. (It could have been Dwylin that said this. Technically, he was an occupant in the truck.) However, even the greatest of people can have a moment that can bring him back to reality. For Dwylin it was driving around 90 mph and having a deer cross the road in front of him. It wasn’t as dramatic of an experience as it could have been. Dwylin started to realize how he wasn’t as alert as he thought he was.

Landon took over next and we found ourselves driving on the freeway that passes Sturgis, SD. This could easily be considered the Mecca of motorcyclists. A small town in the middle of nowhere gets ravaged by thousands of bikers and their RVs and Trucks for two weeks. People will do whatever it takes to get their bike to and from Sturgis. From here all the way to Chicago we surrounded by bikes and trailers that were heading home.

What is something that should happen on every trip? SHAMELESS SINGING! By the time we reached Iowa, we were bored enough that we started singing the greatest hits of our Alaska trip and sending them to Jon back in Montana. This was causing laughter hard enough to make our sides hurt. Here is a sampling of it.

We got back to Dan’s around 2 AM on Sunday morning, and I went home and showered and soaked my feet in Epsom Salt and went to bed around 3 and slept a solid 9 hours. Matt drove left with Nate and Caleb to go to Ohio to see his fiance. Caleb was dropped off at a hotel in Fort Wayne, where his parents happened to be staying that night. Matt was dropped off pretty close to 6:50 at Linda’s house, and Nate finally made it home at 7:30. Just in time for his family to get up for church that day, but Nate would not accompany them. However, back in Indiana, we found out that Landon did indeed go to church that morning. Making my parents ask me why I decided not to attend. Thanks a lot Landon.

TWO WEEKS LATER

Aug/ 26/ 17

All of us were able to see each other again at Matt and Linda’s wedding. As with any group of guys, there were no pictures taken to prove it. Jon and Dan were groomsmen and Dwylin was Matt’s personal server and “First Alternate” *wink. Caleb showed up as a guest because he happened to go on the trip with us, and that still makes me laugh. Landon was there as well helping park cars and to enjoy the festivities.

Now that Matt is married our adventures as a group will definitely slow down, and we understand that. We gave him our blessing anyway, but what choice did we have. I mean he really likes her after all.

This now concludes our adventure from the Bob Marshall Wilderness…

hopefully in the next few weeks, I’ll be able to finish the videos for you all to see but here is a gift to hold you over till then…

Our Trailer Video

Bob Marshall Wilderness: Chapter 4

Aug/ 10/ 17

When you get woke up by someone rushing out of your tent at 2ish in the morning, one could hope for at least one thing… is he leaving early to start breakfast? How nice of him... Hurl, barf, puke, upchucking, whatever you want to refer to it as; it doesn’t matter. The unwelcome sounds of our comrade “losing his biscuits” was just plain unwelcome to us all. Quietly someone had to be thinking, what could cause him to spew, and who could be next? Jon and his technicolor yawn subsided, and the rest of us were able to slowly fall back asleep.

Usually, us guys slept with relative ease, but wow, was it ever cold. Most of us had Mummy Sleeping bags along for the trip. These sleeping bags are very compact and do very well in the cold. If you got out of your sleeping bag during the night, it wouldn’t take more than a minute and your teeth would start to chatter, and you would get right back in that bag.

Morning did eventually arrive and with it came a decision. Dwylin our 85 year old had a real dilemma in front of him. To stay lying in bed or to tackle the great adventure of trying to stand and try to stay standing. The cold weather along with blisters and the ever-increasing stiff joints were really wreaking havoc on this guy. On the bright side, however, the last 12 hours of joint pain would be the worst that Dwylin would have to experience on our trip.

There was no sense of rush to head out that morning with the hiking behind us and floating before us. Also, we didn’t want to leave until closer to 10 or 11 so the water would have plenty of time to warm up for us.

We headed out for the day around 10:30, with the current as our guide. All we could hope for was a peaceful float down the river and we basically had that except for the occasional hidden rock that would nail your derriere at Mach speed. Every once and awhile you would be talking with someone, and all of a sudden, their progress down the river would end because they jammed into a rock.

Other than occasional places that you needed to get out and walk beside your boat, which if there was a strong current could be a chore, we would stop on occasion to see if we could find some fish, and usually with no luck. Nate and Caleb caught the majority of the fish this way. if I remember right, but I can’t be 100% certain. We were able to take a picture of Nate catching a small fish in the water. The fish ended up getting away, but we didn’t care. After all, it was a pretty small fish and would have been a small meal.

As we continued down the river we kept coming up on new people. First, we passed a group of four or five girls. Right after we passed them we found a nice rock to jump off of and a nice area to fish, but I don’t recall catching anything. A little later, we passed the same group of girls, while they were eating lunch. One of them yelled out, “Do you guys have any beer?”, and Dan replied by saying no. “That would be a lot of weight to carry around,” Dan added. The girls reacted to that comment by asking if we had whiskey? We just laughed and kept going on our way down the river. Dwylin actually did have a flask with him, but it was filled with spicy olive oil. We didn’t think it was necessary to bring this up to these strangers.

There were others that we came across, and we gave most of the group nicknames. We had names like the girls, the fishermen, and mountain men. Our next story will feature the fishermen, and just to make you aware these definitely were not the friendliest group of guys that we have ever met. These guys just ignored us and never said a word to us.

Now, do you know how strong current works, while you’re in a small boat? You have very little choice on where you’re going, for the most part. Well, one of our funnier stories to reminisce on is when Dwylin accidentally ran his boat into one of these guys while they were fishing. The fishermen had a dog sitting in the back of his boat. His boat looked like this.

We came rushing quickly on a rapid where this clown was standing there in our way, with his boat trapped in place with his legs holding on to it. He was in line with the current so that all of us would probably get within five feet of him. Nate was one of the first to go down and just barely avoided the guy, and Dwylin was next. O yea, this guy was standing there fishing, which meant we needed to avoid his hook as well. Unlike Nate, Dwylin absolutely nailed this guy’s raft and apologized while this guy never said a word. Dwylin nervously tried to paddle his boat away from his boat, but…

Well, let’s change to Dan’s perspective. Dan was already past this part of the river and described what happened next as hysterical. “All I heard was a dog yelping, so I turn around and saw Dwylin paddling away. When Dwylin put his paddle in the water to start his getaway. He accidentally didn't have it in the water deep enough and splashed the fisherman's dog. Dwylin’s head was now looking down, covered with embarrassment and remorse. No one else felt this way, and they all were quietly laughing at what happened. Mostly cause the other guys wished that they could have done the same to this roadblock that was in our way.

The day ended uneventfully with us just trying to find a campsite, but most of them were already were taken up with other campers. We ended up going about 15 to 17 miles that day, with roughly 8 miles left to go.

We got our boats out of the water and quickly discovered that the contents of our bags were soaked. So it became a rush to get our wet stuff out of our bags and upon a tree before the sun went down. 

Our next objective was to set up our tent for the night, but mostly so that some of the guys could play pocket rockets. The guys who were not playing poker decided to head to bed early, but as we laid there, we started feeling raindrops. Don’t forget that we usually slept without the canopy on the tent so we could cover our bags. We were told that in Plains, Montana, it had not rained for the six weeks before our trip. If you don’t remember, that is where Dan & Jon’s family is from. Either way, it started to rain, so we quickly ran out of the tent to get our tarp off the bags and back on top of the tent. Still, now we had another problem, our bags were going to wet. So we brought them into the tent during the storm and waited for the storm to pass. This didn’t make much sense to me personally. We had pulled out of the river with our bags being wet and tomorrow we’re going right back in the water. So why worry if the bags get wet again tonight, but I’m no doctor.

We are ready to be done, and with only one night left, we will miss this adventure once were gone.