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.
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, 3rd. 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big jumbo SUV they expected to receive had been replaced by an SUV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.
