BWCA The Missouri Breaks Boundary Waters Listening Point - General Discussion
Chat Rooms (0 Chatting)  |  Search  |   Login/Join
* For the benefit of the community, commercial posting is not allowed.
Boundary Waters Quetico Forum
   Listening Point - General Discussion
       The Missouri Breaks     
 Forum Sponsor

Author

Text

08/06/2020 04:35PM  
Has anyone paddled it?
 
      Print Top Bottom Previous Next
08/06/2020 05:31PM  
My pal, Vern Fish, just did with two others. He usually posts a trip report on another canoe website, but it may be a while. If you need more immediate info, email me and I will put you in touch.
 
MississippiDan
member (48)member
  
08/07/2020 10:00AM  
Did the Coal Bank to Judith Landing section several years ago. Great float. Highly recomend. Beautiful bluffs and rock features, Lewis and Clark historic sites, and the river moves along nicely.
 
ayudell
distinguished member (156)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
08/07/2020 02:50PM  
I've paddled from just downstream of Great Falls to the Fred Robinson (Hwy 191) bridge- about 180 river miles through the White Cliffs, Breaks and Wild and Scenic sections. We paddled in August- slow current and low water, but only saw a couple other groups the whole time. The scenery was fantastic, it's all very wild west.

There are no rapids on that float, or even really areas where the water speeds up. We made the trip in 8 days but could have easily done it in 6 because we had favorable winds. The current is stronger in the spring (3 mph?), but that is also the popular time to run the river. Camping is mostly in large riverside campsites that you will probably share with other groups if anyone else is floating. There are no portages- we packed all of our stuff in rubbermaid containers, they fit really well in the canoe. I guess it would have been a mess if we capsized..

There is a fantastic set of guidebooks that were available for this section. They would point out individual islands where the Lewis and Clark party shot a Grizzly bear, or sand bars where steamships had run aground after drunken mutinies. I think we got them at the interpretive center in Fort Benton.

Fishing in August was mostly impossible due to large amounts of algae floating downstream. Spring is probably different.

You need to pack water, but there are a few areas to fill up along the route. I don't think they recommend filtering because of high amounts of sediment and agricultural runoff. There are a lot of cows nearby.

Watch out for rattlesnakes.

 
08/09/2020 05:47PM  
rtallent: "My pal, Vern Fish, just did with two others. He usually posts a trip report on another canoe website, but it may be a while. If you need more immediate info, email me and I will put you in touch."




Hey, I know that Vern Fish... he’s a pretty diversified paddler. I did some woodland caribou with him.
 
08/16/2020 06:05PM  
Yep Ben, He gets around. Usually Canada in the summer, but not this year, of course. He likes to put the names of rivers he has paddled on the side of his canoe, but I think he is running out of space...
 
yellowcanoe
distinguished member(4984)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished memberpower member
  
08/16/2020 06:40PM  
We did it in May 2017. Not my favorite paddle. Cattle in the river and the geese were breeding. Never got away at anytime from screeching geese. We did Coal Banks to Kipp in five days. It was just after a flood the previous year and the mud was everywhere. Wear boots.
It was also very hot for May . Over 100 degrees.

And yes bring a hiking stick as the prairie rattlers abound. They are shy but they are under bushes. Yep one almost got me.

There are pluses. You will find more pluses perhaps in the fall with the geese gone. One plus was the water for us was higher and fast. And the scenery nice and the history fantastic. We brought all our own water.

There are shade shelters at some campsites and not others. Some are also barbed wire fenced to keep the cattle from wrecking your camp.
 
WHendrix
distinguished member(623)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
08/16/2020 07:35PM  
Wow, what an amazing endorsement. I've not paddled it but several friends have. I've heard some of the same reports plus another complaint from one group that the whole time they were on the river there was a strong up-river wind and so the advantage of the current was pretty much negated.
 
08/16/2020 09:33PM  
Did downstream twice in the Charles Russell refuge and hunting area. We hunted mule deer there about 1990.
Found a old trappers cabin about 8 feet by 10 feet snuggled way into a hill side>just a few walls left. Also seen and left there in a ravine the petrified bones of a animals rib cage. Found a dinosaur bone and much petrified wood-left there. The river was real low that year. Like a 50 year low and there was these huge petrified snails everywhere along the river shores. I did take two of those homes. Not far from where I was about 10 years ago they found almost intact a entire skeleton of one of the bigger dinosaurs ever found. Often wonder the area I was I don't think it has been fully covered.

Yes I always dreamed of floating the whole thing and there is shuttle services available to transfer your car. What I don't know with 30 years gone by what about jet boats and other traffic change?
The Fort Peck reservoir has some awesome fishing.
 
08/16/2020 09:47PM  
WHendrix: "Wow, what an amazing endorsement. I've not paddled it but several friends have. I've heard some of the same reports plus another complaint from one group that the whole time they were on the river there was a strong up-river wind and so the advantage of the current was pretty much negated."
It can be a windy area yes.
 
ayudell
distinguished member (156)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
08/16/2020 10:43PM  
Pinetree: "
WHendrix: "Wow, what an amazing endorsement. I've not paddled it but several friends have. I've heard some of the same reports plus another complaint from one group that the whole time they were on the river there was a strong up-river wind and so the advantage of the current was pretty much negated."
It can be a windy area yes.
"

I would even say usually windy- I lived in the area for a few years. On our trip, the wind worked for us. We set up a sail between the two canoes and logged 11 mph on GPS at one point between current and wind. Control at that speed was not sustainable.
 
yellowcanoe
distinguished member(4984)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished memberpower member
  
08/17/2020 07:38AM  
ayudell: "
Pinetree: "
WHendrix: "Wow, what an amazing endorsement. I've not paddled it but several friends have. I've heard some of the same reports plus another complaint from one group that the whole time they were on the river there was a strong up-river wind and so the advantage of the current was pretty much negated."
It can be a windy area yes.
"

I would even say usually windy- I lived in the area for a few years. On our trip, the wind worked for us. We set up a sail between the two canoes and logged 11 mph on GPS at one point between current and wind. Control at that speed was not sustainable."


Wind we did not have. Some campsites were not accessible for us. The flooding had eroded the banks and some were 10 feet or so up vertical mud banks.
Each trip is going to be different. We stayed one night at a shelter near Hole in the Wall. There was an ongoing attempt to grow some shade trees. There were maybe 15 six foot tall trees and a bucket and a note on the shelter to please water them if we were so inclined. Of course my husband did.. about 30 trips back and forth to the river! I wonder how they are doing.
 
      Print Top Bottom Previous Next
Listening Point - General Discussion Sponsor:
Rockwood Outfitters