Big Timber Creek, Montana - V

Every day on the river is a good day. Some are better than others, and some just simply blow your mind. Big Timber blew my mind.

It is a classic in every respect. Phenomenal scenery, enormous rapids, and some of the biggest slides you'll ever see. Here are some pictures that cover maybe 20% of the good rapids.

First, a tree had to be cut. What a shitty view. That's Conical Peak, right in the heart of the Crazy Mountains.


Then, we had to hike some more. Boats are heavy.



Alan makes his first paddle stroke of the day on the douple drop put in rapid.




The above leads directly into O's Woes, a fast constricted slide that sends you deep into the bottom hole at high speed.




Below, Chad digging for the boof then riding out slide in Fine Line.






Triple Dipple, which Shiloh is boofing large, leads directly into the fabled and truly epic Pinch.




Here is AJ and then Alan in the Pinch. You can see Triple Dipple above, and then the Pinch slide which constricts to about 6 feet wide.





And then the big scare. Chad hit a bouncer, turned sideways, and went flying headfirst down the slide, where he began to come out of his boat.





He was fine. His boat was recovered, he was stopped from flushing into the next huge slide by a diving leap from AJ, and the paddle was found a few rapids down.

Alan boofs a ledge immediately below the Pinch.



This boof leads directly into this, where Shiloh is approaching terminal velocity in a huge banking slide.



This drop doesn't have a name. I guess it's just "class IV boogie." There are lots and lots of slides and ledges like this, and none of them have names.



Parting shit: Blasting through the Pinch.

Flows
High by some standards, but most in our group called it perfect. However, no one ran the Gambler or the Falls, so what do I know?

Big Sands Creek, Idaho - V (V+)

Big Sands is the most remote run I have done in the US. Combining a long, strenous hike in and an extremely deep canyon, Big Sands is one of the most committing single day missions in Idaho. That said, all the drops are scoutable and portageable at or near river level on the talus fields that create most of the whitewater.

As a high elevation tributary to the legendary Lochsa, the day starts with a long drive in on a slow going, narrow road. I was excited to do this run because it shares a divide with creeks that come down the east side of the Bitterroots right near my house. As the crow flies, the put in is probably only 15 miles from where I am sitting right now.

After the shuttle, the mission begins with a 4 mile hike. It starts innocently enough.



But soon, it turns into a rather desperate thrash through countless blown down trees.




After sweating it out for a couple hours, we arrived at the put in. The calm water here gives no indication of what awaits just downstream. At this point, Ira was claiming it was the lowest he'd ever done it.



I had kind of an epic day. I swam in the first drop, ran some bad lines soon afterwards, and ended up portaging a lot. In fact, everyone portaged quite a bit because by the second rapid, Ira decided it was in fact the HIGHEST he had ever run it. Of our group of 7, only two had done the run before, and one of those had run it 8 years ago....so tension was a little on the high side.

There is no way out but downstream. After a few warmup boulder gardens and a ten foot waterfall, the first of the really tough, threatening drops appeared.





Portaging the gnar. Pushy, technical, extremely complex....with a sieve ending. This photo utterly fails to capture the steepness.



Tyler coasting towards a sweet boof.



James finishing it.



Ira on the first drop of a rapid I found truly disgusting.



And going for the rock slide to pin combo...he was fine.



Resurfacing after the biggest hole of the day.



Tyler ponders the immensity of the Selway Bitterroot Wilderness and impossibilty of escape. Did I mention it was about 45 degrees and lightly raining all day?



Around here, I put the camera away and focused on making it to the takeout.

Afterwards, I did my duty to appease the river gods with a bootie (actually ripped the sole of my booty yesterday, so I was paddling in some running shoes, thank god.



Parting shot.

Flows

The Lochsa was at ~3900 cfs when we did Big Sands. I would call this a pretty high flow that makes much of the crux section extremely pushy and threatening for most.