Smith River Trip Diary

by: Annsi Stephano

Annsi Stepahno, a trip participant,  wrote this note to her friends  after the trip.

Just back from a five-day float trip down the splendidly scenic Smith River in north-central Montana.

We "put in" last Wednesday about 60 miles upstream (which paradoxically is to the south) of where it flows into the Missouri River at Great Falls. This was one of the significant sites of the Lewis and Clark expedition  with The Corps of Discovery in 1804, and  is now the location for the National Lewis and  Clark Interpretive Center (translate: museum).

As we left Camp Baker in five rafts carrying eight guests, six guides and mountains of gear, we ceased to have any contact with the outside world except for the other fellow travelers on the river who were equally isolated. There were occasional houses and bungalows along the riverbank but not one person was visible the whole time. I didn't really think about it until we returned and realized we had had no news at all for five days. It was an oddly satisfying feeling.

The river runs for most of its length through steep canyon walls of sharply cut, narrow, horizontal strata of limestone,  sometimes laced with iron. It provides a beautiful backdrop for the winding river
whose swift current flows over a bed of smooth stones punctuated periodically by large boulders which occasionally offer up some low grade white water flows. Dense conifer forests of Douglas fir and Ponderosa pine meet the riverbank in places where the cliffs temporarily give way to a more gradually inclined meadow.

Wild flowers abound along the entire length of the river, some of which were familiar and some not.  One species, Euphorbia, which is a cultivated plant in gardens in the East, is considered a noxious weed in Montana where it colonizes and takes over meadows and hillsides. Perhaps, like purple loosetrife, there are hybrid varieties which are tamer than their wild cousins. Mock orange spreads its lovely fragrance over the river, and lupine grows vigorously as do larkspur and harebells and quantities of other varieties. There seems to be a preponderance of blue and white. Many species of butterflies flit among the flowers.

Caves often cut into the rock both at ground level and high on the cliffs above, one of which provided us with a full morning's  challenging climb, partly with rope assists where the ground was too steep and too slippery to traverse on our own (that is for the novices among us). The guides seemed to be able to scamper up sheer rock face on their own, but we were all pretty proud of ourselves for climbing the 1000 vertical feet at all. The view from the top up and down the river and the ancient pictographs on the cave walls made it worth the effort.

Each night we stopped at a different, picturesque campsite previously reserved (there is so much competition for permits to float the river and to stay at specific campsites that often one has to take  second or third choices). We were fortunate that the organizers seemed to be successful in arranging some of the premium spots with beautiful views. Each one was equipped with an open air latrine, consisting of a toilet placed outdoors over a deeply dug hole, discreetly concealed from the campsite and river by thick vegetation or a rough log fence.

The guides each evening unloaded all the rafts, set up camp, (except for our individual tents), cooked and cleaned up dinner, and started a campfire. In the morning, after a birdwalk with our resident ornithologist and breakfast, we would set out on the river  leaving the staff to load the rafts again, paddling onto our next site at our leisure. We stopped for lunch at a predetermined spot every day for a break and a swim, afterwards carrying on for the remainder of the afternoon.

Food was surprisingly good and varied considering the complexity of carrying everything with us for five days. We had chicken, salmon, pasta, and steak and tasty lunches and snacks available all day.  Starve we did not.

We were for the most part divided into birders and fisher folk during the day, one raft of the former, two of the latter. I, not  quite qualifying for either category, was more interested in birds and traveled with the birders. The ornithologist, it turned out was not only extremely knowledgeable but was a marvelous mimic to boot, not only of most of the birds in our surroundings, but he did a mean Donald Duck as well!

I learned a lot and came away with a heightened interest in birds. By trip's end we had compiled an impressive list of 82 different bird species  over the five days. Among the more interesting were bald and golden eagles, kestrels, falcons, owls, many species of warblers, swallows and swifts (which incidentally mate in the air for only a few brief seconds. You miss it entirely if you're not looking in the right place. Dick, the ornithologist, would periodically excitedly yell "copulation" and we'd all raise our faces in the air to try to catch them in the act.) Also beautiful were the lazuli buntings with their bright blue plumage with a light russet breast.

My personal favorite though was a little, fairly nondescript, gray, round bird called a dipper. He hangs out on smooth stones at the water's edge and bounces up and down just the way my year old grandson does in his little activity bouncy chair! The last day we saw a baby dipper in downy plumage being fed by his mother and learning to "dip". And oh yes, there were at least a dozen, maybe more, merganser families with mother and anywhere from two to twelve babies in each. The mothers would flee in fright as we approached with their babies right on their tail.  We concluded that the males were all dead beat dads as we saw nary a one the whole time!

I realized that I'm no more crazy about sleeping on the ground than I ever was, but for four nights it was quite tolerable and it was worth it for the daytime activity. I've discovered that this outfitter leads a trip into Glacier National Park where you get to stay at a "chalet" overnight and hike with the grizzlies and wolves during the day. I thought that might have some appeal.

I was hugely impressed by the competence, efficiency, helpfulness and  spirit of the staff and the organizers. Moreover, most of them looked about ten years younger than they were. That certainly says something for a rugged outdoor lifestyle.

Montana offered a wonderfully refreshing respite from the typical summer weather of the East. The temperatures were in the 50s at night and upper 70s and low 80s during the day with virtually no humidity. We had rain only once for a few hours in the late afternoon so we never had to contend with wet sleeping bags or leaky tents (which they probably wouldn't have been anyway).
I'm up for the next adventure......

Annsi Stephano