Gallatin River

Peaches golfs on Tuesday so Harold, Ted and I decided to kayak the Gallatin River from Logan to Headwaters State Park in Three Forks.  While the guys shuttled the vehicles, I took photos of the flowers and fields around the river.  There were railroad tracks on both sides but not necessarily close to the river.  I watched one train go by on one set of tracks and could see another train maneuvering to take the other set of tracks but it didn't go by until after we were on the water.  Right after we started out, we watched two small birds chase an osprey out of a tree and into another and continued to dive bomb it once it was in the new tree.

Flowers While Killing Time

More Flowers

The river meandered through the countryside mostly through field with trees only along the river banks.  It was not deep and had a lot of short rapids all along the way.  At first I was a little intimidated by all the rapids but they grew on me and I found I really enjoyed them.  There were several places along the river that we got caught in really shallow water and our kayaks dragged on the mossy rounded rocks.  Our wooden boats were not happy to be having their bottoms scored over rocks but the damage was not as bad as anticipated.  Harold had a plastic rental boat and didn't need to worry.  If we did the river again, I would rent a boat.

We didn't see much wildlife but when we stopped for lunch on a gravel bar there were deer and moose tracks and lots of different kinds of scat.  There were large patches of yellow yarrow all along the bank and a pink flower that looked familiar but I couldn't identify.  The latitude of Bozeman is somewhere between Milo and Houlton where each of us grew up so we often see the same plants or their western cousins that we see in Maine.

Boston to San Francisco RR

Sheila and Harold

Osprey in Tree

Mostly Sunny in Moderate Rapids.

Fields and Mountains in the Distance.

BNSF RR along the river

We Needed to Travel Through the Rapids to Get Sufficient Water

Flowers

Moose Tracks? when stopping for lunch.

Rocks and Cottonwoods.

Gliding Along

More Class II Rapids.

Harold Takes River Right While Sheila and Ted Take River Left.

More Cottonwood Trees.

Steering Through the Best Water.

Approaching Headwaters State Park

Harold Enjoying the Ride.

Great Looking Cliff.

Mud Swallow Nests.

Train Passing By.

Harold's flowers.

Imagine the Force to Push This Up.

Here the Gallatin Joins the Jefferson and Madison Rivers.

Approaching the Take Out.

The total distance was approximately 8 miles with the last 1/2 mile on the Missouri River.  After dropping off Harold's kayak, we returned to their house to find Peaches had won her golf match.  No one was in the mood to cook so Ted and Peaches went to pick up a pizza that we ate on the deck.  Another great day with great people.