Madison River Montana

[larry]

I met a paddler on this site and we paddled a number of rivers in southwest Montana in June and July including the Big Hole, Beaverhead, Jefferson and Madison. I didn't know anyone in my area that was into solo canoeing and I'm grateful to have a new friend to paddle with. Thank you canoetripping.net. I bought on old go pro and used it on our day trips. We both paddle Northstar Phoenix canoes. The lower Madison was a beautiful little river with little development and most of the fly fishermen were upstream on the more popular stretches of the river, so we saw hardly anyone else. I'm a rookie at this video stuff, but I hope you enjoy it.

 

[PaddlingPitt]

Looks idyllic, Larry.

 

[Pringles]

Nice video. The white cliffs look thermal in nature-are they?

 

[Steve in Idaho]

Yeah, nice video Larry!

 

[dogbrain]

Good footage of the lower Madison Larry. I like how that section is multi channeled to play around in. We were doing that section right around the same time this summer. Which section of the Big Hole did you do? I'm a solo guy too, but don't have a Northstar Pheonix, but if you're willing to have another on your next outing give me a shout.

Mark

 

[Mason]

Looks fun--I'm in Bozeman, and paddle solo almost exclusively. I'm a recent transplant, and don't yet have any paddle partners, so feel free to look me up too.

 

[Dan Cooke]

Madison looks calm in this stretch- are there guidebooks that describe put ins and rapids and stuff?

 

[larry]

Thanks for the nice comments you guys. I'm not sure if the rocks is thermal in nature, Pringles. I tried to load a geologic map in google earth and couldn't get it to work. I'll get back to you if I figure out what kind of rock it is. My interest turns to bird hunting in the fall, so I don't expect to get a canoe out again till next summer, but it is good to hear of a couple other people in the area that paddle solo canoes. I'll try to remember this post the next trip we set up, Dogbrain and Mason. I have a couple old Montana paddling books, Dan. I've never been real impressed with them, but they are:The Floater's Guide to Montana, by Hank Fischer, and Floating and Recreation on Montana Rivers, by Curt Thompson. I sure enjoyed the photos of your Yellowstone River trip, Dan. I recognized a lot of the landforms in the images.

 

[larry]

oh yeah, we paddled two sections of the Big Hole, dogbrain. I actually have a couple videos of those trips on vimeo too. I'm pretty sure the put in and take outs are noted on the videos. Those two days were probably my favorite days on the river all summer. I will be going back to the Big Hole River. I'll post the second link after this one, it doesn't seem to want to let me add two URLs.

 

[larry]

Here's the second Big Hole video:

 

[Pringles]

That’s so nice. Thank you for posting it. The low camera angle makes it seem intense. Maybe it was intense, but it seemed like from the regular vantage point a foot or two higher, things would come at you a little slower. I like the few times you changed the camera angle to face backwards, too. If I can’t be canoeing, I like watching canoeing with my breakfast.

 

[dogbrain]

Thanks Larry. It's been a while since I've been over on the Big Hole. Usually fall is really nice on our rivers because they come back up to natural levels after the ranchers stop irrigating. How did you like the Yellowstone River this year? Lots of changes in the channel. Pringles, the rock along the lower Madison River is limestone. We have some beautiful rivers here in south-central Montana, and we typically float all of these, some on multiple occasions. We were fortunate to also have done the Smith River and a long trip on the upper Missouri this year. I was going to try and squeeze in a trip to Shoshone Lake in Yellowstone this month but we seem to have run out of summer already.

Mark