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Summer floating on the Clark Fork

by Keith Cousins/Mineral Independent
| August 14, 2013 12:08 PM

“Keith you’re terrible at floating,” my brother, Craig, screamed at me from quite a distance – bringing me out of the trance that sitting in the slowly bobbing tube on the Clark Fork River brought about.

Snapping out of the trance I realized I wasn’t moving, simply floating in place – surrounded by silence. Quickly I began using my hands as paddles to try to get back in the slow moving current to catch up with Craig and my cousin Val. But not too quickly – that seemed to me to go against the whole purpose of the endeavor.

It began as a simple request from my cousin, who along with several other members of my family would be arriving in Mineral County within the week.

“While I am up there I want to go floating,” she said in a text message.

“Deal,” I replied.

After agreeing to take her and my brother floating I realized I knew little to nothing about floating.

Luckily for my family and myself it was easy enough to hop onto Facebook and message the first local I saw online, Adam Kay.

Kay was more than willing to provide me with all of the details I would need to embark on the adventure from Tarkio to Forest Grove.

As an added bonus I was able to plan the float on my birthday. Excitedly, I texted my cousin and brother to let them know it was on.

A few days and one harrowing adventure in Missoula to procure rafts later, the Cousins crew arrived at the Tarkio boat launch on a perfect summer day.

After the senior members of the family who wouldn’t be joining us took a few obligatory photos, we were off.

The combination of the shockingly cold water (my brother, the surf bum, would argue that the water was warm) and the speed with which we were out of view of the boat launch, moving towards our float, put a huge smile on the face of everyone in the group.

Except for the realization I forgot to put on sunscreen.

“Oh well,” I thought. “We have cold beverages and a beautiful day relaxing on the river. It’ll be worth turning into a boiled lobster.”

And it was well worth it.

The silence and beauty of our surroundings enveloped us as we got further and further down the river.

A train raced above us. Bald eagles glided in the blue skies filled with pillow-like clouds.

Every once and a while we would hit a faster-moving stretch – causing adrenaline to race and cool water to splash and refresh us prior to a return to the slow moving peace provided by the Clark Fork.

Little did we know we were in for quite the scare.

“Let me go ahead of you on this one,” Craig said as we approached another fast moving section of the river. “That way I can film you going through it.”

Craig had brought a GoPro camera and was serving as the videographer on the trip. I happily obliged and let him approach first. He positioned the tube so that he was facing me and we were off.

Little did we know this stretch is somewhat infamous to locals as being notorious for flipping rafts and boats alike.

“This isn’t just another fast stretch,” I thought, watching my brother struggle to stay in his tube while filming me do the same. “These are freaking rapids!”

Both of us managed to navigate the rapids and stay on our tubes, only to look back and see Val’s tube shoot straight up into the air.

We both panicked when the seconds raced by and we didn’t see her pop back up. Both frantically tried to paddle to the side of the river to no avail.

For what seemed like minutes we waited and waited until she finally shot out of the river and gripped her raft.

The mutual thumbs up we all gave were a sign of relief and we were back on our way.

For the remainder of the four-hour float we were once again back to relaxing and letting the slow moving river guide us to the Forest Grove boat launch. Casual conversation about our surroundings occurred but the trip was mostly spent in silence.

Around a bend we saw the sign that marked the end of our trip – a tall interstate overpass. One more fast moving stretch and we were at the launch, greeted by the rest of the family.

Floating is something of a summer tradition amongst Montanans and my first experience doing so convinced me of why. There is something truly wonderful about leaving yourself in the hands of a flowing river and letting the outside world fade around you. It was a trip myself, and my family, wont soon forget.