[Paddlewise] Trip Report: Flathead Lake

My wife and I went with my neighbor and his wife and another couple to
their cabin this weekend.  The neighbor and the other guy went fishing
Saturday morning; not being of the fishing sort, I brought my boat and
drove over the hill to Bigfork, (MT), on the Northeast shore of Flathead
Lake, the largest natural freshwater lake West of the Mississippi.

I put in back below the last dam on the Swan River, just west of
Bigfork; I paddled about .5 mile to the lake, passing through several
marinas and private moorages.  I saw a beautiful old wooden cruiser,
probably about 50' LOA that I wanted to check out on the way back.

I paddled out across the bay in front of Bigfork.  It was cool and
clear, with about a 5mph northerly breeze before the sun came over the
hills.  It was about 2.5 miles to the Flathead River delta.  It was a
pretty easy, uneventful paddle across the small bay.  

The whole delta area is marshy, and signs declared that it was a bird
area, closed from March 1 to July 1st.  One of the signs had a rather
funny bump on it; as I paddled closer, the bump became a huge osprey
that took off and flew directly overhead.  It swooped and wheeled in the
sky and dove a couple of times, just skimming inches above the water.  I
hoped to see it dive for a fish, but wasn't lucky enough to see that
this time.

I paddled around the old delta area, seeing huge birches and cottonwoods
that had once grown on solid ground, but were now invaded by the river's
and lake's combined forces and lay half-submerged in 3' of water.  I
paddled around the root ball of one birch and under its overhanging
branches.  

There were two bouys out west of the channel on the West side of the
delta, so I paddled over to check them out.  I'd never seen nav bouys in
Flathead before; one was a green "can" marked '7' and the one farther
into the lake was a red "nun" marked '6'.  I was really intrigued by
them, as their relative positions made no sense as far as coastal
navigation bouy convention went, so I made a mental note to find out
their story.

Somers could be clearly seen on the west shore in the morning light.  I
could easily make out the water tower on top of the peninsula in the
Somers harbor.  By my chart, Somers lay about 4.25 miles away, at 272
magnetic across Kalispell Bay.  I now had a dilemma:  should I go for
Somers solo?  4 miles was about my longest previous crossing, so it
wasn't totally out of the question, but I had forgotten my wetsuit
bottoms (I was wearing my drytop over my sprayskirt and shorts) and my
Skyblazer flares.  Kalispell Bay is about 3 miles deep to the North,
from where I would cross, so once I reached the "point-of-no-return", it
would actually be closer to go all the way than to paddle into the bay. 
I sat there agonizing with myself: should I go?  I was prepared with
adequate food and water, I had a good night's rest behind me, I have a
near-bombproof roll, air temp. was nearing 70* and the forecast was for
a high of 82*.  I also had a survival kit and a sleeping bag and change
of clothes in drybags.  However, should I need that stuff, getting to
shore to use it would prove to be a problem.  The water temperature was
a non-balmy 55*, so potential immersion was a risk.  It was also a
pretty quiet morning, recreational boat traffic-wise--I probably
wouldn't encounter too many phantom boat-wakes, but I also had nobody to
notice if I got in trouble, and as I said before, I also didn't have my
flares.  I figured my whistle was useless across a 3 mile fetch.  I
agonized for about 15 minutes, holding onto the green can and thinking. 
It certainly wasn't above my level of experience, but the risk of
immersion was real.  There was probably only a 1% chance I'd even end up
in the water, but that 1% could hold very serious consequences.

The long and short of it was that I paddled back to the delta and
watched some small hawks pestering a big, beautiful adult bald eagle for
about 20 minutes, and paddled back to Bigfork.  Next time, oh yes, next
time I'll be better prepared and go for the nice crossing.

Back into the harbor, I paddled over to the cruiser.  Her name was
Seafarer, and her hailing port was Seattle, WA, of all places.  There
was a young carpenter named John working on some repairs for the owner,
so I stopped and talked boats for about 1/2 hour with him.  He said that
the owner had taken her to Alaska up the Inside Passage last summer and
just had her inland for repairs and some casual touring.

I obviously made a smart, prudent, and safe choice by not attempting the
crossing, but, my trip begs the question:  If I had my wet bottoms and
flares, would the equipment have given me a boosted ["false"] sense of
confidence, OR would I have just been in a safer position to do the
crossing?

Shawn

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Baker Brothers     0
Brews & Boats     http://www.missoulaconcrete.com/shawn/
Shawn W. Baker    mailto://baker_at_montana.com
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