9APRIL2010 - Yesterday the wind readings hit 73 MPH near Ft. Benton and 59 MPH in Great Falls. Today is expected to be windy from the SW, with lower speed.
On the river at 7AM I immediately had to negotiate the Pine Island Rapids. Though I had done this rapid twice before, both were a long time ago and the river channel is now different. Suffice it to say that I kept the dry side dry but was awarded no style points. I am not interested in trying any more rapids ... please Lord, no more! Fortunately this trip has only one other set of meaningful rapids, below Great Falls, and I expect to do that set with an empty canoe.
After that thrilling start the river to Cascade was a wonderful looking trout stream, something I had forgotten in the 35 years since I last paddled through here. Wind was fairly steady from the SW and pushed me quickly through the 12 miles to Cascade. At 1020 I was ordering coffee in Cascade and shaking visibly. The 37 degrees were much colder than I knew and explained the shaking as well as my brutally cold feet.
While in Cascade I resolved to get to Ulm tonight. This would allow me to communicate with Felomina, record a 36 mile day and put me in position to reach Great Falls tomorrow night. Well ... the 24 miles between Cascade and Ulm was possible though not actually likely to be realized. But I made it anyway due to a fairly regular wind. While travel was not aided by the wind in every section of the way, when it was not directly behind me it was generally from the side, allowing me to get through those sections at the speed of the current, not less.
The river changed from a gravel bottom to sand and the sand bars are more difficult to see. Several times I found myself skimming to top of a sand bar and twice came to a stop. This may be a problem in lower sections of the river also, but expectedly higher seasonal flow may ameliorate this problem. So far there are no elevated flows in Montana. Not only has little of the mountain snow melted, large patches of riverbank snow were visible today all the way to Ulm.
Wildlife seen today were Geese, Ducks, Whitetail Deer, Muskrat, Golden Eagles, one Blue Heron, Cranes (Sandhill?), Beaver, one Gray Fox and one White Goose. I presume that was a Snow Goose. The Golden Eagles were spectacular. I never fail to marvel at how large they are; at one site I saw five in one tree.