2MAY2010 @ Ft. Peck - Gene Moore helped me get my gear to the closest Ramp from where my canoe was left. I should have opted for the Highway 117 Bridge Fishing Access - more on that later. Then he dropped me at my canoe and we parted - one fine gentleman that Gene Moore. By 0800 I had finished the portage, loaded the canoe and puushed off ... and went backward toward the dam. Snow that was wafting down several minutes earlier began going more diagonal at that moment and I faced a direct headwind that was putting up small whitecaps. Groan! Adding to the groan factor is that I was in an area where some of the material to build the dam was excavated, making it a river in name only. After about an hour paddling into the wind I had reached the Highway 117 Bridge Fishing Access Site, probably only a half mile away. At this point I was in a bit of a wind shadow from a high cut bank and also my route shifted so that I was going more sidewind. Making much better progress I struggled into what I hoped would be a flowing channel and "Oh the joy" it was. After 9 days with no current, there it was. Totally wonderful to know that despite the wind and snow/rain I would get somewhere today. No, the troubles were not over, just more manageable with current. I progressed three more miles with a sidewind, then turned SE and got the benefit of a tailwind for most of the rest of the day ... and a 35 mile day it was. I stopped about 1 mile below the Fraser pump station on the right bank. I climbed up the bank, walked toward a hay bale pile, found a barn, turned over a piece of masonite onto two pallets and slept a wonderful sleep. Every time I heard rain pattering on the sheet metal roof I only slept better.
Wildlife seen today were Mule Deer, Whitetail Deer, Red Fox, Bald Eagles, Geese, Ducks and Pelicans. The surprise is the number of Bald Eagles. They are a bit sparse on the Fort Peck lake; evidently they fish better in moving water.
The day's excitement was a rapid encountered after 21 miles of paddling. Clearly the most challenging rapid since below Morony Dam this rapid was complicated by there being a wrap-around left side. The rapid is at the elbow of a left turn and displays a flow that hints the best way through it is to take the far left. The far left, however continues to wrap around, so choosing that route puts you at a point where if (IF!) something undesireable is in your route, it will be too late to back paddle your way to another spot. Seeing this trap, I took a passage medium left and scraped the bottom a mite. Had I taken the greater flow endowed far left, upon getting through the drop section of the rapid the current takes a hard right. Flipping the canoe here is to be expected since it is so tight and so forceful. Good place for a raft.
The day started in puffy gentle snow, changed to wind driven snow/rain showers, changed again to wind driven rain showers, and ended with huge patches of blue sky displaying lots of sunshine. During the rain/snow showers the canoe bottom was wettened yet never enough to flow back under my feet. Before the next shower started the wetness from the previous shower had evaporated. All-in-all it was a good travel day.