After two mornings of rain, we woke up on Thursday, our last day in Polson to sunshine and warmth. While Jason took a business call inside, I took a call outside in the sun. We both were able to get business out of the way by 10 a.m., packed a lunch, suited up and headed out for the day. First we headed about 30 miles south to the National Bison Range.
We drove around and saw herds of protected bison, pronghorn antelope, and mule deer. We didn't have enough time to do the long drive around the protected area, but Elk were in the area as well.
Something we always have wanted to do is go white water rafting and we were in the perfect place to do it. The Flathead River was at a class II & III rapid this time of year. It's pretty calm this time of year and they assured us the kids were a good age. At 2 .pm., the smelly yellow school bus picked us up in town, along with 35 high school freshman on a summer camp trip, and a couple of families. I'm not kidding about the smelly bus...the rafting company leaves the wet life jackets on the bus between trips and over night. So they are just thrown wherever to dry out and stink like mildew. We drove about 15 minutes to load into the river and start paddling. Our boat held another family from NYC who had two kids as well, and three other adults. Unfortunately, we do not have any pictures because taking your phone down a river is not a good idea! We did order a picture at the end of he trip and it's being sent to us. Our guide Carson was living the dream at age 21. Went to college where he could snow ski in the winter and work as a raft guide in the summer. The guide knew his stuff and really talked to us about safety, commands, if you fall out, etc. We were a little worried about Charlie bouncing out going down a rapid, so he stayed in the middle of the boat, hung on and yelled "Stroke". As soon as Carson heard Charlie knew how to work a rudder, he crawled back to take that job in the calm water. Jason was up front as a strong paddler, Lily behind him, I was next to her, and a 12 year in front of me. There were several times in the class III rapids, when the boat was going sideways through and Jason just got nailed with waves. lily and O also did. The river was cold but felt great. It was so fun and both kids said hey would do it again. Over two hours we traveled eight miles. In high water season that trip takes 45 minutes. After we got through the rapids and rocks, the kids were able to jump off the boat, and float down the clean clear slightly cold river. Memories for life. When we reached land....the biggest thickest rainbow we had ever seen appeared! It was a great day to be a Wahl.
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