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It was a 33 hour Greyhound ride (there is a photo of me at the first bus station in Fort Myers Fl at 3:45am) on 4 different buses to St. Louis. I had a duffle bag and a 50 gallon waterproof bag with my paddles duck taped to it. During a 3 hour layover in Atlanta, the girl who was sitting next to me complaining about her abusive relationship she was running from went to the bathroom and slit her ankles. Fortunately I had my first aid kit in my backpack so I gave her some Band-Aids.

Stayed two nights at my aunts where I met Tom Bailey my partner for this trip.  Headed to his house in Minnesota for a couple of nights to dry pack our gear and double check everything.  We leave Friday morning to Montana to stay with Norm Miller (A man who paddled up the Missouri River and knows the area well, he will paddle with us the first couple of days hopefully).  So we should be on the river by Saturday and reach Great Falls within a week or so.

Here are some photos of our kayaks.  Tom is paddling a Delta 16’ thermoplastic kayak (named Eliza), I have a 17’ plastic Tempest 170 by Wilderness Systems (named lil’ Sydney).  The weather is suppose to be cold and rainy our first few days, of course, sigh.

I’ll hike into a library and send updates when I can.

Charles

Well 6 days now and can’t complain about any of them, the kayaks still float : )  It has rained everyday except today (though it is not over) but nothing extreme.  Paddling through the Gates of the Rockies was amazing, I think we paddled twice the entire time, mainly just drifting, gazing, and trying to convince ourselves that this is really happening.

Tom and I seem to get along great, we are completely different from one another but share one common interest – we want an adventure, and that we are getting.

Few quick stories and then I have to go hike back across the town of Cascade (population 800) Montana to the river where my kayak is waiting – hopefully that is.

David Miller wrote a guide book for paddling the Missouri River 5 years ago and we have been eyeballing that at night.  Yesterday I was on the river by 6am and paddled 16 miles through Holter Lake to hit a restaurant he recommended.  It took 3 hours, only to find out it had closed 3 years ago.  So instead I stopped at the local marina and waited for Tom to catch up (we paddle apart sometimes but always find ourselves stopping at the same point eventually), a man bought me breakfast (2 bean burritos and a powerade), I met a guy who lives within 3 miles of my home in FL (I’ll see him next season at the restaurant I work at, weird huh?)   From there it was a 20minute paddle across the river to the portage point at the Dam where the Forman “Scott Doroty” gave Lil Sydney and I a ride to the other side.  After that it was fly fisherman territory for many miles.  This part of the river has one of the densest populations of blue ribbon trout in the world at an estimated 3,800 fish per square mile.  The water is crystal clear.  We paddled 16 more miles in hopes of reaching a lodge Miller had recommended – it was closed as well, but a man working on the place gave me a ride into town with him last night to a local bar and had a burger and some micro brewed beer.  One of the local fly fisherman came in and sat two stools away and said to the bartender, “you won’t believe what I saw today.  These two fellers in kayaks are paddlen from three forks to the gulf.” It was a quick point from the bartender to my direction, and the guy turned to face me and I said, “that’s me.” –and then the conversations began…  Great time at a bar in a little town I would have never known existed.

Tom and I took the COLDEST baths of our lives the other day.  That’s all I really want to say about that.

Realistically I could never complain about anything that happens on this river, it is still “life on a river” and that has a perfection all in itself. 

Ps…every night I try to text my friend Tommy Owen with a quick summary of the day and our GPS location, he posts that on my Facebook account.  So if you would like more frequent posts you can find it there, otherwise I’ll send some more in the next town.

The library lady is kicking us out so I cannot upload photos sorry….honestly sorry

-Charles
 
 
 
 
 
Tom =
 are on our sixth day and we just pulled into the town of Cascade. This is the first time that I’ve had reception. Overall teh trip has had amaxing weather. Two days ago was the gates of the mountains, which was extremely cool. Voices echo for quite a while in this section. Its also a nasty section when speed boaters zip through and kick up a wake you cant do anything about. We got out and explored one of the caves in the rock walls. Its cool to think that Lewis and Clark saw these same hillsides. Last night we camped on one of their sights, which was neat. Yesterday had clear shallow water that brought the fly fisherman out in droves.
 
I can’t describe the smallenss one feels when surrounded by the Rockies and the sky for miles and miles around. Just being in the library to type tyis is claustrophobia inducing. Paddling with Norm Miller was awesome. I am deeply glad to have had him for the first two days…. and the food he brought. . I don’t know when I’ll get a meal like that again.
 
The wind today is crazy. It it werent to our backs, paddling woudl probably be a waste of time. As it is we have been speeding down the riber (around 6mph). The occasional bend makes it a headwind though and forces respect for Mother Nature.
 
I will admit I was quite skeptical about taking on a partnerin this endeavor despite all the advantages it held. Fortunately these worries have been releived. Charles has a level head and a greate attitude and has been a joy to paddle with. I did laugh a bit when he didnt realize that tents shouldnt go on thistles. But I’m sure that will be returned when we see copper heads and water moccasins and whateverelse  else we find down south.,
 
Well we’re getting kicked out of the library. I would suggest looking at Charles Vaught’s Facebook for some pictures if your interested.
 
Enjoy your day wherever you are, I know I will. See you on the river!!!
 
Tom Bailey

CHARLES

Over 550 miles so far, day 19.

We are staying at the Fort Peck Marina currently.  A big storm is coming in tonight so we might stay here another night to wait it out before getting back on the river.  I spent 4 hours mowing the marina’s lawn yesterday to pay for the camp fee and knock off a few dollars from the tab we started up at the restaurant.

A few random stories….

Remember how in the last note I told you about the flyfisherman who came and sat 2 stools away and told the bartender about seeing us on the river?  We’ll he said he hould be on Fort Peck lake the following weekend and if he saw us he would give us a beer (after the fact that I had complained to a group of flyfishermen that they seem to be holding back at passing out beer to paddlers haha).  Well I’ll be damned if Tom and I hadn’t just got back on the lake after making some lunch and this boat starts flying towards us….we raised our paddles to make sure they saw us and sure enough, the same fly fisherman pulls next to us with ice cold beers….i can’t even imagine the odds of him finding us in the middle of the Fort Peck (4^th largest resevoir in the world, over 34 miles wide at some points, it has more coastline than California, needless to say, it’s huge).

 

One morning we wanted to get up early and paddle. Tom yelled over to my tent at 330am and we both establlished we did not want to get out of our comfy sleeping bags and breakdown camp in the cold and dark and paddle.  We flipped a coin to make the decision and it was in our favotr to sleep.  Unfortunately guilt overrided the coins decision and we packed up and were on he water before sunrise.  Less than 30 mintues later we were paddling on a sheet of glass while watching the sun come up over the hilline and listening to the coyotes howl around us to welcome it.  “Could you imagine, we almost sacrificed this moment,” I told Tom while we gazed in silent admiration. 

Some days are tough, we paddled 43 miles on Peck one day and it took us over 15 hours.  We’ve set up a tent several times in mid afternoon, sunny weather just to wait out the wind.  We read, threw the frisbee around the best we could, ate and slept.

I go on a lot of hikes during the day or before bed.  Most of the time I am following the tracks of the antelope we have seen during the day.  I climbed a hill that was covered in sheets of quartz, each step contatining a crunching noise and a spectacle of glistening light around my boot.

I told Tom it is hard to get mad on a trip like this.  Everytime I get angry, I look at is as a way to practice patience and build tolerance.  It is just to beautiful of a feeling to be here, in the moment, for months at a time.  No responsibility except for my kayak and I.  All of your worries are simplified into the most basic of things – food, shelter, weather, etc.   No drama, gossip, deadlines, yada yada….just here, in the moment.

Of course you miss things, but standing on the highest hill you have the energy to climb and looking out over the river as the suns rays peirce through the clouds making a luminescent desgign across the water only Mother Nature could create while you sychronize your breathe to the rythem of the crashing waves below and inhale all the beauty you can, only to release it and continue being lost in thought,  completely and utterly…there. It is such a writable moment, such an unwritable feeling.

Right now, though less than 20% of the trip is done, I already don’t want to go back to SW Florida.  I have found my home, or prefer the “lack of” really.  Every morning you wake up and unzip the tent to a completely new adventure, every night you zip closed the tent and think “how did that all just happen in one day.”

TOM

We are spending a day or two in Ft. Peck living the good life in a nightly rented in a camper trailer. We sped through the Ft. Peck Reservoir in only 3 days. Very happy to have had good weather. Definitely been a good time. We have just recently broke the 550 mile marker. Only 2 more huge lakes left though there are a couple smaller ones as well. My last message was rather jumbled due to the fact I was typing frantically as the librarian was trying to kick us out. Charles was asking her questions of every nature in order to give me more time but my typing suffered. Generally all is well. It was good to stop here and resupply. I am taking the time to let the body rest and knit back up together so it will be stronger in the coming days. Our host at the campground has very kindly driven us into Glasgow (where I am typing this) since Ft. Peck does not have a library. We met a local paddler by the name of Zane who has done the Missouri multiple times as well as the Mississippi. Last night we were privileged to get a night tour of the damn by a local. As he remarked they built it in the 30′s. Well someone is waiting on the computer so I need to get off.
Tom Bailey

So this guy (Zane) who has paddled the river several times is giving us a ride back upstream 300 miles to Fort Benton so we can do the most scenic part of the river again…basically the trip is almost starting over…tomorrow
 
Charles

Well, here I am again at the library in Fort Peck Montana, let’s start with some stories….

Tom and I left Fort Benton two Saturdays ago around 6pm and paddled for aboutan hour or so before pulling over at a remote campsite.  Had a fire, skipped some rocks, called it a night.

The next day we paddled to the next campground where we saw the same host we met two weeks prior.  Man was he shocked to see us again.  A group of boyscouts (troop 9 based out of Billings MT) was just packing up  and getting ready for a 4 night trip down that section of the river.  We paddled with them for awhile before pulling ahead to do some hiking and eventually met up with them at the campsite right by Eagle Creek. 

The next morning Tom and I hiked to Neat Coulee and made it back just in time for a storm to hit us while we rested in our tents.  We paddled a wopping 6 miles that day to “hole in the wall” and packed our gear up to camp right on top of it.  It was windy at the top and impossible to put stakes in the rock so we lined the inside corners of our tent with some rocks to hold it down while we hiked around.  That night we flipped a coin and Tom was picked to hike 30 minutes down the next morning to get some more water and food from our kayaks (which really turned out to be fair because the first time we hiked up I went down to take a photo of him and had to hike back up so he could take one of me ha ha).  After we explored for a few hours in the morning (we found 9 “hole in the walls”) we met some tour guides who were setting up camp by our kayaks waiting for the other guides and group of 12 to come.  They gave us some leftover breakfast food from the morning and we had lunch and talked for awhile.

All in all I do not regret one bit going back to Fort Benton to do that stretch again.  We hiked almost every white cliff, and I say that with very little exaggeration.  When we finished our 150 mile stretch to the final campsite we had been without water for about 3 hours (realistacally I can filter it from the river, but I want to save that for emergencies only on this trip if possible).

Tom said from the beginning he did not want paddle across Fort Peck lake again and that he was going to try to find a ride.  So on Thursday at 6pm we parted ways. 

Within the first 2 hours of leaving Tom I saw 6 Elk (the first Elk of the trip haha) and had 4 beavers come within 10 feet of my kayak before slapping the water and diving underneath.  I contimplated pulling over several times but kept pushing on until I found possibly the most remote boat ramp ever with a few tents up ahead.  When I pulled up I was greeted by two guys (Eric and Gordon), their two sons each and Erics father.  They were on their 3^rd and final night camping and fed me catfish they had caught earlier that day as well as white chocolate fudge, a plum and a few cups of milk.  Fortunately Gordon had purchased a screened in tent for us to find shelter from the mosiquotos underneath otherwise we would have been eaten alive.  We roasted marshmellows by the fire that night and said goodbye to each other.

I was on the river before 5am the next morning.  I stopped a few times to explore, eat, and stretch.  Around 330 I was so hot I decided to pitch a tent and try to take a quick nap.  The bottom zipper of my tent broke, but I was so tired and fatigued I did not care at the moment and fell asleep face down without my airmatress or anything.  15 minutes later I woke up completely soaked in sweat and gasping for breath, the tent had turned into an oven and I was baking in it.  When I got out the slightest breeze immediately gave me the shivers after being completely wet.  Mad at the world, I packed my gear up and paddled for another 3 hours before pulling over to camp by some cows and antelope.  A storm was rolling in so I took the time in the tent to sew the bottom zipper shut.

I didn’t see anyone at all the next day either.  Eventually I foun a 300sq ft island and set up camp right before sunset.  I thought I would not have to worry about animals that night but I was way off….around 230am I heard scratching on the side of my tent.  At first I convinced myself I was just being paranoid and to go back to sleep, but it continued.  Eventually I shined my light against the wall and I could see 6 mice trying to get in, though I did not have any food in the tent.  I lined up my shoes against the sewn together zipper to block them from entering, knowing that all they had to do was bite a small string and they would have a huge gap.  Eventually, I could hear them scratching my shoes so at 315am I decided to pack up camp and paddled across Peck in the full moon.  It was amazing.  I reached the Marina around 1pm Sunday, just under 3 days.

While at the bar I had several fisherman commetn on my paddling speed and buy me a few beers.  Today the owner of the marina asked me to test drive her car into town (it had been overheating), so here I am at the library right now.  Tom will be around 140 miles ahead by the time I get back on the river tomorrow.  I’ll probably catch him in a week or so.  He texted me and told me to wear a skirt in certain areas whre there are rapids. 

Life is great.

I’ll upload photos and send photos later as well as add videos on facebook.

“A man who wastes a hour of his life, has yet to learn the value of it.” – Darwin

Charles