Coal Creek Landing,  MT   River mile 41.5

Over breakfast of Oatmeal (again) and coffee we were greeted by a BLM volunteer who was very pleasant and chatty  until discovering that we were not carrying any WAG BAGS.  Oops….  I suppose we overlooked that detail in the planning.  She kept mentioning a $125 fine if we were caught.   All I could think of was how we were not being caught at this exact moment!   But we said we could probably share with those guys over there (Iowa and Idaho…) who were as usual up and at ‘em before us and preparing to shove off for points down-river.  Fortunately for us, her wrath was redirected towards those guys, as one of the dogs left a little farewell gift in the form of  pile of doggy doo right along the trail down the embankment.  So while that situation was being dealt with, we stealthily packed up and snuck out.

As we move further down-river the topography is beginning to change from primarily rural and agricultural to more desolate.  We see more of the towering sandstone facades that signal the impending approach of the famous White Cliffs.  What agriculture we do see by the river is now becoming more cattle grazing than crop growing.

This day has turned out to be the hottest by far, with temps well into the 80’s with not a cloud in the sky, and no wind to speak of.  The river is getting wider, and today was so flat and calm that if not for watching the ever rarer cottonwood trees whizz by on the riverbanks , you would hardly know you were moving at all. But moving we were.  With the current at a swift 4 miles per hour, we still needed to do relatively little paddling to keep a good pace moving down-river.

With every bend in the river, the scenery was getting more spectacular, and the sandstone cliffs were becoming more steep and lighter in color. Greenery was getting more and more sparse. So when we saw a small grove of cottonwoods approach on the left on a rare flat, we decided to stop for little break.  Upon coming ashore it immediately became clear there was some recent cattle grazing at this spot, as evidenced by the little piles of  dry cow dung deposited throughout.  We nevertheless managed to hike up to a little clearing above the minefield and had a nice picnic  lunch in the shade.

All topped up and back on the river,  we began to notice a few new geological oddities. The topography in this section is marked by interesting combinations of different sediment.  Evidently  magma seeped into fissures in  the sandstone millions of years ago, and then hardened.  Over the eons  much of the sandstone has eroded but the hardened darker colored magma is left standing and resembles  masonry buttresses holding up the surrounding sandstone cliffs.

Hole in the Wall

Today we were looking for one such prominent landmark called Hole in the Wall, which Iowa and Idaho were planning on hiking to today.  Sure enough, as we rounded a bend in the river, we saw the distinctive hole in the towering rock, but no sign of our friends.  I guess it was too hot for them to attempt this difficult trek. The wind started to pick up in the afternoon, but again it seemed to be a tail-wind. So between the wind and the current, we were hardly paddling at all, but making rapid progress down the river.

Rob broke out the BLM river guide, which is a mile by mile map of the Upper Missouri and indicates all of the canoe camps as well as interesting historical markers like the Lewis and Clark campsites.  We were looking for Eagle Creek canoe camp at river mile 55. In the early afternoon, just as we were about to give up trying to match up the map with the surrounding landscape,  we rounded a bend in the river, and there it was.

We pulled up at Eagle Creek campsite on the left bank under a cottonwood grove, directly opposite a spectacular white sandstone cliff.  I was hoping this campsite would have a nice solid shoreline of river rocks, but no…. yet other  boggy muddy sloppy pull-in. Lewis and Clark lamented how muddy this river was, and after 200 years, nothing has changed.

Our friends were here, and had already set up shop.  We also briefly made the acquaintance of an older gentleman named Tony who would be of alot of help to us later on in Judith Landing.  Tony was canoeing solo all the way to Kipp Recreation Area, which at 150 miles from Fort Benton is almost twice as far as we were going. In fact, he had previously made this trip at least a dozen times over the years.

After washing the mud out of our sandals and setting up camp, we had a brief visit with 2 of our 4 new friends, who we were getting to know by their proper names:  Eric and Lisa (Idaho) and Paul and Carrie  (Iowa) and their dogs Ranger and Molly.

Paul and Carrie had just returned from a hike up into the canyon, and turned around when the dog could not continue. It did not occur to me to ask how the other bigger dog had fared, but later we learned they were practically carrying it up and over the boulder-filled canyon trail. It was extremely hot, so we packed lots of water and headed up for the hills.

After hiking out of the valley plain,  we soon found ourselves in a narrow canyon and ever-more technical scrambling was required to make further progress.  As the canyon walls became more and more narrow, it became quite cool and pleasant, with little drops of water dripping down from above  We were glad for the sun, however, as a flash flood right about now could have spelled trouble.

While Rob was snapping some pictures, we briefly became separated and evidently each wandered into separate forks of the canyon.  Rob assumed Amy was ahead, and visa versa,  so we each continued along on our merry way until Rob reached a section requiring some difficult scrambling to continue and realized something was awry. He turned around and searched for what must have been a fork, and soon found it and was able to catch up with Amy who was blissfully traversing along in the adjacent canyon.

As we were taking a break, we could not believe the dog could have made it this far, so we thought those other guys were in another fork of the canyon.  But soon we heard barking, and saw Lisa handing Molly down to Eric past a huge boulder, and then climbing down herself.   We decided to turn around there, and head back to camp with the three of them. Lesson learned: always stay together when hiking!

We spent the afternoon alternately lounging in the hammock in the shade out of the unrelenting heat.