I spent a week in Montana helping a friend work on a house she owns up there. We found the time to visit Yellowstone Park one day, and on another day to paddle kayaks down a section of the Madison river. This river is supposed to be a mild “floater” river, where families drift down on inner tubes. However Montana has had an unseasonably wet winter and this river was still moving along at a reasonable clip. There were still a few people going by in tubes and kayaks so we drove upstream to get in the water. A local philosophy was explained to me that I had trouble believing. The locals just drop themselves in the water and drift downstream, expecting that they will be able to find someone at the other end to give them a ride back. This seemed like the most adventurous part of the trip to me!
We got ready to go and I got in the river and tried to head upstream. Working as hard as I could I made very slow progress against the current. But there was no way I could keep this up. When everyone was in the water I turned downstream. The water was rippling like a rip tide, but not making as much noise except when it went over a rock. Most of the rocks were barely above or just below the water level, so we did have to keep an eye out to avoid trouble. My guide avoided the rocks but I tried zooming close to them and ducking into the confused water behind them. I found interesting eddy currents behind the rocks, where the water was flowing upstream and would take me with it. Paddling into this calm water was a shock to the kayak and took some bracing and balancing when I slammed into it. One rock was just below the surface and I was able to surf the standing wave in front of it. I could slide back and front over the rock without working very hard against the current and look down through the smooth surface of the water at the rock itself.
As we turned one corner and started under a bridge, my guide said “OH NO!” when she saw and heard the noisy water ahead. I eagerly turned the corner after her and paddled into the fray. It was pretty tame and I accused her of saying “Oh No” just to get my hopes up. Perhaps I should take Paul Futcher up on one of his offers to take me white water kayaking. When we made it to the take-out spot, it was late in the afternoon and there were practically no cars left in the dirt parking lot. So much for the plan of catching an easy ride. We were forced to resort to hitch-hiking back to get the car. But we did get a ride quickly and without any trouble.