Wilds of Montana

When I was just a boy, I grew up in a little house on Fir Street in Trout Creek only a mile or so away from the Trout Creek public boat launch and recreation area. My mother used to take my older brother and I down to swim nearly every day that she could. Once I had turned eight years old my parents allowed me to ride my bicycle down to the boat launch and swim during the daylight hours of most days as long as I was home before sundown.

During the summers of my childhood my parents lovingly referred to me as "the fish." I could and would spend eight hours a day swimming and playing at any one of my favorite spots on the Clark Fork reservoir. Back then it was my imagination and youthful stamina that fueled my long days of playing in the rivers and reservoirs of the county. As I got older my imagination took a backseat to my adult life and so did my magical days of playing in the water. I never thought I would feel that sort of childlike wonder and connection to my home ever again. That is until an old friend of mine told me about the joy she had found in her new hobby of kayaking.

I had been kayaking once before on the Clark Fork when I was a teenager. The water was cold that day in April and I accidently rolled over in a kayak. Being inexperienced I did not have much fun. But after hearing talk of my friends' many waterborne adventures I was interested in giving the little boats another try. In a turn of events that is in itself a whole other fun story, I was given a kayak from a friend only a few days later.

The little boat I was given is a sit-on-top style instead of the sit-in type I had tried previously. I find the sit-on to be much more stable and enjoyable for me as a beginner and am very thankful to have given kayaking another try largely due to that added stability. I didn't realize that a giant upside of my new hand-me-down hobby was going to be how much I was going to fall back in love with my home town, county and state from their waterways.

After I spent my first five hours out on my boat under the Sanders County slice of the Big Sky, I was hooked. In my free time from June until now I have put in more than 40 hours paddling the shores of the Clark Fork and after such a wet and precipitous start to the summer all of the riverbank vegetation is richly colored and grown in thick. Even the whitetail deer have healthy golden coats this year from enjoying the benefits of the added precipitation. The wildlife and plant life both seem brand new once more to me the way they did in the days of my youth. I have been gone from Sanders County for over a decade and even still I thought I had seen all there was to see here. I didn't realize how magical this place can be after all of these years simply by looking at it from a different angle.

Paddling in the wide open of the reservoir at Trout Creek with endless pillow-like clouds cast among the backdrop of a clear soft blue Montana big sky and seeing the same reflected up at you in the surface of the water it seems as if the heavens and the Earth reach out to embrace one another for an eternity within a single moment. Montana in all of its wonder never ceases to amaze me and I hope to inspire others to give the little boats a try. You will see a unique and beautiful side of our home that might just rekindle your love for it!

Johnathan J. Gerstenberger loves talking about adventures. Reach him at [email protected].