Bear Creek: Missoula Montana

Montana

About 45min. out of Missoula lies Bear Creek, a class 5 classic Montana Steep Creek. Paddlers earn their boofs with a hike in and a little mank, but are rewarded with some amazing whitewater!

The first rapid is a nice slide, this gets you warmed up for the super mank that we called "Walk In The Woods"!

The Put-In Slide

Ryan Young on the 1st slide

We had a paddler swim this section and it was ugly. Besides a broken boat and a bruised ego the he fared well. No more than bashed up legs. He was lucky! Look at the pics and you will understand what I mean.

The Mank!
My buddies pinned boat down below the Mank. That was the end of his boat. Maybe not such a bad thing, he was do for an upgrade!

After we unpinned the broken boat we made our way down stream to the good stuff. I can not remember the names of all the rapids but her are the ones I caught on my camera with the names I remembered.I believe they call this slide Tijuana Crack Whore and the hole below is Hotel California.

T.C.W.

Paddler in T.C.W

The left eddy just below T.C.W. seems to be the common spot to start the portage of the rapid just above Brave Bear Falls.

The holes below T.C.W

This rapid is just above Brave Bear Falls. I believe this one is a standard portage. With a stout lead in and some poorly placed wood a mistake here could have tragic consequences.


Bear Creek saves the best for last "Brave Bear Falls". Brave Bear is a long slide. But this is no low angle slide with a few inches of water running over it. Brave Bear is powerful long and challenging!

Brave Bear Falls

Till next time!