Flathead: prettiest of them all

BY JUDY SKATSSOON

"Like liquid glass rolling over rocks".

That's how our rafting guide Mark Dean describes the waters of the beautiful Flathead River near Missoula in western Montana.

Dean has rafted some 15 rivers in the US but describes the Flathead, immortalised in the classic American book by Norman Maclean, as "the prettiest of them all".

It's named not after the fish most tourists are familiar with, but after the local Flathead Indian tribe.

The original custodians of the river, they were given the name by white settlers because of the practice they had of tying boards to their babies' heads to produce a typically sloping skull.

"The river was incredibly important to the native Americans, it provided them with food, because it watered all the plants," Dean says.

"Back then, at the time of the native Americans, you could have expected to have found in the neighbourhood of 17 native fish."

Today, he rates it as "probably the most pristine river you'll find in the lower 48 states".

"The river is absolutely pure," he says.

"There's no dam control, no industry, no pollution being pushed into it."

While the Native Americans revered the river, it also holds a special place for white people who use it for trout fishing, white water rafting and scenic floats.

We are at the Flathead today for a half-day white water rafting trip organised by the Glacier Guides and Montana Raft Company, which is also the only company to take hikers into Glacier National Park on the river's southern boundary.

Dean explains that the trip will take us through the river's Middle Fork, where we'll encounter rapids rated low class III. The highest rating, level VI, are considered impassable.

In other words, they'll be fast enough to get us wet and get the adrenaline pumping, but - hopefully - not fast enough to bump us out of the raft.

The six of us on the raft are fitted with life jackets and handed oars. Dean gives us instructions.

When he says "all forward", we row forward. When he says "all back" we pull our oars backwards. When he says "rest", we stop rowing.

"Hold on" means hold onto the so-called "chicken rope" down the centre of the raft to keep from falling out.

We're instructed how to rescue someone who falls out and what to do if the raft flips over. If we fall out, we're to turn on our backs and ride through the rapids with our legs pointing downstream. This is so our feet, not our heads, hit the rocks first, he says matter-of-factly.

And we're off. At first we float serenely down the milky emerald waters of the river, passing the majestic Lone Man Mountain which looks like the profile of a man in deep and peaceful repose.

We wave at fly fishers who could have been characters in Maclean's novel and whose lines make elegant patterns as they cast their rods.

A hawk follows us downstream and fish jump and squirrels chatter.

Suddenly Dean commands "All forward!"

We are facing our first rapid.

We start to row vigorously. The raft bumps, lurches and shoots over the rapid, drenching our lower bodies. We have seconds to recover before the next one approaches.

It's known as the "Bone Cruncher" and featured in the 1994 movie The River Wild starring Meryl Streep and Kevin Bacon, which was shot on this river.

Dean, who knows every inch of the river, points to a rock that's seen in the film. He says he recognised it because of the distinctive mushroom shape made by the water rushing over it.

"All forward!" he says, as we turn towards the spill.

"Rest!"

He spins the raft around.

"All back!"

And we're over the rapid, floating downstream, laughing, exhilarated and wet.

We whoosh through a succession of other rapids: "The Washboard", "Jaws", "Pin Ball", "The Screaming Right Hand Turn", "The Pumphouse", and less spectacularly, "The Toilet Bowl".

Dean steers us expertly through each one and thankfully there's no need to put our rescues into practice.

In between rapids we drift on glassy still water with the Rocky Mountain ranges rising majestically on either side, and Dean regales us with a history of the area: its complex geology and how floods, fires and climate change have left their marks on the environment.

Three and a half hours later our raft trip comes to an end and we get off. My arms are aching and I'm tired and getting cold.

But I think I understand what Maclean meant when he wrote in his book, "I am haunted by rivers".

IF YOU GO

For more information about rafting on the Flathead River visit glacierguides.com.

- AAP