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Published: August 7th 2008
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As the women lay in bed, the men got up and went to work. It was now Leannes US birthday and she was seeing how far she could stretch this.
Today we were heading back into the park to the very remote shores of Bowman Lake to camp and kayak. So Joe and Matt carefully loaded the 4 sea kayaks onto the roof of the truck and with 4 strong coffees in hand we headed along the long and very bumpy, dusty road to Bowman Lake. We made several stops along the way to check that neither the truck roof or the kayaks had decided to leave us.
An extra stop was added in at Polebridge, a town of 2 buildings, a pub and a general store with the most amazing bakery. To keep tradition alive Matt and Leanne both gave there mothers a call from the pay phone inside half a keg barrel outside the store.
Unless Leannes mum has an unknown strange hobby, we will put her remark down to a 3am dead sleep wake up call "It's alright love, I was getting up anyway."
As we arrived we quickly chose a camping area then it
was straight down to the lake to unload kayaks and paddles. Unfortunately Montana's famous summer sunshine was also on holiday and we sat in the car watching the dark clouds empty their contents while we ate our freshly baked Polebridge scones. After quite some time Joe made the call that we were all thinking. It was now or never. timing couldn't have been better as we unloaded the car the blue sky started to push its' way through.
Bowman Lake is a very long and narrow lake and we headed off with a slight head on wind not knowing how far we would get.
Sarah and Joe had created a hard precedent for anyone trying to give Leanne a better birthday.
You definitely felt like you were in the middle of the park in a lake surrounded by nothing but wildlife, forest, mountains and waterfalls. Untouched nature in its true form.
After several hours of paddling we pulled up on a little beach for some snacks and liquid. We were fairly tired, so we didn't know how much further we would go but after a little while paddling Joe spotted something on the horizon swimming in the water
and it definitely was not a duck. Intrigued to confirm our suspicions we paddled flat tack towards the unknown swimmer that had already crossed 3 quarters of the lake. At this point it turned around heading back from where it had come giving us time to get a little closer. We all looked at each other with a mix of amazement and excitement as we realized we were all watching a fully grown male moose swimming in the lake. We kept a small distance so not to scare him and sat back and watched as he gracefully pushed himself through the water, snout and antlers only to be seen, with a lot of puffing.
This must be the most magical wildlife experiences we have ever had.
The excitement meant we had travelled a lot further down the lake and as the moose hit the shores, the wind completely dropped away. We were all so enchanted by paddling through the glassy still waters that before we knew it, we had reached the far end of the lake.
It had been a long afternoon paddling and with the late afternoon approaching we decided we should head back, relieved at the
fact it would either be a glassy paddle or a tail wind. But nature is never that easy and we were dealt a cruel blow to find the glassy waters had gone and the wind had switched around to give us a strong head on wind and a hard paddle all the way back.
It was very slow going and any breaks in paddling were rewarded with a sudden drift and loss of several metres. With the sun setting and our slow progress forward, Joe wipped together a make shift tow rope and hooked Sarah up. This is definitely one of those situations where it is more enjoyable to reminisce as we all grit our teeth and paddled into the wind. Leanne may have almost lost her marbles at one point paddling by herself in the middle of the lake singing "Leanne your almost there, almost there, almost there."
After over 20km paddling, we finally reached the starting shore and divided our jobs and tasks up with Joe and Matt loading the Kayaks and Sarah and Leanne setting up camp. What a team! It wasn't long before boats were loaded, a poleless? mosquito tent was roped up to
trees, sleeping tents up, wood collected and dinner on the go.
The rest of the evening we sat around the fire with loads of shining stars above yarning and laughing about the amazing day we had had .
Yip just another day in Montana!
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