Lunch on a Log on the Clark Fork River

One of best ways to pass a hot, summer Montana day is to head to the river. Lori and I love to paddleboard so we made an afternoon of it on the Clark Fork River that flows through our small valley. We have two floating options, seven miles or 12 miles, when dropping in at the fishing access in Frenchtown. On this day, we decided to float the shorter route to the tiny community of Ninemile. Of course, that meant packing a lunch, too.

He said: From the access parking area, it’s at least a quarter mile walk to a slough that flows into the river. We put our paddleboards and paddles under our arms and started the hike in. Once we reached the slough, we put in and floated probably another quarter to half mile to the river. As we did so, I saw a trout that had to be at least 20 inches long. (Note to self: come back here to fish!)

Since it was already lunch time, we didn’t want to waste any time to find a spot to grab a bite to eat. Once we met the main stem of the river, the current pushed us along downstream. As we made that right-hand turn onto the river, we saw a log jam about half a mile away. Bingo! One of the logs jutted well out into the water so we parked our paddleboards on the rock-covered sandbar the split the river in two, grabbed a seat and ate with our feet dangling in the cool water.

The star of my lunch was “always available” Papa Murphy’s Take ‘N’ Bake Pizza leftovers from dinner the night before. I say “always available” because if you’ve ever had a Papa Murphy’s Pizza, especially the type we get, there’s no way on earth to eat the whole thing in one meal unless you get by with the help of several friends or family members. Of course, you can get different Papa Murphy’s pizzas but my go-to is the 5-meat stuffed pizza with its two layers of original crust stuffed with Canadian bacon, pepperoni, Italian sausage, bacon (because you can never, ever go wrong with bacon), whole-milk mozzarella and traditional red sauce topped with ground beef, mozzarella, cheddar and red sauce. Just typing this makes me feel full…and satisfied. Fresh out of the oven or, in this case, lukewarm pulled out of a pack while sitting on a log on a river in western Montana, it’s mm, mm great!

She said: I couldn’t tell you the last time I ate a sandwich. I’m not a big fan of sandwiches. A sandwich seems like a likely picnic food, easy to throw together and simple to eat. But not my food of choice. What is my food of choice? Well, it may seem random but I packed skillet sweet potato with pecans and cinnamon, a green salad, and watermelon. I was hungry when I was making it so it was way too much food but better too much than too little (that’s my motto anyway!) There’s not much to say about the watermelon. It definitely hit the spot. The salad had tomatoes and lettuce from our garden (which are always better than store bought.) The sweet potatoes are one of my favorite meal foods. Peel and dice the sweet potato, sauté them in a saucepan. (I’m usually not very patient at this part and sometimes they are a little on the crunchy side.) Melt some butter, add some chopped pecans and cinnamon.  Add this yumminess to the sweet potatoes and cook a little longer. The food did hit the spot, but the highlight for me was the paddleboarding!

 By the way (part 1)…there was only one downside to our post-lunch float – the wind! Montana’s really not known for its wind, mostly because it really doesn’t get that windy that often. But I’ll be honest, a breeze on this day with temperatures in the lower 90s actually felt pretty good. Unfortunately, the gusts of wind in our face practically neutralized the current and, at times, pushed us backwards so that meant we spent the next several hours paddling. Well, most of the time anyway.

By the way (part 2)…Named after William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the Clark Fork River is more than 300 miles long. It begins as Silver Bow Creek in western Montana and picks up additional streams and waterways as it heads west. It joins the Blackfoot River just east of Missoula and then gains the Bitterroot River just west of Missoula before eventually dumping into Lake Pend Oreille in the Idaho panhandle. 

By the way (part 2)…My grandson, Kyler, and I returned to the same spot where we put in one week later to do some fishing. The strange thing was we saw more bears than fish. Now, it’s been a really dry summer with poor berry production up in the mountains so it’s not surprising to see bears, after all there were two of them about 50 yards off our fence line at home a couple of weeks earlier.

“Papa, look!” said Kyler, pointing across the river. Sure enough, we watched a black bear walking along the shoreline. We were hoping to see it jump in the river but it just kept going and eventually disappeared into the brush.

I have a thing for bears. They’re just so cool. While I like them, I also respect them. Whenever I go out fishing, I’ve got bear spray hooked to my belt and this day was no different. As we chatted on our return walk to the truck as the sun was setting, we approached where a thicket of trees and tall brush overtake the trail. I heard a loud “crack,” stopped, stuck out my hand and stopped Kyler from walking any further. We heard more breaking of tree limbs and saw movement just off and above the trail. It was a black bear – a large black bear! It scaled a large cottonwood tree to get a better look at us. This one was a lot bigger than the one we just saw along the river. Since it was only about 50 yards ahead of us, I grabbed my bear spray, removed the safety clip and kept it in my right hand. I’ve hunted and fished a lot and seen a number of bears but this was the first time I had the cannister ready to be deployed. We backed off the trail and made a big, looping arc around the area back to the truck.