This video offers a sophisticated blend of geological insight and historical continuity, capturing a landscape that remains a living testament to the era of Lewis and Clark. It is a masterful meditation on the enduring power of nature to sculpt both the earth and our sense of wonder.
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Montana | Paddling The Upper Missouri River BreaksAdded:
All right, Chase and I are back on another canoe trip. This time we're in the great state of Montana. We're putting in on the Missouri River and we're about to spend a week paddling through what Lewis and Clark 200 years ago named the Upper Missouri breaks. Should be a beautiful stretch retracing some of their paddle strokes and uh just exploring some of the beauty of central Montana's badlands. It's a beautiful time of year.
We're getting the start of fall colors.
Should be cold, but not too cold. And uh hopefully not too many people on the river.
We are a couple miles in and man, it is gorgeous out here. Um, just a super calm, quiet day. No wind, overcast, perfect temperatures. I mean, it just feels so good to be on the water. The river's moving at a pretty good pace, too. So, we're kind of able to just take it pretty easy and just enjoy the scenery around us. Seems like we're definitely getting up into some hillier regions. And uh I think we'll reach some kind of cliff areas sometime this afternoon. So scenery is stunning and just very excited to be out here on some new water and exploring a new place.
Stopping for a quick snack break. It's been a beautiful morning so far. I'd say we're probably about half of the distance we need to make right now um for today or that we're wanting to make for today. But really, we've got no agenda. We can kind of stop wherever we want, which is nice. But uh we've just entered some really beautiful like white cliff section. And so the scenery is changing. It's staying very gorgeous.
The hills and river cliffs which we passed today exhibit a most romantic appearance. The bluffs of the river rise to a height of from 2 to 300 ft and in most places nearly perpendicular.
They're formed of remarkable white sandstone which is sufficiently soft to give way readily to the impression of water.
Two or three thin horizontal stratas of white free stone on which the rains or water make no impression lie embedded in these cliffs of soft stone near the upper part of them.
And then it all get >> I see. I think that's better.
Okay, I see.
Can >> you actually slide it like from above or something?
>> No, that's a >> Oh, that's a vent. Okay.
>> Okay. No.
>> Yeah.
>> All right. Well, we just got into camp a little bit ago. We got the tent set up.
We're just making some lunch now. We got some wraps. So, just prepping all that.
And uh got a lot of day left. So, it's only like 2:45. We forgot to put sausage on the shopping list, so we're going vegetarian for lunches this trip.
Mostly. Mostly. I guess I did bring some jerky, but >> Okay, we'll we'll make do.
>> Tomatoes.
>> Yeah, there's tomatoes. There's >> uh >> Oh, yum. That's good. Mhm.
Today was a great day. What an amazing start to the trip. Just a beautiful river to be paddling. The landscape is stunning. very subtly dramatic, if that makes sense. Um, we'll go from these beautiful hills and just badland type look to these white cliffs. We're going to do a little hiking today and yeah, it's it's awesome. We're looking forward to this week. It's going to be beautiful.
We just ended up staking out some more guidelines here cuz we've got kind of a front moving through right now. A little bit of rain coming and uh the gusts were getting pretty strong. So, we're kind of all secured now. But with it starting to rain, um we're thinking we'll probably just end up making food in the tent and kind of hunkering down for a little bit.
If kind of dies off, we'd love to sit out and make a fire or something, but um it might just be a night in the tent.
We'll see.
All right. Today we're doing some ramen for dinner. So, got our ramen.
We've got some dehydrated veggies and uh well, I guess more vegetables, onions, and yeah, should be pretty simple.
Sweet.
That's good.
>> Yeah, it is.
>> All right, we're making some cocktails.
Doing a little gin fizz tonight. So, got some gin, of course.
>> I sliced cucumbers.
>> Oh, yeah. Perfect garnish. Thank you, Chase.
Here's the lime juice. Let's start with the lime juice gin.
Oh yeah. Wonderful little cucumber slice. Okay. Well, cheers my good man.
>> Cheers.
It rained most of the night last night.
It was a pretty consistent soft drizzle.
It stopped now, but it's all very overcast, light wind, and quite a bit cooler than it was yesterday.
About time to get up and get the day going. Make some coffee, breakfast, and probably start packing up before too long.
Since it's a little chilly outside, And it's nice and cozy in here. Making breakfast in the tent this morning. Got some oatmeal and some coffee.
Go ahead and just get this going.
Some more like cold water. Yeah.
>> Yeah. Let's pour.
Let's see how this fruit medley works.
Okay, let me know when to stop.
That's probably good.
I'll just let that sit like that.
And now I think the oatmeal should be good to dish up some.
All right, there's our oatmeal. Pretty simple. Should be pretty filling.
Something for sure.
And then I tie this off, right?
>> Yeah.
Yeah, it's uh quite a bit chillier this Yeah.
>> All right, we're back on the water this morning.
It's just after 11 right now, so been paddling for I guess only about 10 minutes. So, got out a little later, but honestly, with the time we made yesterday, we're really not worried about distance. Um, it's a little bit colder, so kind of just took us a little bit longer to get around, but uh yeah, it seems pretty good right now. The wind has died down, which should make traveling a little bit easier today as long as it stays that way. And looks like we're approaching some really beautiful sections of the river, so should be good.
We are on a hike to what I believe is called Hole in the Wall. It is quite cold, so we were happy to change into our actual boots, not our water shoes.
But it's gorgeous out here. Loving the fall colors. Some really dramatic rock uh like rock outcroppings on our way in on our paddle. Uh really pretty, really barren. Uh very cold.
Well, we made it up the ridge a little ways and there's this like really cool slot canyon type thing and yeah, just really pretty. So, scenery around here is gorgeous. But, uh the views of the river too really nice. We're just pretty high up. So, this might be the end though. It's pretty steep little scramble here and it's kind of wet.
Back on the river. Had a nice little side hike up to a hole in the wall.
And this is beautiful. It's really neat to kind of see some more of the terrain out here.
And uh yeah, when we got back it stopped raining on us. I mean, it was just a little it was spitting on us really, but um that all stopped and the sun is starting to peek out through the clouds.
So, honestly, we've got kind of our second wind. We're feeling good. We warmed up on the hike and it's a gorgeous day.
As we passed on, it seemed as if those scenes of visionary enchantment would never have an end. For here it is too that nature presents to the view of the traveler vast ranges of walls of tolerable workmanship. So perfect indeed are those walls that I should have thought that nature had attempted to rival the human art of masonry had I not recollected that she had first begun her work. These walls rise to the height in many places of 100 ft, are perpendicular with two regular faces, and are from 1 to 12 ft thick. Each wall retains the same thickness at top, which it possesses at bottom.
We are now two days in to the trip and I think we're starting to see a lot of what the river can offer us. Uh everywhere we've been has been so so pretty and the hills are really pretty, too. We've had more elevation than I was thinking we would have. Uh the fall colors are perfect. I expected these gorgeous white cliffs, but they are almost everywhere. There's also been some really amazing like darker color uh rock features and it's really astonishing sometimes when the white cliffs interact with those like darker features. They've really really made for some pretty landscapes.
All right, figured I'd give you guys a little map update now that we're on day two. So, we began yesterday here at Cole Banks and we made our way down here, continued all the way down to this site, which really marked here on this map.
So, Eagle Creek is where we were last night. Today, we've worked our way continuing south all the way down through here. We stopped off and hiked right here at Hole in the Wall and then continued on down past here and we're camped right over here. We didn't end up staying on this side. There's a beautiful grove of trees right here and just beautiful views down the river corridor. So, we're camped right here.
We made it into camp not too long ago.
Uh I set up the tent while Chase collected some firewood and uh we're pretty much ready to settle in for the evening. Probably make some dinner here pretty soon and just kind of take it easy. We popped up on this little uh hill behind our campsite and it's just gorgeous. The views down the river corridor and the bluffs behind us. Uh it's just really really stunning out here. Uh very beautiful dynamic scenery and yeah, we're going to enjoy this spot. Found a little grove of trees, beautiful fall colors, and a really good spot.
Okay, tonight we're making some shephardd's pie. So, I've got the dehydrated ground beef here. Just going to add that while it's heating up.
Also got some dried onions and a little bit of vegetable mix here.
me just start dishing.
>> Yeah, go for it.
>> Okay, looks great.
>> Yeah, it this is one of my favorites now. Thanks.
man. Well, last night was pretty chilly and but very calm. Very calm. So, I got up at one point at like 4 in the morning and entire river valley was just like engulfed in a big mass of like fog. So, everything feels a little like damp. There's a lot of condensation, but it's very quiet outside. That's pretty nice. Let me get up and see what the day looks like.
I'll do quite a bit of banan because >> I have a ton.
>> Yeah, >> I made a lot of it.
>> You might stir in while I'm pouring some.
>> Yeah, >> cuz I never usually do this much. So Oh, just so gooey in the middle.
>> Yeah, I don't look like that.
>> I don't mind it. Yeah, I don't mind it either.
Mhm.
It's really good.
All right, we're on the water again.
It's a nice chill morning, both literally and figuratively. It's pretty cold. Um, but the fog was gorgeous. Uh, we just kind of waited for it to burn off and then we're on the water now. So, got about 16 miles today to paddle. Uh, so nothing too crazy and it looks like it's going to be quite scenic. So we're excited to just be on the water and take it in the morning. It's nice and crisp, very quiet out and the sun is out. So we're happy.
Man, it's been a beautiful day. Just a real light breeze, nothing too crazy, and just the sun's been out, which has been a nice change of pace. So, very comfortable. The river moves at a really good pace, so it's pretty easy to just take our time with it. Scenery keeps changing as well. We keep just talking about how like large everything is. Like the scale of this area is kind of mind-blowing. So, super beautiful. seems like it's continuing to change. So, I feel like over the next few days, we're just going to continue to see changes in the landscape.
We've got about two or so miles left to get to camp for the night. And uh yeah, we've got most of the afternoon left, so it's pretty chill. And we're just enjoying. It's been a good day.
All right. Well, we made it to Judith Landing Campground. So, we were planning to stop and do a disperse site somewhere around here, but we couldn't find anything with like a suitable landing or that wasn't insanely overgrown. Um, a spot where we could set up a tent. So, we just figured we'd stop here. It's uh it'll be our glamping night of the trip.
We'll have um bathrooms and amenities like picnic benches. So, um should be pretty chill. Uh we'll take it. And then we got a few more nights in the deep back country. So, it's a good blend.
It's good. It was good. Another great lentil, too. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Turn up.
Well, it's another beautiful morning out here on the Missouri River. Just calm days just waking up. Uh when I got out of the tent this morning, there was a handful of deer just like really close, like just a couple yards away from us, just kind of grazing and just super beautiful. And we've got a lot of uh a lot of geese just feeding in the river.
It's kind of nice to watch this morning as the fog was rising and uh elk just bugling across the river. So, lots of good wildlife out here, feeasants flying around. I mean, it just the morning was just super lively. So, we've just been taking it pretty easy. Made a fire.
Gonna make some bananick now. Um, do some more bananick and gravy and get the day going. We didn't expect this type of landscape to be so gorgeous and dramatic, but something about the subtlety of the beauty. Um, every little thing just pops so much. There's so much uh color you wouldn't expect or um like even the wildlife. It's just it's very lively and vibrant in this place that's kind of very aid um everywhere else. So, it's beautiful little corridor of river and yeah, really thankful to be out here right now.
That is toasty. Oh, that's a good one.
Nice.
That is really good. That is delicious.
Fold it in.
Over.
Sweet.
All right, we are off.
Another beautiful day on the water.
thinking right through the middle.
>> Yeah, I think so.
>> Okay.
This country may with propriety, I think, be termed the deserts of America, as I do not conceive any part can ever be settled, as it is deficient in water, timber, and too steep to be tilled.
We've been paddling for a few hours now.
We've gone about 15 miles and we're going to pull off here and take a quick lunch break. Still got a little distance we'd like to go for today. So, just going to have a quick pause, make some lunch, and we'll be back on the water soon. But scenery is changing again. And it's just like it's turned into some real like sandy colors and it's just stunning. Every bend is very beautiful.
All right. Well, we just pulled off at this little stop. We're about 15 miles into the day. Making a quick lunch, some wraps, and then we'll probably hit the river again for I think we'd like to go at least another four miles. So, about another hour or so of paddling. But, uh, yeah, gorgeous day.
Well, we got back on the water after lunch. We've been paddling here for about maybe 20, 30 minutes. Making a really good time. So, we're approaching where we're going to be camping for tonight or we're hoping to camp. Um, Chimney Bend is what it's called. And there should be a couple good potential options from the way it looks on the map. So, we'll see when we get there.
But this corridor is really stunning.
There's um we're now starting to see pine trees. So, it's definitely changing. Um the m like the badlands really look almost like mountains. Like it's it's really cool. Uh just the the way the topography is changing. So, um it is 3:35 right now. So, it's been a little bit of a longer day, but very enjoyable and we're looking forward to getting into camp and setting things up for the evening.
All right. Well, we just saw a spot that might work. It's a little earlier than where we were planning, and now we're paddling back up river to grab it. Um, just kind of fing right now, but it's uh yeah, looks like it could be a really cool spot. So, we'll see. We'll see what we can do.
The country which borders the river is high, broken, and rocky. Generally embedded with a soft sandstone.
Higher up the hill, the stone is of a brownish yellow, hard, and gritty. Those stones wash down from the hills into the river and cause the shore to be rocky.
and but a few trees to be seen on either side, except scattering pine on the sides of the immense hills.
Today was awesome. Uh, we woke up at that campsite, so it kind of took us out of it a little bit, like just being at like a developed campsite. But honestly, the morning was gorgeous and getting on the water today. Um, man, I know I keep talking about the scenery, but it continues to just change. Every bend is so dramatic and impressive in new ways. We got to camp today and took a walk up in the hills and I mean, it looks like a painting.
It's stunning. We got to watch the sunset up there and just like shed this magical lighting across the whole valley. It just it seems like that moment was what we came for. So, I'm really pretty stoked for the next couple of days cuz it seems like this part of the canyon is just really really gorgeous.
What a stunning morning.
It's quiet, calm.
It's just before sunrise and the world is just waking up. It's gorgeous out here. This is I think definitely uh our favorite site so far. It's just it's just amazing. The landscape is so vast.
So, yeah, we're going to get the morning going here, watch the sunrise, make some coffee and some breakfast, and see where the day takes us.
All right.
It's another beautiful morning on the water. It's cool, but not too cool. The sun's out today. We are not really sure how far we'll go. We've got at least 15 milesish planned, but I mean, just depending on where we find a good spot is probably what we're what we're going to do. Last night was incredible. If we can find something else like that, we'd be we'd be sitting pretty. So, we're just going to kind of take today as it comes and enjoy it. It's beautiful. It's about 10:00 right now, so we're out a little bit earlier than yesterday, but again, we're just really taking these days pretty chill. It's been really nice. We're looking forward to some beautiful scenery ahead.
been on the water for a couple hours now. Um, stopped off and saw a cool old homestead. That was pretty neat. And then just paddling through this wide canyon. Taking a quick snack break. just kind of getting some food in us and enjoying the scenery. It's beautiful out here. The country on either hand is high, broken, and rocky. The rock is either soft brown sandstone covered with a thin strata of limestone, or a hard black rugged granite, both usually in horizontal stratas and the sandy rock overlaying the other. Salts and quartz still appear. Some coal and pummus stone also appear. The river bottoms are narrow and afford scarcely any timber.
The bars of the river are composed principally of gravel, but little pine on the hills.
They feed on the cliffs and inaccessible heights which they frequent most commonly. And the places they generally collect to lodge is the crannies or crevices of the rocks in the face of inaccessible precipaces where the wolf nor bear can reach them and where indeed man himself would in many instances find a similar deficiency.
Yet those animals bound from rock to rock and stand apparently in the most careless manner on the side of precipaces of many hundred feet.
Yeah, this looks pretty good.
>> Yeah.
All right.
All right.
All right, we're taking a hike.
We're following a drainage north of camp that leads up to these foothills and a ridge. And apparently when Lewis and Clark came through here, Clark climbed up this ridge and from the top was able to see the Rocky Mountains for the first time. So thought this would be a fun way to explore this campsite, get some views and retrace some of their steps.
Right now we are working through this drainage and should be at the foothills before too long.
So, I think we're following where the grove of trees are, right by the rocks.
Then we follow that ridge line up all the way to the top up there.
Okay.
We made it to one little shelf up here.
We got to get all the way up that behind us. This is a trek.
They said from down there is 1,000 ft to the top and it's a pretty steep thousand ft.
So a very steep thousand.
>> Yeah. So we'll see how we make it.
I crossed a deep hauler and ascended a part of the plane elevated much higher than where I first viewed the above mountains. From this point I beheld the Rocky Mountains for the first time with certainty. Whilst I viewed those mountains, I felt a secret pleasure in finding myself so near the head of the here to forconceived boundless Missouri.
But when I reflected on the difficulties which this snowy barrier would most probably throw in my way to the Pacific Ocean and the sufferings and hardships of myself and party in them, it in some measure counterbalanced the joy I had felt in the first moments in which I gazed on them.
So several years ago, Nathan got me into eating pine needles. Uh you don't really eat them. anymore. Just chew them and taste them and then spit them out. And they're quite yummy if you get the right kind. Uh they kind of taste like a very sour lemon. It's very like a sharp citrusy. I don't think Nathan tastes them quite as much anymore, but I'm still into it. So, I'm going to go ahead and review the pine needles uh from the top of Snake Point.
I'd say they're okay. They're better than average, but they're not as good as I hoped. Uh what you really want is like a really sharp yummy taste. And this kind of has a little bit of a more like bitter feeling to it. And uh it's a little bit like tastes a little dry, probably the dry climate. And uh got to say 6 out of 10. You know, way better than city pine needles, but not quite as good as I was hoping for. All right, we found a better pine tree. Nathan, can you tell us what you think of it?
>> Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, definitely better than what I heard him describing.
There's a sharp citrus, but it's very dry, almost like chalky in your mouth afterwards.
It' probably make a really good tea, but it really dries your mouth out.
>> I say I got to agree. Glad we found a slightly better tree. Just goes to show you, don't stop at the first tree.
Always try a second tree.
Making our way back. Got about 45 minutes to sunset, so should be getting back to camp right in time. Man, what a beautiful hike.
That was definitely a well worth stop.
Glad we stayed at this site, too, cuz wouldn't have gotten that view if we hadn't.
When we get back to camp, I think we're just going to be making some dinner, kind of settling in for the evening, and enjoying the rest of the evening as things start to wind down. So, it's a really nice spot. Very beautiful.
All right. Tonight for dinner, we're doing some chicken tikka masala. Should be pretty simple and straightforward.
Start with the sauce.
Get that rehydrating.
Some rice.
Some onions chicken.
And there's our chicken tikka masala.
>> Nice. Okay. There's a lot also.
>> Sweet.
>> I'll swap you.
>> All right. And then this is for me.
>> That's for you.
>> Oh, that is a lot. Wow.
>> All right.
>> All right, >> man. What a day for hungry boys.
>> I know. After that hike, >> that hike wore me out.
>> I'm very hungry.
We took a nice chill morning and just enjoyed watching everything wake up. So beautiful out here. We just packed up, got on the water. We've only got about 13 or 14 miles to go today. A little site called Hideway is where we're shooting for. And that should be our last uh night of the trip. So, we're just going to enjoy today. nice easy paddle, take in the scenery, and hopefully have some good hiking or at least just exploring opportunities around camp tonight, but should be a pretty straightforward day.
All right, it's been a little while since I gave a little update on the map, but for reference, yesterday we started here at mile 108. This was our campsite just overlooking the valley um on kind of those flats and then settled here last night. This was where we did the big hike up to the ridge and where we left this morning. Today we're going to continue paddling this stretch.
We stopped off right here to check out an old homestead. And then we're continuing all the way down through here.
And then here's Hideaway, our last campsite.
We've been paddling for a couple hours now and the scenery continues to change. I know I've been saying that like every day, but it really does seems like the hills have gotten smaller at this point, but no less dramatic. They're still very beautiful, very dynamic, and yeah, it's just been a beautiful stretch of river today. We're probably about an hour, maybe a little under from where we're planning on stopping for camp tonight. So, just a couple more miles and we should have most of the afternoon to just kind of hang out. So looking forward to just enjoying the last afternoon and taking it all in.
Maybe exploring a little bit. We'll see what the afternoon looks like. But yeah, it's been a great day. Can't complain.
Yeah, I bet this is it up here somewhere cuz I don't think this island is near as big as it needs to be to be the big one I was thinking. Let's give it a shot.
See if this is it.
Go. How's that?
>> Okay, perfect.
Well, we got into camp a couple hours ago, got everything set up, kind of did all the chores, and now we're just taking it easy. We're really just enjoying this last afternoon evening. um reading our books for a little while and then we'll probably make some dinner here before too long and maybe go for a walk, kind of explore a little bit of this area. But really nothing on the agenda. Um it's just a beautiful afternoon. Just kind of soaking it all in uh before we paddle out tomorrow.
Man, just another beautiful morning.
The sun's just coming up now. It's been great this last week just kind of exploring this river valley. The Missouri is a powerful river. It's done a lot of work over a long period of time and the scenery shows for it. It's neat kind of retracing uh Louiswis and Clark's steps from 200 years ago. Just being able to see some of the stuff that they wrote about. It's been a really really special trip. Very beautiful part of the country. Uh something that is definitely worth exploring and seeing.
Yeah, we've loved it. Every bit of it.
It's been beautiful.
We've got about 12 miles uh left today, so it should be a pretty quick paddle.
We're going to pack up camp, make some breakfast, take in the last couple hours here as we paddle on out.
It's been an incredible week up here in Montana on the Missouri River. The brakes are truly a stunning piece of wilderness. the geology, the history, it's all really fascinating and the views are unparalleled. It's really gorgeous up here.
We've got about 10 or so miles to paddle out here today. So, I think this is where we're going to leave you guys, but thank you so much for watching and I look forward to catching you in the next one.
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