multimedia slideshow

An Early Fall Float Down the North Fork of the Flathead

Scenes from NewWest.Net photographer Graham Coppes' recent float with friends down the North Fork of the Flathead River from the remote Canadian border.

By Graham Coppes, 9-25-08

Whether on a raft, kayak, drift boat, float boat, sailboat or skiff boat, traveling by river is hard to beat.

Montana’s North Fork of the Flathead River supports a remarkable array of biodiversity and provides an incredible experience to humans lucky enough to pass through.  This is wild country, true wilderness, incorporating all the original players.  Great bears fill the mountains along with elk, moose, wolverine, lynx, wolves and large cats. A 50-mile long dusty road leads from Columbia Falls to Canada, with few signs of human life.

NewWest.Net photographer Graham Coppes recently led a team of friends down the North Fork from the remote Canadian border. Five days later, 45 miles further south, and with a few fat trout smiles, they left the North Fork and this remarkable country.

Click the image above to view a multimedia piece from this trip. 

[End of article]

Looks like a fun trip, wish I had been there.

Two buddies and I did most of that float at the end of July but had to put up with outfitters and other fishermen being jerks. It's a simple but old rule - if we're fishing and you float by, don't fish within the reach of my cast just because you're moving past.

It's humbling wandering into the willows to take a piss and finding a grizz track with water still pouring in.

Thanks for sharing your pictures.

Helena

Hey, I enjoyed the pictures, you timed it for probably the best possible week ever. But I'm going to ask you...how can it be "true wilderness" if you got to DRIVE up there with all your "gear" and float back down?
At least you guys had the class not to moan and groan about the evil Canadian miners and loggers, eh.