I've searched through the old threads and can't seem to find this information. I'm planning on taking my father-in-law down middle fork of the flathead from Shafer Meadows down. We want to time our flight in so that there is decent water but the fishing is good. I've gathered the 1st of July is a good time for this? Should I wait later?
I've been in there a couple of times, June and July for some great fishing. Never floated it though, never figured out the logistics of how to get back to the airplane. If you go, take the ranger some goodies, they really enjoy it. Good luck it looks like a great trip.
bdaly - I am also planning on running the middle fork section all the way to west glacier in early June, From watching a lot of youtube videos and reading old mountain buzz forums it looks like late May early June is the time to shoot for watching the snow pack and the water levels. The flight company charges $450 one way per plane and the weight limit is 900lbs. Wondering how on earth a group gets multiple rafts and all the gear plus bodies all the way out there, we are trying to do it with 4 people and minimal gear with a single flight if possible. Looks like it gets way to bony if you wait to long and miss the window
You may have to have only 2 ppl fly in with the gear and boat, the other 2 may have to hike in via Morrison creek. I've never hiked it, but have heard from ppl that have that it is an easy mellow hike and mostly downhill. I believe it's somewhere around 10 miles or so, could be wrong on the mileage though.
Thanks for the advice, this was the route we were going to go if the weight couldnt be reached and have them meet us there while we rigged everything up. From looking at the trail my only concern is getting dropped off at the trailhead. looks way out of the way to run leave a car and run shuttle to if we are already setting shuttle at west glacier. Wondering what the best thing to bring the ranger station would be, cold beer?
Camp at TH night before, leave 2 hikers at TH early early in the morning to start their hike, drive to Kalispell to the airport where Red Eagle is, board plane and fly to schafer meadows, when you arrive as you said start rigging and wait for hikers...have Red Eagle run your shuttle vehicle to your take out point, at an extra cost of course.
Our logistics went like this: 6 people, 1 raft, 1 ducky, 2 hard shells. We self shuttled. It was something like an hour each way from the airport but we only went as far Hwy 2 and not all of the way onto West Glacier.
2 planes @ $230/person (Maybe $250??). 5 people and light gear in one plane and everything else and 1 person in plane 2. Weight wasn't really an issue, we finished the trip with enough food and beer to just about lap it and had a stupidly heavy fire pan, full size camp chairs for everyone, etc. Basically we went normal river trip as far as gear is concerned.
The flight in was awesome. We flew low and slow as the pilot was pulling double duty working a contract to track radio collared bears. As I remember it there is a peak at the far end of Schafer meadow. The "normal" flight path is to drop over the ridge from the south and then fly up the meadow and around the peak while gradually descending. Our pilot looked at us and said "You guys look like your pretty comfortable. You OK doing the short drop to the runway?" Of course we said yes. He headed north towards the peak and then put us in a side slip to shed altitude. It's hard to describe being a non-pilot, but we went into a banking turn before the peak and then throttled back so that we were falling sideways through the air. He straightened it out just ahead of the landing strip and throttled up again. We landed as smooth as can be.
We were on the ground and able to watch the gear plane come in. They did the "normal" approach around the peak. It was only after seeing them that I realized what an impressive move our pilot had done. It was definitely a highlight of the trip.
Sounds like Dave Horner. We took a charter flight for a quick work trip to Missoula. Flew in the 206 with the big back windows. Sunrise flight low over US 93 with sunlight twinkling over hundreds of potholes on the CSKT Reservation and bison range. Flew home midday and spotted turkeys, bighorns, and wild horses on Wild Horse Island.
He asked if we wanted to see the private runway at Lakeside. "sure"
Did a similar move as you described and dropped below the treeline into a canyon where the airstrip materialized below us. We spit out over Flathead Lake and flew the rest of the way low over the lake and into Kalispell.
Planning a Memorial weekend trip this year. We talked about using a local pack team to ride in and maybe use one plane trip for the big stuff. Snowy Spring Outfitters. They have good reviews from a friend of mine and Shawn Little was the name he mentioned.
The only point I wanna make is don’t wait too long for lower flows. It’s a river that definitely gets too low to raft after a point. We IKyed it early August and Staircase series area was mostly walking through rocky rapid for several miles and a few mandatory portages down lower, even in a IKy.
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