Upper Missouri River Guides: Montana Canoeing

[Glenn MacGrady]

"Since 1994, our guide service has offered guided canoe trips on the Upper Missouri River."

"We distinguish ourselves from our competitors by offering the best river canoes and equipment available, most notably our high-tech, kevlar Wenonah canoes, and ultra-light carbon-fiber paddles. They are the best in use on the Upper Missouri River."

Upper Missouri River Guides | Family River Trip Vacations in Montana

Guided canoe trips on the Upper Missouri River in Montana with expert river guides, incredible meals and unforgettable adventure.

www.uppermissouri.com

I wonder if they offer just a shuttle service too.

 

[dogbrain]

I know the owners and some of the guides at UMRG, but I don't know if they do shuttles. There are people in Fort Benton who do shuttles, here is one of them.

Missouri River Premier Outfitters

Discover Montana's Missouri River with our guided canoe and adventure trips. Experience unforgettable landscapes and memories.

mroutfitters.com

Mark

 

[Chip]

MRO did a shuttle for me in 2019. Good folks and service, they did exactly what they promised they would. I recommend them.

 

[Tryin']

"Since 1994, our guide service has offered guided canoe trips on the Upper Missouri River."

"We distinguish ourselves from our competitors by offering the best river canoes and equipment available, most notably our high-tech, kevlar Wenonah canoes, and ultra-light carbon-fiber paddles. They are the best in use on the Upper Missouri River."

Upper Missouri River Guides | Family River Trip Vacations in Montana

Guided canoe trips on the Upper Missouri River in Montana with expert river guides, incredible meals and unforgettable adventure.

www.uppermissouri.com

I wonder if they offer just a shuttle service too.

I know the owners and some of the guides at UMRG, but I don't know if they do shuttles. There are people in Fort Benton who do shuttles, here is one of them.

Missouri River Premier Outfitters

Discover Montana's Missouri River with our guided canoe and adventure trips. Experience unforgettable landscapes and memories.

mroutfitters.com

Mark

FWIW.

 

[Alasgun]

Across the line, in North Dakota We had Ft. Union and Ft. Buford on the Missouri and we canoed some in that area but the little Missouri was where i spent most of my time.

I leased a ranch south of Watford City which the river flowed thru. This is the “Badlands” and the river flows thru both units of the Theodore Roosevelt park on it’s way to a wide spot (lake) in the Big Muddy.

Fond memories include floating it in the spring and shooting Beavers soon as the ice went out, then it would be bank line time and all the catfish you wanted. We‘re not big fans so we didn’t hurt the population.

One spring there were 3 of us in two boats floating among the sheet ice, all traveling at the same speed which made it nice to have ice pans to sit your beer on as we meandered along. One of my friends fell out of his boat (yep) and was thrashing around terribly until i yelled at him, “Stand up Nel’s”. Once he regained his footing and stood he discovered the water was just over knee high and of course we had to have a fire to get him dried out some.
Once on a spring float we came upon a one strand electric fence stretched across the river. I knew the rancher and since it wasn’t time to have cattle on this section; i assumed he just unclipped the battery and left it thru the winter. I stepped out of my boat into the water and lifted the wire for us to go under and received a good dose of “shock therapy”. Nothing quite like it.
It was the only place ive lived where we had Whitetail’s And Mule deer In the river bottoms. Never was a shortage of deer meat back then.

One of the neighbors below us ran a small canoe rental business and would haul folks up thru the park and they’d float back down to his place. This would have been roughly 30 miles of floating but some years that river would quit flowing and most years it was quite slow. Well, neighbor never bothered to tell folks that part so by the time they got to my place they’d be fit to be tied. The wives mostly, but you could here them coming as the booming of they’re Grumman's gave them away and before long you’d start hearing the endless complaining. About then i’d saunter over the the river edge and greet them as they slooowly went by. Typically the wife would want to know “How much farther” and in my socially predacious nature i’d reply “it’s only 10 more miles”. Of course the chatter became louder as they drifted on past! Actually the take out was one bend below me. And if you’re one of those wives and reading this, please forgive me. I meant no harm.

I lived on that ranch 15 years and enjoyed most of it. I didn’t care for -40 stretches in the winter and i didn’t care for the wind that would blow for 30 days from the west then change in one hour and blow from the east for 30 more days! And i didn’t care for the government spraying the surrounding area for grasshoppers, which of course sent droves of them across our land! But overall it was a magical place. I’d take in excess of 50 coons and between 30-50 coyotes regularly each winter. Add in up to a dozen bobcats, a dozen or so mink, a few red foxes and those few beavers ; making it one of the most memorable places I've lived.

On those years when the river stopped flowing you could walk out on a gravel bar with a rake and easily fill a 2 gallon bucket with buffalo teeth! It must have been truly magical back in the day?

 

[Bentpushrod]

Across the line, in North Dakota We had Ft. Union and Ft. Buford on the Missouri and we canoed some in that area but the little Missouri was where i spent most of my time.

I leased a ranch south of Watford City which the river flowed thru. This is the “Badlands” and the river flows thru both units of the Theodore Roosevelt park on it’s way to a wide spot (lake) in the Big Muddy.

Fond memories include floating it in the spring and shooting Beavers soon as the ice went out, then it would be bank line time and all the catfish you wanted. We‘re not big fans so we didn’t hurt the population.

One spring there were 3 of us in two boats floating among the sheet ice, all traveling at the same speed which made it nice to have ice pans to sit your beer on as we meandered along. One of my friends fell out of his boat (yep) and was thrashing around terribly until i yelled at him, “Stand up Nel’s”. Once he regained his footing and stood he discovered the water was just over knee high and of course we had to have a fire to get him dried out some.
Once on a spring float we came upon a one strand electric fence stretched across the river. I knew the rancher and since it wasn’t time to have cattle on this section; i assumed he just unclipped the battery and left it thru the winter. I stepped out of my boat into the water and lifted the wire for us to go under and received a good dose of “shock therapy”. Nothing quite like it.
It was the only place ive lived where we had Whitetail’s And Mule deer In the river bottoms. Never was a shortage of deer meat back then.

One of the neighbors below us ran a small canoe rental business and would haul folks up thru the park and they’d float back down to his place. This would have been roughly 30 miles of floating but some years that river would quit flowing and most years it was quite slow. Well, neighbor never bothered to tell folks that part so by the time they got to my place they’d be fit to be tied. The wives mostly, but you could here them coming as the booming of they’re Grumman's gave them away and before long you’d start hearing the endless complaining. About then i’d saunter over the the river edge and greet them as they slooowly went by. Typically the wife would want to know “How much farther” and in my socially predacious nature i’d reply “it’s only 10 more miles”. Of course the chatter became louder as they drifted on past! Actually the take out was one bend below me. And if you’re one of those wives and reading this, please forgive me. I meant no harm.

I lived on that ranch 15 years and enjoyed most of it. I didn’t care for -40 stretches in the winter and i didn’t care for the wind that would blow for 30 days from the west then change in one hour and blow from the east for 30 more days! And i didn’t care for the government spraying the surrounding area for grasshoppers, which of course sent droves of them across our land! But overall it was a magical place. I’d take in excess of 50 coons and between 30-50 coyotes regularly each winter. Add in up to a dozen bobcats, a dozen or so mink, a few red foxes and those few beavers ; making it one of the most memorable places I've lived.

On those years when the river stopped flowing you could walk out on a gravel bar with a rake and easily fill a 2 gallon bucket with buffalo teeth! It must have been truly magical back in the day?

Love hearing your stories on the Little Missouri I’ve spent quite a bit of time in the Badlands doing trail work on the Maah Daah Hey trail, along with biking it. A bit of off roading just to the west of the north unit of the park. Absolutely love the area. Planning on paddling the river from Medora to the Long X bridge in May. was the ranch you leased the Ceynar ranch? Would love to hear more of your experiences on the river. Hoping that electric fence line is gone.

 

[ppine]

I enjoyed the 151 miles from Ft Benton to Kipp Bridge. We read the L&C journals around the fire at night. We went in 1999 before it became so popular. There were some people on the river the first 3 days, but none the last 4 days.

The trip is easy and requires no guide. The shuttle though is really long. It took us 8 hours. Paying someone to do it would take some cash.

 

[Bentpushrod]

I enjoyed the 151 miles from Ft Benton to Kipp Bridge. We read the L&C journals around the fire at night. We went in 1999 before it became so popular. There were some people on the river the first 3 days, but none the last 4 days.

The trip is easy and requires no guide. The shuttle though is really long. It took us 8 hours. Paying someone to do it would take some cash.

i read your trip report on your Missouri River trip. Looks, and sounds amazing. And a trip I would like to do, it’s not far from where I live. However, I was discussing the Little Missouri River, which has its headwaters in Wyoming, then flows through South Dakota, Montana, into North Dakota, and it empties into the Missouri.

 

[Alasgun]

Ceynars were at the west end of the park, we were on the Watson ranch; directly east of the north unit. It was very nice country 30 plus years ago, cant say how it would be now. After all, they got stop lights and all in Watford now!!

 

[Bentpushrod]

Yeah it is crazy what Watford has become, all of western ND for that matter.

 

[yellowcanoe]

I enjoyed the 151 miles from Ft Benton to Kipp Bridge. We read the L&C journals around the fire at night. We went in 1999 before it became so popular. There were some people on the river the first 3 days, but none the last 4 days.

The trip is easy and requires no guide. The shuttle though is really long. It took us 8 hours. Paying someone to do it would take some cash.

And we did it in May. Never again. The geese were mating and pooping and the 24 hour noise was awful. It was muddy and high and the cows were in it too. We did the Green and the Missouri Breaks in one trip west. We froze on the Green and it was 103 degrees on the Missouri. Go figure! Another time of the year it might be quite nice. When we went there had been a major flood with damage to the Kipp Rec area.

 

[ppine]

yellowcanoe,
I am very sorry to hear of your troubles on the Upper Missouri R.
We went in the summer and it was 112 one day. That was the reading at a BLM field station.
The heat did not last.
On the Green we also went in summer and it was 115 a couple of days.
Maybe the fall is the best time at low water.

 

[yellowcanoe]

yellowcanoe,
I am very sorry to hear of your troubles on the Upper Missouri R.
We went in the summer and it was 112 one day. That was the reading at a BLM field station.
The heat did not last.
On the Green we also went in summer and it was 115 a couple of days.
Maybe the fall is the best time at low water.

Really no troubles. We did from Coal Banks to Kipp in five days! We did manage to scramble up mud banks to explore fascinating abandoned homesteads. I am not a history buff very much but I was intrigued by imaginging the difficulties people in the past encountered. We all know that no two trips are the same over the same ground. Were I closer I would give it another shot. It was just ironic how hot it was after driving north from Utah!
One trip on the Green we had both 103 temps and snow.. and frozen water in the pot. Such is the West!

 

[DougK]

I enjoyed the 151 miles from Ft Benton to Kipp Bridge. We read the L&C journals around the fire at night. We went in 1999 before it became so popular. There were some people on the river the first 3 days, but none the last 4 days.

The trip is easy and requires no guide. The shuttle though is really long. It took us 8 hours. Paying someone to do it would take some cash.

we did the trip in 1991, reading the L&C journals in a binder which the Ft Benton museum allowed us to check out for the trip. We found some old retired guy in Ft Benton to shuttle for us, don't recall that it was particularly expensive.

First 3 days were delightful, then ran into stiff headwinds for 2 days, last day torrential rain and headwind. That was the hardest downriver paddling I ever did. On the last day the canoe, tent, us, and pretty much all our gear except sleeping bags, was entirely covered with a layer of good Montana grey clay.. I see these days it's being sold as a detoxifying facial mask. I wish I could have told my wife that at the time ;-)

We were living out of the van that year, had 3 nights in hotels over the year, for our respective birthdays, and the other after this trip. We checked into a grim motel as it was still raining, did laundry across the street and hung the tent across the room. I felt like we were on the run from the law..

That was also my first encounter with a rattlesnake. We pulled out for lunch on one of the headwind days, found a nice clearing, which had the snake coiled up and rattling in the center of it. I thought he'd back off but instead we had to..

 

[ppine]

We had some tail winds and used a bed sheet, making 8-10 knots over ground with the current.

 

[Alasgun]

we did the trip in 1991, reading the L&C journals in a binder which the Ft Benton museum allowed us to check out for the trip. We found some old retired guy in Ft Benton to shuttle for us, don't recall that it was particularly expensive.

First 3 days were delightful, then ran into stiff headwinds for 2 days, last day torrential rain and headwind. That was the hardest downriver paddling I ever did. On the last day the canoe, tent, us, and pretty much all our gear except sleeping bags, was entirely covered with a layer of good Montana grey clay.. I see these days it's being sold as a detoxifying facial mask. I wish I could have told my wife that at the time ;-)

We were living out of the van that year, had 3 nights in hotels over the year, for our respective birthdays, and the other after this trip. We checked into a grim motel as it was still raining, did laundry across the street and hung the tent across the room. I felt like we were on the run from the law..

That was also my first encounter with a rattlesnake. We pulled out for lunch on one of the headwind days, found a nice clearing, which had the snake coiled up and rattling in the center of it. I thought he'd back off but instead we had to..

I’ve always “backed off from Rattlesnakes” too; just far enough that the blast from a 12 ga didn't result in me getting any of it on me!