Bear Creek

Bear Creek is reputed to be the best creek on the Montana side of the Bitterroot Mountains. Set in a beautiful granite filled canyon, this creek packs in a full range of slides and fun drops in its short but sweet run. Yesterday, Cody Harris, Chris Ennis, and myself went to run this montana gem. After a two mile hike in, you are deposited at the top of a long, clean slide that sets the tone for most of the rest of the run. Below this, the creek continues to drop at a steady pace (340 ft/mile) through a mix of wood infested boulder gardens, and the money slides. Below some woody rapids, we came to the top of a fun slide with a sweet, banking left turn. After this were more fun rapids, and then the notorious Tijuana Crack Whore, a low angle slide where most of the water falls into a crack between two shelves, and the paddlers in question have their elbows abused. With the low water on our run, the option of trying to miss the crack on the sides was not an option, and the three of us tucked tail and walked this one. Next up was the Hotel California... you can check in, but you can never leave. This drop consists of a slide into a sticky hole that has been the site of more than one carnage episode. More fun drops follow this, and lead to the climax of the run, Brave Bear Falls. Brave Bear is a sweet drop that consists of slide-ledge-slide-pillow-slide-ledge. After this is another small slide, boof combo, and finishes with another slide. All three of us ran the falls and all three came out with ear to ear grins, accompanied by more shouting and cheering than a thirteen year old girl at a Leonardo Dicaprio movie.

Cody and Chris on the hike in.
Brave Bear Falls, upper two-thirds.
Myself on one of the fun slides.



Here is a video of Cody running the main falls. Sorry about the low quality.