Bowman Lake PaddleVenture!

We had been on the road for nearly four weeks at this point, and still had not had an opportunity to actually put our boats in the water. We have had our boats inspected five times, however. I can't blame them for that, as I also want to keep invasive species out of these lakes and rivers. To this point, we also hadn't had an opportunity for a backcountry overnight adventure. But, amazingly, everything aligned with date and the site availability and the timing and the weather. On Sunday, we all headed out to Bowman Lake, in the North Fork area of the park.

To get there, first you have to get to Polebridge, which takes about an hour, while driving on what you think are the sketchiest dirt roads you've ever seen. But Polebridge, while being comprised of about four buildings (one of them being the outhouse, which they only recently put a door on) is one of the coolest places around. Northern Lights Saloon (sadly, closed while we were there) has incredible food, including the best prime rib you've ever had. And the kids always enjoy the sign out front that says "Hippies must use side door". (No, they're not serious.) And the Polebridge Mercantile is still in its original building from the Old West, and has baked goods and pastries that are absolutely worth a two-hour round trip on a sketchy dirt road.

Anyway, the road to Bowman Lake is one of the most remote and poorly maintained thruways in the park. It is only 6 more miles from Polebridge, but that stretch takes nearly an hour. It is an ungraded, unfinished, unmaintained (pretty sure I just made up a couple of those words) dirt road that has vegetation so thick and encroaching that two vehicles can't pass without one of them eating plants and/or going off into the drainage ditch. But when you arrive...

WHAT A VIEW.
(Actually, this view is from about halfway across the lake, but still.)

Kathy and Jerry hiked about halfway down the lake and then returned to the trailhead and home, while the wee gowfolk continued to the head of the lake and a backcountry campsite.

Mi famiglia, preparing to depart on our 15-mile overnight round trip. It's hard to beat this view.

You can see the size of the waves behind Iz. Not terrible, but the wind was, of course, coming right at us. It made for slow going but, at about 2/3 of the way, the wind stopped, and the water was like glass. (See the first photo above.)

We kept thinking we could see the end of the end, but it was just a curve or peninsula. It seemed to take forever. But we were happy the whole time, and were made only slightly nervous by the potential storm clouds coming up over the mountains.  But they never stormed us.

Some friends we made at the backcountry campsite were hiking the trail along the lake at nearly the same rate we paddled, and told us that they watched us the whole way. (Creepy.) (Hope I didn't pick my nose or anything.) And they told us that just about at this point, as we were looking forward, a black bear swam all the way across the way, right behind us.

We finally made it to our campsite after about four hours of paddling. Not a bad spot.

Our campsite was one of five in the immediate area, and even had chairs cut into the nearby stumps... and a beautiful creek roaring through our backyard.

After dinner, at about 9:30 pm, we went out on a little paddle around our inlet, where we saw ducks, loons, and deer.

Mah boy.

Iz and I shared the smaller tent. She had the time of her life.

In the evening, the deer came right into camp. They were all fairly young, but were led by a beautiful, strong, six-point buck. I was very glad to see them, because their presence implies that the large predators known to inhabit this area (grizzlies and mountain lions) are probably not around.

Before you are given your permit to go backcountry camping in a national park, you have to watch this 20-minute video that details all eighteen horrible ways you are going to meet a gruesome death in backcountry. It goes from grizzlies to mountain lions to drowning to lightning to water-borne illness to falling off of a cliff and on and on and on and on. I think the point is that if you really don't belong in the backcountry, then this video will scare you off. But the video and the rangers never, ever, ever mention deer and their insatiable quest for sweaty salt. Three of the five campsites (including us) lost towels to the deer, but we got off easy compared to our friend who looked up from the campfire to see his pants dangling from the buck's mouth.

All items were recovered. No animals were harmed in the production of this scenario.

Ahhh, morning.

Izzie with some of her new friends as we all pack up in the morning. I suppose she could be pointing and asking a question but, what it looks like to me - and, if you know my daughter, what it looks like to you - is that she is clearly giving them directions.

One last pic before we leave camp.

On the return.

The day we returned to camp was Dad's birthday and, before we left, Liz has made the filling for a chocolate cream pie with text guidance from her sister Sarah. Kathy made the crust while we were paddling, and we all enjoyed a fantastic dinner.