Got connected to do a multi-day permit trip on the Smith River in Montana - I have a bunch of friends in the Bozeman/Big Sky/West Yellowstone area and one of them pulled a permit through the lottery. The put-in is northwest of White Sulphur Springs, MT and flows north towards the confluence with the Missouri River and Great Falls, MT. The standard run is about 59 miles over 3-5 days and is well known for scenery and fly fishing - no whitewater. Flows were extremely high throughout May this year with the large snowpack, but they began to taper a bit in early June. When we launched, flows were down to 750cfs (from over 1500 a couple weeks prior). Flows had dropped enough for decent fishing (well I heard lots of stories off how many fish were caught), although the water was still brown and visibility was only 12-18 inches. I am not much of a fisherman but always enjoy some time on the water floating through canyons, and been known to drink a beer or two with good friends...
me at the oars:
the rigs tied-off for camp night 1:
view downriver from our 2nd night camp:
dinner the second night:
more scenery on day 3 - just downstream of heaven on earth ranch:
cold and drizzly on day 4 but the color was spectactular: