# Trip Report: Alberta's Milk River



## cupido76 (May 22, 2009)

Some more pics:


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## cupido76 (May 22, 2009)

Last few:


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## tmacc (Sep 6, 2009)

Definitely a float trip, but wow, very cool scenery. Looks like you had it to yourselves. Bugs?


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## cupido76 (May 22, 2009)

tmacc said:


> Definitely a float trip, but wow, very cool scenery. Looks like you had it to yourselves. Bugs?


There we're some canoes and kayaks on the river, but our campsites had a lot of solitude.

There were some flies during the day, and mosquitoes we're bad in the early evening... But the went away later as it cooked down. I've definitely had WAY worse trips, big wise.


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## mtgreenheads (Jul 15, 2011)

cupido76 said:


> There we're some canoes and kayaks on the river, but our campsites had a lot of solitude.
> 
> There were some flies during the day, and mosquitoes we're bad in the early evening... But the went away later as it cooked down. I've definitely had WAY worse trips, big wise.


Very cool trip! Pretty close to us in MT and one I've never heard of. We'll put it on the list. Thanks!


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## FastFXR (May 22, 2012)

Spent many years near there. Havre or Chinook ring a bell?


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## shappattack (Jul 17, 2008)

Has anyone ever paddle from the 880 bridge in Canada all the way into the US and taken out in Montana? If so, border crossing logistics would be appreciated.


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## ben94122 (Sep 22, 2016)

I think Trump is going to have Canada build a wall across the river there his 2nd term, so you may want to go sometime in the next 4 years...


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## Michael P (Mar 18, 2009)

Each of the 30 million Canadians have each purchased one brick to build our own wall. Placed coast to coast our wall will be 3 inches high.
Please be careful not to trip


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## shappattack (Jul 17, 2008)

I really am interested in the question I posed, take the wall discussion elsewhere please.


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## cupido76 (May 22, 2009)

I am also interested in that portion of the river... the Google maps satellite views look like it could be a pretty amazing canyon.

I don't personally know anyone who has done that float, but a few years ago there was a TV show call "The Travelling Brians" or something like that... these two friends named Brian canned from Milk River to New Orleans... so they did that section and must have dealt with the border crossing part, but not the cross border vehicle shuttle. You could try to figure out how to contact them somehow and see if they could help.

The other thing I've debated doing but never got around to is finding a farmer that has a private road access to the river on the Canadian side but just before the border and asking them for permission to take out there.

A couple more tips on the Milk... 

Putting in at Writing-on-stone would add about 1 day to your trip but there's a beautiful campground there and you could likely leave a vehicle parked in the upper parking lot by the visitor Centre for some time, rather than leaving one at a deserted bridge. But I'd check with the visitor Centre first.

The river slows down quite a bit before writing-on-stone. I don't know what it does afterwards or if there's much in the way of Rapids. It might be a slow float with lots of rowing required for a lot of that distance. And it gets windy in that part of the world and it's a lot of miles for the route you describe.

If you do figure it out I'd love to know the details of what you did to make it work, please.

And feel free to contact me if you want any more info.


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## cupido76 (May 22, 2009)

I thought of 2 more details you should know...

That river is consistent but relatively low flow and it's all irrigation out there. I personally would not even want to filter that water because I'd be worried about dissolved fertilizers even if you could properly treat for pathogens and viruses. Ive always carried enough water for the full trip with me. But I'm not an expert on water filtration so take what you want from that.

I wouldn't take bigger than a 15' or 16' footer in there. My boat is 13' x 6'3" and even then there are some narrow parts than are tough to navigate. I wouldn't want anything wider than 7' on there.


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## elkhaven (Sep 11, 2013)

I've been told by folks living in Polebridge (NF flathead) that you cannot float across the boarder on that river... I'm not saying that is as definitive as it sounds but definitely discouraging. My guess is if that is true it's also true for the Milk. There used to be a guard station even on the NF, so maybe it's even less likely on the milk, I don't know. Food for thought. 

That certainly looks like an amazing place. I looked yesterday at google earth on the Montana sections, specifically below Tiber dam but it seems largely close to civilization. I also wonder about camping access in MT. I don't have time to lay a land ownership map over GE to see how much public land is there but my guess is landowners will not be friendly to campers and I doubt there is much space below the highwater mark. From what I recall of the river, it's very incised.

Thanks for bringing this thread to my attention Shapp. I've had the MO whitecliffs float on my backup to permits list this summer. This might replace that with the potential to get the kids into more smallies.


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## shappattack (Jul 17, 2008)

It apparently was possible to float across the boarder as there are small snippets of reports of people doing those really long transboundary whole river floats, but no mention of anything on actual border crossing logistics, of which are probably not static and may be even more complicated in the next few years.

I would imagine it could be possible under the right circumstance and getting appropriate approvals, which based on the aerial photo imagery are worth the efforts to do so.

"The Google maps satellite views look like it could be a pretty amazing canyon" - Yes!

"I personally would not even want to filter that water because I'd be worried about dissolved fertilizers even if you could properly treat for pathogens and viruses." - Definitely don't drink the water even filtered

"I wouldn't take bigger than a 15' or 16' footer in there. My boat is 13' x 6'3" and even then there are some narrow parts than are tough to navigate. I wouldn't want anything wider than 7' on there." 

We would most likely paddle double IKs as singles going backpack style as early as whether dictates when temps are cooler (when it is not as hot so you need less drinking water).

I have been on the Milk in the US upstream of Havre on a day trip, as my wife's mom has a couple thousand acres of wheat farm south of Havre, which is how I first became aware of this river. I have some friends in Alberta that would also like to make this trip. Something along the lines of Writing-on-Stone park in CA to where ever we can find to takeout upstream of Fresno Reservoir in MT.


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## cupido76 (May 22, 2009)

It seems possible to me that you being a US citizen going back to your home country might be easier than a Canadian finishing in a foreign country... but that's just a hunch.


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## ciggyboy (Mar 7, 2008)

*walls*



Michael P said:


> Each of the 30 million Canadians have each purchased one brick to build our own wall. Placed coast to coast our wall will be 3 inches high.
> Please be careful not to trip


OMG I love it! Best of all Canada paid for it!!!


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