When I was in Bozeman last week, I decided to kayak from the mouth of the Gallitin Canyon to the Axtel to Anceny Bridge. I had my Mom help me with the shuttle. This is about a 9 mile run. I think the odometer said it was 9 miles so there were probably a couple of more river miles. I just ran this section for the scenery, and because I used to fish there a lot when I was growing up. I would say that it is a class I river, but there is some quick water and some current seams and many trees in the water, and I beleive that combination makes it potentially more dangerous to a beginning kayaker than a clean class III river. Its not hard to imagine a beginner flipping on a current seam and washing into a strainer. I had one little episode where I got lazy and tried to get as far downstream as I could before portaging around some trees in the water. I came to a spot where the trees made it hard to exit the river and so I ran through a break in the trees. The Gallitin has always been a very good trout fishing river. Fishing pressure is greatest close to the access points. If you kayaked the river with a rod stowed, you good get out and fish the good looking spots and you would probably do very well. The river was low enough that I was touching bottom in some of the riffles, and that detracted from my enjoyment just a bit. In some places I had to walk the boat through some long shallow spots. In some places the river is braided. However, if you ran it when there was more water, avoiding the trees could be harder for any beginners in the party. This is a really nice river, very very clear water with large rocks on the bottom.
Gallitin River in the Valley 9/8/05
Posted - Sep 11 2005 : 9:23:35 PM
