Those Stories Do Have Endings!

I recently read a story about two young men who paddled their canoe from Butte to the Pacific Ocean, completing the 1,300-mile journey in 52 days.

I read the initial story when they began the trip on Silver Bow Creek. I never expected to read a story about the conclusion.

During my time working for both the Livingston Enterprise and the Bozeman Chronicle I wrote and edited a number of stories about such trips. Plenty of would-be adventurers have grand visions of starting a float trip near the Continental Divide, headed either east or west to reach the coast.

Each summer they’d stop in the newspaper office, tell us of their plans, and a reporter would write a story, often accompanied by a photograph of the intrepid explorers.

That was usually the last we’d hear of them, even if they were successful and completed the trip. I suspect, most of them gave up far short of their goal and didn’t feel it necessary to inform the press.

A daring young man in a wetsuit, however, did contact me at the conclusion of his journey. He had stopped by the Enterprise one July morning to let us know he was going to swim the length of the Yellowstone River. A day later he called it quits shortly before reaching Big Timber.

Too cold, he said.

I could respect that.

At least he didn’t leave us in the dark like most of the downstream.

We’d always tell them to stay in touch, but none did. There were lots of other papers along the way offering free publicity.

It had been a few years since I’d heard of anyone setting off on such a trip. Cheap adventure isn’t as popular as it once was. A strong back and the ability to endure discomfort for months on end seems to have lost favor. The zenith of adventure travel these days is aimed at the ultra-rich who buy seats on spacecraft and submarines manned by someone else.

Few folks are interested in doing their own paddling. Bring on the adventure, but let somebody else do the work.

So kudos to Robert Lester, 26, from Butte, and his cousin Braxton Lester, 19, of Utah, who completed the trip and dipped their paddles in the Pacific.

They didn’t disappear like so many others.

There was actually a follow-up story.

Parker Heinlein is at [email protected]