The 2024 Open ran from Rogers Pass to Woods Bay on Flathead Lake, making the second longest course yet.  Conditions leading up to May 25th were mixed, with a mild winter and cool spring, and a big storm 10 days prior that left up to a foot of snow in mid elevations which had previously been dry.

11 folks took the start, with 3 finishing the full route.  Other members of the Open family did various routes and loops around the wilderness that weekend, and of the 8 who didn’t get all the way to Woods Bay, their routes were generally long, with most stopping somewhere along highway 83 in the Swan.  Tough, soft snow conditions and mild, but rising water levels were the rule, with intermittent, consistent rain through the weekend.

Two finishers surfed drainages through to the Lander’s Fork/Blackfoot divide, walked over to Danaher, floated to Bunker Creek, hiked up and over the Swan, bushwacked over to the foothills of the northern Missions, hiked up and over that (decending the Beardance trail) and packrafted the lake to the finish.  157 miles. 47 floating, in 4.5 days.

The other finisher completed an even more mega route, the longest yet done (including the Blackleaf to Rattlesnake routes from 2022), taking a similar approach to the above, before paddling down to Hungry Horse reservoir and taking the Dirtyface trail over to the Middle Fork,  and floating all the way to Flathead Lake and then across to Woods Bay, a 250+ mile journey with only 80 afoot, in an epic 7 days, complete with an 11pm finish.

We’ll be back next year.