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The Tongue and the Goose

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Team NRS paddler Erik Boomer along with expedition paddlers Nouria Newman and Ben Stookesberry take on, what they consider, one of the best domestic first descents they have ever done.

Two drainages on the east side of the Big Horn Mountain Range appeared to have incredible whitewater possibilities but the only information they could get from anyone who had scouted them was to not to waste their time in the Big Horns. “It’s all full of sieves and nothing goes,” they said. But that’s exactly the kind of beta this paddling dream team uses as motivation to attempt a first descent.

Following their intuition, they decided to give it a go and start with Goose Creek. Goose Creek has steep, complex paddling and portages like a riddle that forced the team to make sketchy ferries and move really efficiently.

The Tongue River, a tributary of the Yellowstone River, rises in Wyoming in the Big Horn Mountains and flows through northern Wyoming and southeastern Montana.

After finding steep creeking gold on Goose Creek, the dream team, decide to up the ante and make another first descent attempt, this time on the Tongue River.