Original subtitles

[dramatic music playing]

[narrator] Montana, a sprawling outdoorsman's Eden

with ice-covered peaks and unspoiled wilderness.

Patrolling and protecting these natural resources

is a first-class band of peace officers.

These are the wardens,

dedicated to the preservation of the last best place.

[Joe R] And I'm trying to get these guys off flying more.

I think we could utilize these aircrafts

for law enforcement things

a lot more often than we are.

-[man] Drill? -[Ed] Oh, I'm pissed

-over this [bleep]. -[Jeff] Oh, well.

[Ed] You get that camera out of my face, cowboy.

Hey, you just calm down a little bit, okay?

Just calm down.

[man] Team down on the west side of the road,

there's a black bear that's roaming around down there.

[Bryan] We hopefully have got a mechanic to fix it.

But I've had this happen before,

it seems like what does go wrong will go wrong

when you're needed, you know?

[warden] Let's grab the girl.

-She's hurting. -Would you...

Would you mind blowing in a PBT for me real quick?

[warden] So there's a hundred and thirty-one boats upriver still.

[yells]

-Are you good? -Grab on here,

we'll pull you over.

They're done.

That's an aluminum boat.

They're done.

There they go.

[theme music playing]

[Joe R] My dream job is flying

for the Fish, Wildlife and Parks,

doing wildlife research

and flying for the Fish, Wildlife and Parks,

especially in Montana.

Montana is home for me.

And I'm trying to get these guys all flying more.

I think we could utilize these aircrafts

for law enforcement things

a lot more often than we are.

We do a lot of fishery work,

but these helicopters

have proven their weight

in the Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

[narrator] The state of Montana has just purchased

several tracks of private land

using natural resource damage money.

With state-owned sections already checkerboarded

throughout the area, it was easy to form

the new Spotted Dog Wildlife Management Area.

Spotted Dog is a newly purchased piece of ground

and the wardens wanna get kind of a lay

of the ground,

so to speak, so they can figure out

where they might need to concentrate their forces.

There's not very many wardens in this...

In this state and I think Spotted Dog

is going to be a major hunting spot,

I think, on opening day.

So I think the wardens are gonna want

to kind of figure out where to be

and where the elk are

is where they're probably gonna wanna be.

[narrator] Operation Spotted Dog

takes place 80 miles southeast of Missoula

near Deer Lodge, Montana in Region 2.

Well, the reason we're gonna fly today is Joe Kambic

is the new game warden in Deer Lodge

and he hasn't had time to learn his new district,

so the quickest way to do that

is to put a bird in the air

and see what we got for elk numbers

on our new game range

and it'll help Joe out a lot on knowing

where to be on opening day.

That's the main reason for flying today.

[narrator] Warden Mike Fagley flies with Pilot Joe Rahn

while Captain Darrah drives to Deer Lodge

where he meets up with Warden Kambic

and the chopper at the local airport.

[Joe K] So I just dropped Mike off up on the eastern...

Or the western fringe of Spotted Dog.

And there, we saw probably all 300 elk

in scattered groups

and one monster bowl,

-one monster bowl, 350. -Wow.

What we're trying to do is figure out,

you know, from these entrances

that we have on the map where we wanna be.

And it sounds like this is a spot to be.

[narrator] Once a plan is in place,

Wardens Darrah and Kambic

head to the Spotted Dog Wildlife Management Area

with Pilot Joe Rahn.

[upbeat music playing]

[Jeff] As we stated, this is a brand new game range,

and we have certain access points

where the hunters can access it.

And the flying today is twofold

to benefit our new warden, Joe,

and also to benefit the rest of us

that are gonna help him to try to figure out

where the elk are

and where the hunters are gonna be.

[Joe R] I actually started flying fixed wing.

I paid for lessons which got expensive,

so I joined the Army. The Army's...

The Army's really how I got started flying commercially.

I flew airplanes throughout Montana

with my private pilot's license

until I found out that,

you know, this is really what I wanna do for a living.

And to go on and get the commercial rating

was cost-prohibitive

so I went... That's when I joined...

Well, I actually went down the recruiter

to join the Army.

And then I went to Alaska to work on a fishing boat

to pay off my flight bills after college.

And while I was in Alaska,

it's when the recruiter called and said,

"Hey, you've been accepted

to the military flight school,

the Army flight school,

warrant officer program."

So I flew for the airlines, I flew for the hospital,

and I flew, you know, Part 135 air taxi,

helicopters, and little airplanes,

I flew Cherokees for PenAir.

So I flew off of Mount McKinley,

I flew tours in Denali National Park.

I flew for... I flew in the bush

for outfitters, hunters,

bear hunters, just little airplanes

for another outfit.

I flew search and rescue actually,

it was for the hospital,

Anchorage Hospital,

Providence Hospital.

I flew up the roof of Providence,

air ambulance,

picking up people that got attacked by bears,

you know, airplane accident.

Well, the whole time I was building up experience

to do exactly this job,

flying airplanes and helicopters

for the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

At the time, it was Fish and Game.

The whole idea of flying latched itself onto me

when I was about probably six years old

watching Wild Kingdom.

I remember the episode exactly.

They were... They were tracking polar bears

in the Arctic

and they were flying helicopters and darting it.

Remember that guy Jim

used to jump out of that helicopter?

Well, I couldn't decide

whether I wanted to be Jim or the pilot.

[narrator] Having found out where most of the elk were located,

Region 2 wardens were ready for opening day.

[Jeff] The flight indicated that we have

300 to 400 head of elk

on the game range

and we know where they're at

and now we know where to be,

so we've got a plan.

Ah, it's opening morning,

general big game season here in Montana.

We're on the brand new

Spotted Dog Wildlife Management Area.

New purchase by the agency,

it's about 30,000 acres and it's new to everybody,

including the hunters and myself.

So we're seeing some hunters spread out here.

We kind of scouted the area the last few days

and there are a lot of elk in the area.

Wow.

It's about 10 minutes past opening shooting light

and haven't heard a shot yet, but that's gonna come.

They're just taking a little while to find them.

-[gunshot] -[Jeff] There we go.

Oh, it's three minutes off.

7:48.

Ain't this something?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Where's the other parking area?

Right over the end there?

No, this is... This is...

This is one right here.

And then back behind over where the towers are there...

-[man] Yeah. -there's one there.

And then there's one way over.

-Way over? -Yeah, it's called Jade Creek.

[man] Yeah, well, that's where my son and I

-are supposed to be. -Oh, okay.

We're way over, almost next to Mosier's over there.

[Jeff] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

-Well, I heard a few shots. -[man] Oh, did you?

Yeah, we heard, I think, about four shots that way.

Maybe I better pull the gun down, huh?

Yeah, maybe, yeah.

[laughter]

[narrator] While the cowboys saddle up

and get ready to round up cattle,

Captain Darrah moves down the road

to check a few hunters.

[Jeff] 2-1, I gotta be out checking some hunters here.

[man] [indistinct]

[Jeff] 10-4.

Hey, guys. What'd you get?

-[man] [indistinct] -[Jeff] Oh, that's what it is.

I couldn't tell... I thought it had a white belly

on it and I said, "What?"

[man] It's the fattest, little shortest thing I've ever seen.

[Jeff] Huh.

[man] Almost size of a dog.

[Jeff] I saw...

I saw... I saw that white belly.

I'm like, "Did you shoot an antelope?"

-[laughter] -[man] Saw an antelope, but.

[Jeff] You... Did you?

-Yeah. -[Jeff] Oh, good.

You see any elk down in there?

I didn't.

I saw some cows.

[Jeff] Some cows. Uh-huh.

Cool.

Make a neat picture.

-Yeah. -[laughter]

-[man] Yeah. -[Jeff] All right.

[narrator] 85 miles to the northeast

near Wolf Creek, Montana

in Region 4,

Warden Bryan Golie has an eye

on a few hunters already with game down.

[Bryan] That's a nice buck, that one.

Where's your tag at?

[man 1] 803 Cherub, FG42.

[man 2] FG42.

You looking for one of us?

[man 1] I am. Somebody said

maybe close to the Dearborn area.

I just got a phone call reported on the...

Just outside 244,

Exit 244 and I-15

there on the west side of the road.

There's a black bear

that's roaming around down there.

[indistinct radio chatter]

How's it going?

[Bryan] Oh, they're just calling me.

Looks like you got a few anyway, huh?

Just make sure everything's legal, right?

-Everything's legal. -Cool.

I figured it was.

I'm just giving you grief.

Okay, you guys, have a good day.

[narrator] After checking these hunters,

Warden Golie responds to the bear call.

If it becomes a problem, just call me back.

[man] 10-4. Thank you, sir.

So, I mean, a black bear causing problems?

It's... I don't have any black bears

causing any problems down there,

so I'm not sure what's going on.

[theme music playing]

[narrator] It's opening day of elk season in Montana,

and Warden Bryan Golie is having little trouble

with the exhaust system on his truck.

[Bryan] We hopefully have got a mechanic to fix it,

but I've had this happen before, similar incidents.

Seems like what does go wrong will go wrong

when you're needed, you know.

Apparently, we got it half fixed.

It's got a little leak in it,

but I guess it's good enough

for game wardens, right?

[narrator] 85 miles to the southwest in Region 2

near Deer Lodge, Montana,

Captain Jeff Darrah is responding to a call

of an elk that has been harvested

in a hunting district,

and the hunter does not have proper tags.

And what we have here right now

that we're gonna deal with in a little bit

are two young men

who killed cow elk with the permit

that's good for this district on the map

and they killed him over here

in what they call Bielenberg.

Captain doesn't write enough citations

like the other guys,

so he's gotta get out

and take a look at it.

There we go.

Here's the section in the bond schedule that we have,

and this is a section of law,

and to kill an animal

in the wrong district,

which is probably what I'll cite these gentlemen with.

Carries a bond of $135.

[man] 21, we split up a little bit.

That first bunch looks like it's getting close to you.

Right now, one of our block management technicians

who has less law enforcement authority than a game warden,

who he actually ran into the violation,

is kind of ferrying the bunch down here right now

and we're waiting for him to show up.

It sounds like there's a fairly large party of them,

maybe as many as four or five vehicles altogether.

So they're probably not gonna be happy to do this,

so we'll see how their attitude is

and how they react

and what I believe and what they tell me.

-Hey, guys. -[man 1] How are ya?

-[man 2] How is it going? -[Jeff] Good.

-How are you doing today? -[Ed] I'm pissed.

[man] Well, we don't know yet.

-[Jeff] Why are you pissed? -[Ed] I'm pissed.

[Jeff] You didn't get your elk or what?

[Ed] No, I'm pissed over this [bleep].

-[Jeff] Oh, well. -[Ed] You get that camera

out of my face, cowboy.

Hey, you just calm down a little bit, okay?

Just calm down.

At this point, it's discretion on my part.

We haven't even introduced ourselves together

-and you're already pissed. -I'm Ed [bleep].

-Ed, I'm Jeff Darrah. -[Ed] You're the new guy?

[Jeff] I'm not the new guy, I'm the old guy.

-[Ed] Oh, you're the old guy? -[Jeff] I'm the captain

-out of Missoula. -[Ed] Okay.

Okay? Let's not be pissed,

-let's just talk. -[man] I'm not pissed.

Okay.

[narrator] Captain Darrah immediately

deescalates the situation

by the way he introduces himself and body language.

-[man] Yeah. -[Jeff] Okay.

Now let's do this like gentlemen

and scholars like we all are,

-okay? -[man] Okay.

[Jeff] Let's just one or two people talk.

I don't need a whole bunch of people talking

at the same time.

I'm not here to railroad you

or screw up your day.

We're just trying to figure out what happened.

Okay.

[narrator] After checking permits,

Darrah breaks out a map

and regulations determining exactly

what portion of the district the tags are valid for.

[upbeat music playing]

[Jeff] They were told

that they could hunt in the Bielenberg

with the permit that they had,

so we're gonna talk about that

and I'm gonna see if I believe that,

I guess, or not.

[man] When I put in for that tag,

I called Fish and Game headquarters, right?

-[Jeff] Okay. Okay. -[man] And I don't know,

-a lady... I talked to a lady. -[Jeff] Talked to a lady.

[man] But she should put me to a guy that's usually there.

-[Jeff] Okay. -[man] And she says,

"He'll know everything you wanna know."

-[Jeff] Okay. -[man] And I talked to him.

[Jeff] We'll talk to him about it

and see whether or not they did it.

If I feel like they did actually call

and it did seem like a misunderstanding,

uh, those kind of things can happen to anybody.

I don't want [indistinct] all of this.

[man] Yeah.

[Jeff] Mmm-hmm.

Okay.

Well, this is the situation

I'm in, um, as a game warden.

There's no way I can prove

that that phone call took place.

You know, it's kind of... it's kind of--

-[man] It's word against word. -[Jeff] It's... Yeah, exactly.

-[man] I understand that. -[Jeff] Uh, you know,

and if you didn't make that phone call

and you went back to Anaconda or wherever,

you know, and said, well, we pulled one over on him.

[theme music playing]

[wind howling]

[theme music playing]

[narrator] It's opening weekend

of the general big game season,

and elk are the primary target for hunters

in Western Montana.

While Warden Bryan Golie spent his morning

at the muffler shop,

Region 2 Captain Jeff Darrah has been dealing

with the hunting district boundary clarification

and the use of tags

that are essentially invalid for the district.

I guess the worst case scenario here is

they could be cited for, uh, unlawful elk

and, uh, have their elk confiscated.

I'm not gonna take your elk

because I think that there might be something

to what you're telling me, but I can't prove it.

So what I'm gonna do is this.

I'm gonna write you

a commission rule regulation citation.

-[man] What's that? -It's a citation.

It's the smallest citation I can write ya,

but it's basically saying

you shot this elk in the wrong district.

-Okay? -[man] Okay.

Now, what I could do is take both elk

and write you a thousand-dollar ticket.

-[man 1] Oh, yeah? -[man 2] Oh, what?

So I'm gonna do that, okay?

Um, so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna let you keep the elk

and I'm gonna write you each

a commission regulation ticket.

You don't... You don't lose your privileges.

-[man] Okay. -You don't have to pay restitution.

The bond on it usually is $135.

[man] Oh, that's a lot better than the thousand.

So that's better than a thousand.

So that's about as fair as I can treat you.

This is relatively a new regulation.

Um, I believe this is the second year of it.

It used to all be one district

and it wasn't split in half,

but it has been split in half.

Granted sometimes they're confusing

and, uh, what have you, but it's like anything.

You have to know the rules.

Been advertised and it's in the regulations,

so it's up to the hunter or the sportsman

to, uh, to know what the regulations are.

They're getting a pretty good deal here.

They're getting to keep their elk.

And they're pretty good guys, hardworking guys.

Sure they're gonna eat this elk.

So they hopefully won't make this mistake again.

They have probably a pretty good education

after here today.

-Hey, thanks, guys. -[man] All right, man.

-Really, thanks a lot. -I appreciate it.

[Jeff] You bet. You bet.

-Okay? -[man 1] Okay.

You can come on down and visit us sometime.

-[Jeff] All right. -[man 2] Okay.

Thanks, guys. Uh, it was an accident.

Uh, several of them were here.

It's fairly obvious that, uh, they were confused

on what the regulations were and where they were.

They said they placed a phone call in

and they thought they had it figured out

and explained to them, but it wasn't right.

And whether they just didn't understand

or they, uh, weren't told right, I don't know.

But, uh, let them keep their elk.

I wrote them.

Uh, it was about the smallest ticket I could write them,

and I think everybody learned a lesson.

And they get to keep their elk, and they're happy.

[narrator] Region 4 Warden Bryan Golie's day,

well, it started off at the repair shop.

But now he's back on patrol.

Ready to roll?

-Indeed. -[Bryan] Okay.

-You're out of here. -[Bryan] Thank you very much.

You're most welcome.

We have some hunters up here to check,

uh, on a piece of public land

and there are some elk here close,

so we're gonna find out where the elk are.

So, a nice bull, huh?

Yeah.

[Bryan] Is this your first bull?

-Yes. -[Bryan] Wow.

It's her first elk, first anything.

-[woman] Yeah. -[Bryan] We're gonna go back to school

on Monday, show the boys

how it was done,

you get pictures and all that.

So that way you can say the game warden checked you

and everything was perfect.

There's nothing.

No, no, I'll pay for that one.

Yeah, that's a nice one.

Very nice.

I didn't think there was any left up there,

to be honest with you.

[man] I was surprised to see him right there.

Been thankful, huh?

Okay.

I like checking tags

because this is the first thing I checked all day.

It's really been kind of boring.

Nice job.

This is my first elk ever.

I don't know, you call that a point?

I would. It's over an inch.

Six, seven.

So seven by six myself.

-[Bryan] Not bad? -[man] Not bad at all.

Well, today's been very slow for an opener.

I've seen some, actually some really nice bull elk,

a few nice deer,

but by and large it's very slow.

Um, and I don't know if it's the weather

or it's just the new... It's a new opener on Saturday.

May have people a little goofed up,

but, uh, we'll see if tomorrow is a busier day,

and I suspect it will be.

[narrator] In the shadows of the crazy mountains,

the Yellowstone River

becomes a rainbow of color

during the Annual Boat Float Weekend.

Launching jet boats,

wardens are prepared for a crazy weekend.

[rock music playing]

[Paul] I guess the thing I like about jet boats

is I like being able to go shallow.

It's the only watercraft,

you know, outside of a raft

that you can get up and down this river.

It's kind of a challenge to work out

of, tough if you're by yourself.

That's why we usually partner up

because, you know, the hard parts on the jet boat

is not so much running the river,

which can be difficult too,

but, you know, stopping along shore,

that's typical when we suck up gravel.

[narrator] Operation Boat Float

takes place in Central Montana

near Big Timber on the Yellowstone River.

[Paul] Unlike, uh, most motors,

there's no propeller obviously,

and the way that they work, it's got a grate down here

and an impeller,

and it works like a giant vacuum.

And it sucks up water through here

and it spins it around this housing

and it actually narrows it down so it's pressurized.

So it comes out of this hole right there

and all it is shoot a jet of water.

So there's no, you know, moving parts down here,

there's no propeller to catch on the rocks,

and this is what enables us to go so shallow.

And this barely hangs

maybe an inch below the bottom of the boat,

so, you know, when you're planed out,

you're really only running in about, geez, what?

Three to five inches of water, something like that,

and it's the only kind of boat where you can get up and down,

you know, really gravelly, rocky rivers like this,

so they're a lot of fun, a challenge to work at,

but a lot of fun.

Some of the things we'll be looking for this weekend

is primarily water safety contacts,

uh, ensuring that the rafters

and, you know, any vessel that's, uh, being propelled

by a paddle basically,

a raft, a canoe, a kayak,

they all need to have a life jacket,

personal flotation device.

How are we doing, guys?

-It's going well [indistinct] -[Paul] It is.

-Um... -Oh, no.

[Paul] Hey, I'll tell you what,

we can see that you're not using your trolling motor,

but I didn't see a registration on this boat.

-Do you have it? -We got the numbers in here

if you wanna see. We'll take 'em out.

[Paul] Well, they need to be attached to the boat.

-Oh, they're on a wire. -[Paul] Because otherwise

we just stop everybody because we can't tell.

But you have... You have had this thing registered?

Yeah, open it up.

[Paul] All right. Well, let's just see the registration then

and you might have to wait until later

to stick it on, but we'd like to see it on tomorrow

-if you're gonna use the boat. -[man] We'll stick it on right now.

-[Paul] Okay. -[man] It's got some clips on it.

-[Paul] Oh, it does? Okay. -[man] Yeah.

[man] There you go.

-Oh. -It's got attachable.

-Yeah. -[Paul] Okay.

-Yeah. I appreciate it. -Yup.

[Paul] And there's a... Is that permanent?

-[indistinct] -[Paul] Is that permanent

registration sticker on that placard right there?

-Yeah, it's on that one. -[Paul] I saw the green.

-Okay. -It's 11.

-[Paul] That's the one. -Okay.

-All right. -[Paul] All right.

-You guys got life jackets? -No problem. Yeah.

-There's mine right there. -[Paul] And are you having fun?

-[indistinct chatter] -[man] Indeed we are.

We're not having fun at all. Are you having fun?

[indistinct chatter]

[Paul] No, we're doing okay.

Not as much fun for all of you guys are doing,

but we're doing okay.

[man] Yeah. Yeah.

-[Paul] I'm not bored yet. -Yeah.

-You're not bored yet? -[Paul] No.

[man] You got [indistinct] date?

-[man 1] Yeah. -[man 2] Sweet.

[Paul] Good deal.

-[man] [indistinct] -I'm permanent.

Yeah.

You're permanent?

-[Paul] You're semi-permanent. -Yes, we are permanently

attached to the boat. Bye.

If you don't wear that, that goes on my boat.

Yeah. Oh

-Really? -Geez.

[woman] I love it.

[Paul] That was surprising.

I didn't expect him to pull that out of the cooler.

[theme music playing]

[wind howling]

[theme music playing]

[narrator] The Upper Yellowstone River

is known as a great trout fishery

and is generally a peaceful float.

Today, uh, it's a different story.

As the Annual Boat Float takes place,

it's a three-day event starting in Livingston

and ending in Laurel, Montana.

We'll be making sure that people are,

you know, safe and sober enough

to be driving these motor vehicles,

particularly a little bit later in the day

after they've had some time to, you know,

have a few drinks

and the sun kind of gets to them.

So we'll be doing some general safety checks for that.

[narrator] With exceptionally high water for this time of year,

Warden Luepke and Fagone

head to a section of the river

with big rapids,

knowing that a rescue or assistance

might be around the corner.

Not far behind, Warden Sergeant Chris Anderson

and Justin Hawkaluk

will be joining in the action here on the Yellowstone.

[man 1] 5-9 for 5-2.

[man 2] Go ahead.

[man 1] We're just gonna hang by the drop river

probably out here.

You tell me that you kind of move the drop here.

[man 2] No, it's the perfect spot.

[upbeat music playing]

[man] That's about 10:30

and the mass of floaters are putting on upriver,

probably a couple hundred boats coming down.

It's a pretty good size rapid right now

and the river is high like this.

Last year when we were here,

uh, we had to do some pretty fair

amount of search and rescue.

Um, a lot of rafts, you know, people would be floating down

this river and rafts that aren't equipped for this river

and they'll flip over in this and they'll need our help.

That's one of the things we do.

A lot of people make it. It's kind of a surprise.

There should be a whole bunch of people coming down.

They can also lose a lot of their equipment,

paddles, and life jackets

and, uh, beer cans, tackle boxes,

the whole deal, you name it, everything goes in the water.

It's a pretty good place to sit

and wait for them to come and watch them.

[narrator] Meanwhile, 150 miles to the southwest

in Region 7, near Decker, Montana,

Warden Mike Krings is on patrol

at the Tongue River Reservoir.

This is Tongue River Reservoir State Park,

um...

in the pretty, pretty southeast corner of Montana.

It's a pretty good-sized state park.

It's water-based.

It's right on Tongue River Reservoir.

I don't know how big

Tongue River Reservoir is exactly.

It's... As far as, uh, surface acres

or surface feet or anything like that,

it's about six miles long,

and the, um, average is probably about a half mile wide.

[narrator] Warden Krings has come across a campfire

at an unauthorized site.

Good. I'm Mike, I'm local, game warden.

Hey, nice to meet you.

-Brenner [indistinct] -Brenner?

Nice to meet you, Brenner.

Um, we actually don't allow fires

-at these sites so-- -[Brenner] Oh, okay.

[Mike] Yeah, there's a sign right here

-that says, um, and I guess... -Yeah.

the grass is starting to hide it a little bit.

Um, you know, no fires outside of...

Outside of camp rings that we provide.

-Yeah. -So all these sites

out of the main campgrounds can't have fires.

-Okay. I actually... -Okay.

-I did see your sign. -Oh, okay.

I'm not gonna lie.

I was waiting for it to burn down

and get some coals and then I was gonna cook

a burger or two on it...

-Okay. -on the coals.

That's what I was gonna do.

[Mike] Yeah.

If you wanna just toss the...

Toss the stuff as it burned off

-and cook on the coals. -[Brenner] Okay.

You know, let you go ahead and do that.

[Brenner] Yeah. I'll grab a...

I'll grab something and I'll put water on it

-and get it out when I'm done. -Okay.

Yeah, just toss those...

Toss the burning ones into the lake

and when you're done,

put it out real good but no more fire snags.

-Brenner. -Done.

-All right, nice to meet you. -You too.

Some stuff is people get tickets on and...

But we give out lots of warning,

we give people the benefit of the doubt

and a lot of times

and it just depends on the situation.

That guy was real upfront about it

and he was pretty cool about it.

Not that big a deal.

[country music playing]

[narrator] The Annual Boat Float

takes place in July on the Yellowstone River

between Livingston and Laurel, Montana.

Woo.

[soft music playing]

That search and rescue boat from Sweet Grass County

that came up.

So there's a hundred and thirty-one boats

upriver still.

[narrator] This raft comes to rest on a submerged rock

right in front of Wardens Anderson and Hawkaluk.

They move in to assist.

Yeah, that rock will kind of end your day [laughs]

in one of these things.

[rock music playing]

[narrator] With more rafts on the way,

the day, well, you could say it could get interesting.

[Paul] So they just keep coming.

Oh, that one was close.

That one was close.

[man] Oh.

[Paul] There she goes. There's one.

Come on, let's go get her.

Let's do it.

We don't have to go in.

Don't have to jump in.

I'll just drag her.

You all right?

-I'm fine. -Okay.

Actually gonna get in the calm and flip it.

[Paul] That's okay. You wanna just flip it over?

Yeah.

Thank you.

[Paul] You can get back in it, okay?

-Oh, yeah. -[Paul] Okay.

[man] There's another one up there.

-What? -[man] Actually,

there's another flipped over up there.

[speaking indistinctly]

[Paul] What?

Oh.

[man] You need a paddle, Paul.

[Paul] It's right there.

See, her friends are coming. Look.

I got it.

[Paul] You're gonna... You guys get him to shore?

[indistinct chatter]

[Paul] There's a boating bag right there.

[indistinct chatter]

[Paul] Oh, yeah, we did.

We had a couple of kayaks and I didn't see a...

One inflatable kayak, one hard kayak.

They just flipped. They're not equipped

to take that rapid and they flipped.

Lost a bunch of gear.

Didn't even have life jackets on.

So the other fishing game unit had to go

help them out downriver.

We did have the kind of yellow one jet boat

that came up to help, but they about jumped...

Bumped into us.

So hopefully they'll be staying out of our way

and hoping just to pick up garbage downriver.

That's good clean fun right there if we're going.

Honestly, only half of the people

that are going to be on here in about two hours from now.

[soft upbeat music playing]

[narrator] Back at the Tongue River Reservoir

near Decker, Montana, Warden Mike Krings

is doing water safety checks as well.

-Howdy. -[man] How are you doing?

Good, how are you guys doing?

-[man] Good. -Good.

Guys, I'm Mike, I'm a local game warden.

Just doing some water safety checks.

[woman] Okay.

Wanna make sure you guys have enough life jackets on.

You can go ahead and turn the boat motor off real quick.

You guys are good?

Okay. You guys are good.

[narrator] Everyone has life jackets, but...

[Mike] I can see you guys...

I can see you guys have had a little bit to drink.

Who's driving the boats?

[man] I am. I haven't had anything.

[Mike] You haven't had anything?

-Yeah. -[Mike] Okay.

Would you take off your glasses real quick? I just wanna...

I just wanna take a look and make sure

you haven't had anything to drink at all.

[man] No.

How long you guys have been on the water?

Three, two hours since noon.

Okay. Do you mind just following my finger

for just a second?

[country music playing]

[narrator] Warden Mike Krings

is doing a water safety check

on the Tongue River Reservoir.

And he's come across boaters who have been doing

a little partying.

[laughter]

-[indistinct chatter] -Okay.

Would you... Would you mind blowing

-in a PBT for me real quick? -I don't mind.

Okay. You don't... You don't appear to be...

I... Right.

Okay. Overly intoxicated.

-Thank you. -I just...

I just wanna make sure we got sober drivers out here.

Oh, absolutely, yeah. I got my brother coming in.

I'm not driving the boat anymore.

[narrator] In Montana, there's no recourse

for refusing a breath test while boating.

And Krings returns him to his boat,

checks he had a driver and he's on his way.

They all seemed pretty good and willing to cooperate.

And I wasn't picking up

that anybody was really intoxicated.

[narrator] Back at the Boat Float,

several rafts have made the rapids

and are now spectating as more boats are on the way.

[rock music playing]

[Paul] Watch this raft here, the trampoline.

-Oh. -[man] That made it.

[indistinct chatter]

[Paul] Yeah, the big pool float made it.

We are trying to protect a resource here,

which is the Yellowstone River, of course,

so we'll certainly be looking for littering.

That can be a problem.

A lot of people drinking beer out of cans, of course,

and that tends to litter as the day goes on, too,

so we'll definitely be real careful to supervise on that

and catch some people throwing some cans overboard.

[narrator] Not only are people littering,

but also they're picking up debris from wrecks.

[Paul] Oh, there's the stuff.

[indistinct chatter]

[Paul] There's a cooler.

Let's go get some garbage.

[indistinct chatter]

[Paul] Oh. Oh.

Oh, my gosh.

[narrator] Springing into action,

Wardens Paul Luepke and Derek Fagone

move in to assist Anderson and Hawkaluk

with this cap-sized box.

[rock music playing]

[narrator] While Anderson and Hawkaluk

take care of the pontoon,

our other wardens get back in position

for the next one.

Moments later, this raft looks like an accident

just waiting to happen.

[intense music playing]

[narrator] Our wardens are back in action.

[Paul] Let's grab the girl, she's hurt.

[boat engine revving]

[indistinct chatter]

Grab that rope.

[narrator] Wardens Anderson and Hawkaluk

get to the people first,

so Luepke and Fagone

go for the raft and other trash.

[indistinct chatter]

Just get the paddles and the can.

You're good?

[indistinct chatter]

All right. He's gonna make it ashore.

Get this... Let's get this boat.

He's okay, he's okay.

[indistinct chatter]

-Woo. -Woo.

[man] Gotta beat the heat.

-Woo. -Let's go, guys.

[Paul] They're not worried about the dog.

Those things can swim.

You got it, Fagone?

Here's some life jackets.

I can... I can get... Probably get these.

[man] Yeah, buddy.

[woman] Woo.

[Paul] That looked like,

I think it was an inflatable kayak, a two-person one.

There was a man and a woman in there

and they flipped over of course on the big raft

again, the...

Or the big...

The big rapid taking a raft

that's not really designed for that much water.

Flipped over.

The woman had a cast on her arm

and it didn't look like she could swim real well.

She was fairly panicky.

And the water is so cold,

it'll just shock the heck out of you

as soon as you fall in.

Luckily our other fish and game unit,

our other boat was right there and they just plucked her out.

It looks like they're just dropping her off the shore

right by their boat.

We'll have to get their lifejacket to them

at some point but it's still...

It's still going on.

Wow.

[narrator] Hey, the day's been filled with excitement

but this boat just may take the cake.

[indistinct yelling]

[Derek] Oh.

[Paul] They're done. That's an aluminum boat.

They're done.

There they go.

They're not gonna get that boat off either.

[Derek] [indistinct]

[Paul] No way.

Get your net, Derek.

This is mostly gonna be a net job.

[narrator] Hawkaluk and Anderson

move in to help this boat.

Here you go.

[narrator] While Luepke and Fagone

go after all the contents of the cooler.

[intense music playing]

[chuckles]

[narrator] Luckily, no one was injured.

The boaters were transported to shore

and the wardens did make a recovery on the boat.

You know, I was actually pretty impressed

for a little while there

when they down on the first rapids.

But those boats get so full of...

Full of water and unstable.

A boat like that has zero business

being on the river like that.

But that doesn't seem to stop people.

So who knows?

[upbeat music playing]