The Bob Marshall Wilderness in northwest Montana is one of those rare places where people can truly experience the outdoors in its purest form and encounter nature on its own terms. Inside its perimeter, a variety of wildlife, including grizzly bears, roam without modern intrusions, and hundreds of miles of clean, cold creeks and rivers—home to one of the strongest wild cutthroat populations in the state—snake between mountain crevices and through sweeping valleys.

After years of dreaming about packing a boat over the mountains and plying the Bob Marshall’s waters, a friend and I decided to finally scratch it off our bucket list. Here’s a brief look at what went into the planning and execution of our adventure, our up-close-and personal encounters with the native fish (including endangered species), and why sugar cookies are as good as gold in the backcountry.