Happy spring, Flathead Valley! Oh wait – it’s barely February but Stevie the Labrador is already shedding a little extra fur, her seasonal allergies are returning and she’s taking full-immersion dips in the Flathead River. This dramatic shift felt especially jarring after I emerged yesterday from a quick ski staycation at the Challenge Cabin, which sits outside the Great Bear Wilderness border near the Continental Divide, following a brief window of winter in the alpine earlier this week.

Despite the current beach vibes and record-breaking 50-plus degree temperatures in the valley, I swear it snowed a handful of inches just before our arrival and helped lift some dwindling spirits. While the U.S. Forest Service facility lies only 8 miles from U.S. Highway 2 up Skyland Road, it feels like a world away and offers a vortex of endless drainages and rugged terrain.

Situated along Granite Creek, Challenge Cabin provides close recreation access in a zone that is also on the edge of the proposed 67,536-acre Granite Moccasin logging project area that Flathead National Forest officials say is needed to reduce the risk of wildland fire and promote forest health.

Across the entire project region, which stretches 40 miles along U.S. Highway 2 and spans the length of John F. Stevens Canyon, the proposed actions include commercial timber harvest, road building, noncommercial harvest, fuels reduction and whitebark pine restoration.

Starting from the west end at Moccasin Creek and stretching east to Granite Creek, both tributaries feed the Middle Fork Flathead River, which is celebrating 50 years as a designated Wild and Scenic River System this year.

Congress in 1976 added 219 miles of the Three Forks Flathead River to the Wild and Scenic River System after the Middle Fork inspired the 1968 Wild and Scenic Rivers Act during an era when the Spruce Park Dam proposal threatened the free-flowing watershed.

Thanks to wildlife biologists Frank and John Craighead, who fought to halt the Spruce Park Dam construction at the site of a prominent whitewater rapid series, the conservationists not only kept the Middle Fork free flowing, but they also established a river classification system for future protection.

Because of the designation, the Spruce Park rapid series continues to provide two miles of technical whitewater boating through a rock garden of pushy hydraulics, which starts roughly 10 miles downriver from Granite Creek and ends at the proposed dam site.

As the Middle Fork exits the Great Bear Wilderness, the river enters the proposed logging area at the Bear Creek trailhead where it meets U.S. Highway 2 and flows to Moccasin Creek at the western edge of the project region.

To learn more the Flathead River System’s Wild and Scenic designation and history, Rachel Schmidt of American Rivers will present its history and significance on Tuesday, Feb. 10 at 7 p.m. at Flathead Valley Community College as part of the Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation’s Wilderness Speaker Series.

I’m Maggie Dresser, here with a Thursday edition of the Daily Roundup.