The Strange Things You See on the River

[MrPoling]

In the '90s I was paddling the Little Peedee or Lynches river in SC. As I approached a road a man and two kids appeared on the bridge. This was a low country bridge, about 15 ft or so. Then the man bent down, picked up a retriever, and threw it from the bridge. The dog landed with a mighty splash and the kids cheered.

The dog returned to shore and the man called it back. It shuffled with it's head and tail down.

When it reached the bridge he grabbed it again and threw it into the black water. The kids cheered again. The poor dog shuffled back with its head and tail down again.

Thankfully this time I was approaching the bridge and he didn't throw the dog. The takeout was on the other side of the bridge and I didn't hear the dog get tossed again.

The whole thing was strange and sad, a grown man abusing an obedient dog for entertainment. I felt like the dog deserve better and the man deserves to be thrown off a bridge instead.

Now that I've told it, this is one of the stories that hasn't gotten funnier with time.

 

[MrPoling]

On a lighter note, there's this weird creature I saw on the river last year. Previously posted in our art on the river thread.

 

[yknpdlr]

Yknpdlr, do you have those paintings?

Prints, yes, on the wall at my camp. Cichociemni

 

[Crazy Trout Craft (CTC)]

On this river I live on, the Oswego River in NY we have old storage “caves”. They are pretty neat and quite spacious

 

[Gamma1214]

CTC, any idea what they were originally used for? That close to the water level, they'd often flood around here but someone obviously went to a lot of effort and expense to build them.

 

[yknpdlr]

Brewry Beer cooling caves.

Oswego Canal – tugster: a waterblog

tugster.wordpress.com

 

[Alien Legs]

I love looking for useful junk on the riverbanks after winter or storms here in Vt. Some of it is good. Like that ladder might clean up nice. I find tons of great lures.

 

[Crazy Trout Craft (CTC)]

CTC, any idea what they were originally used for? That close to the water level, they'd often flood around here but someone obviously went to a lot of effort and expense to build them.

CTC, any idea what they were originally used for? That close to the water level, they'd often flood around here but someone obviously went to a lot of effort and expense to build them.

As yknpdlr has linked…beer… I tried to find some so gold of sorts

 

[ppine]

Once on a lower Colorado River trip in winter we were followed by an inflatable military drone. It was always about 1/4 mile away. It followed us for nearly two days. It gave me the creeps but finally left.

At the end of the trip we were able to make a decent fire after finding a dead Russian olive tree in the desert. A single Navy Blue Angel flew low and slow right over our campfire. We waved and he rocked his wings. Then the wild donkeys fired up, the coyote choir and 2 great horned owls behind camp. A great night with a full moon and an otter swimming past camp.

 

[Jabberwocky]

There are some remnants of a former railway bridge not far away from Prague, Czechia and somebody built a cabin? on top of one of the pillars.

Mapy.cz

NejpoužÃvanÄjÅ¡Ã mapový portál v ÄR s celou Åadou tématických map - základnÃ, turistickou, cyklistickou, dopravnà a plno dalÅ¡Ãch. NabÃzà možnost reálného leteckého, panoramatického nebo 3D pohledu. Rozsáhlé množstvà obsahu, firem a turistických bodů zájmu. UmožÅuje...

en.mapy.cz

 

[yknpdlr]

Once on a lower Colorado River trip in winter we were followed by an inflatable military drone. It was always about 1/4 mile away. It followed us for nearly two days. It gave me the creeps but finally left.

Quite the opposite miliary encounter experience for me.....
While paddling on one of the few very long straight segments of the Yukon River during one of our 1000 mile canoe races, from my bow seat I noticed tiny black objects far ahead of me just over the river in the far distance . As our separation closed, I recognized them as a flight of four F-16 fighter jets coming directly toward us. When they got close enough, I waved my paddle overhead in a friendly gesture, as did my team of six seated behind me in our voyageur canoe. In return we got a coordinated wing wave from each aircraft in the flight. Then, just at closest approach, they all did a full after burner vertical "burning climb”, shooting straight up above us before they then rejoined their formation behind us. Very special, since my son was an F-16 flight instructor commander at the time (based in Germany and Poland), but he was not part of this particular training exercise, presumably out of Eielson AFB near Fairbanks AK. After the race I visited the flight operations shop at Eielson to leave a sincere thank-you for the special show.

 

[ppine]

ykn,
Cool story.
The Home of Top Gun is at Fallon NAS about 60 miles from my ,house in Nevada. Working in the Nevada Outback seeing F-18s, A-10s, Apache helicopters and Stealth bombers was a daily occurrence. Near my house is a small airport known for gliders. Once a year in the fall there is an air show. For the last 5 years we have had either the Thunderbirds or Blue Angels. They practice for 3 days and then the show is for 2 days. They fly right over the house. The local horses and dogs do not dig it.

 

[alsg]

My friend and I were paddling the Paw Paw bends section of the Potomac River. We had just made camp when I heard music coming form up stream. What came floating into view was 4 widely spaced canoes tied together with a gigantic plywood platform. Coolers everywhere, boom boxes at the corners. On top of this platform was a second slightly smaller platform, with more coolers. And from this platform there was a ladder leading up to a third still smaller platform that was just large enough to hold a fully upholstered La-Z-Boy recliner in which the ship's "captain" was commanding. Altogether, at least 8-10 people on this three-level boat. The entire thing had to be at least 15 feet tall. How they managed to steer that thing remains a mystery.

 

[Woodpuppy]

Pictures?

 

[TXRiverRunner]

Some of the cooler natural things I've seen: a dung beetle rolling up a big ball of poop, and bombardier beetles that you could mess with and watch them blow their cannons. Those were pretty amazing!

 

[TXRiverRunner]

Ok, one more from the last trip on the Navasota River. I suppose when the water is lower the corn will scatter on the ground, but it wasn’t that high. Unless they were feeding fish and this is someone’s fishing hole. It seemed a little odd and I was in a silly mood.

 

[MrPoling]

Ok, one more from the last trip on the Navasota River. I suppose when the water is lower the corn will scatter on the ground, but it wasn’t that high. Unless they were feeding fish and this is someone’s fishing hole. It seemed a little odd and I was in a silly mood.

Fish feeder?

 

[dogbrain]

We paddled by these two nuts on the Jefferson River in Montana a few years ago. I talked to them for a while, but it was unclear to me what they had in mind or how far they intended to go. We camped a few bends down the river thinking they would stop for the night before they reached us. They didn’t and we could hear the dang thing scraping on the rocks until they finally passed us. Unfortunately they got stuck on a gravel bar just downstream from us, so we could hear them that evening.
They ultimately abandoned it and the Jefferson River Canoe group had to spend a weekend with grinders and sawzalls cutting the twisted hulk and hauling it all out.

Mark

 

[Woodpuppy]

Somebody just read Huck Finn and got inspired.

 

[Alan Gage]

Somebody just read Huck Finn and got inspired.

Yep. Looks like every kid's dream.

Alan