The trip that shouldn't have happened!!!

[grandpa paddler]

Allegheny River: Roulette, PA to Olean, NY. After several months of internet exploration, correspondence with locals, and a road trip in August to check it out, I decided this was a doable trip. WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (still not enough exclaimation points, but you get the idea)

Friday morning spotted Jack's car at the take out in Olean and headed for Roulette. Got on the water shortly after 12 noon and started on what turn out to be a fiasco. Dead fall, sweepers and strainers, shallows, rain, et cetera, the entire trip. Saturday evening it started raining and Jack and I decided to take out ASAP in the morning. We thought we were camped just a few hundred yards from a bridge - wrong again. Just before noon Sunday we got to the Port Allegheny bridge and got out. At best, we covered 8 or 9 river miles of a 50 mile trip. Spent almost as much on-water time out of the canoe as we did in it.

The trip was not a total loss. Believe-it-or-not: I had a good time with Jack, I was never bored.

I'm gonna let Jack fill you in on all the gory details since he can do it in a more colorful manner - JUMP IN HERE JACK (unless this traumatic experience has left you with selective amnesia).

 

[catfish]

hey grandpa don,t feel bad i have been on one of them trips too. i went with a friend a couple of years ago on a stretch of the satilla river. he had been on this river several times but not this paticular stretch. this was during the bad drought when we had a bad fire around 2007 i believe. i was sorta blindsinded into it but i agreed to go. the first day wasn,t too bad . we spent the night ate supper and swapped stories. i had made some fish stew he said it was yum yum.

the second day got worse the river was real low during this time around april? we had to go around logs ,over them & under them. we had to poratage one time. dumb ole me yea i didn,t plan on portaging. i carried enough i wasn,t going hunger or i wasn,t running out of water. we went prepared my buddy even took along his guitar. it sounds good on a river.

we still had a good time a bad day on the river is better than a good day @ work . :wink: we finally did like you this day we had to turn around & take out short of destination. i have pics & want never forget this trip . when when got to a dirt landing @ take out point i step out of my canoe grabbed my cooler & set it down about four feet from a 12 rattler diamond back . i did have a small pistol finally out of 6 shots i finally hit him @ point blank. i think i even had to reload. he never moved which it was cool that morning. he was already coiled up i believe from the night. if he had struck i would have been a bit gizzor. i don,t know which wast he scardest me or him. :cry:

if i ever go again on that stetchyou can believe i will check water level

 

[Kayak Jack]

Well, Jon has told the heart of the story. I double checked on my map, and can conjure up about 9.01 river miles for two days (1 full day plus two half days) of paddling, dragging, cussing (me, not Jon), hauling, lifting, etc.

As we were leaving the put in on day one, a bum walked by. I "Howdy"ied him, and he shuffled over. Said he was walking to Olean, our planned take out. I almost stepped on my foreskin by saying, "Well, I'll bet we beat your there." Fortunately, I didn't challenge him to the race. He was probably there before we made three miles.

This is the second river where I've encountered innumerable dead falls. The common factor both times was - no canoe liveries around. They clear the rivers so paddlers can have a clear passage.

Note to self: Check out locations of existing canoe liveries - and their operating seasons - BEFORE you pack gear and plan a trip. I've also been marooned because, even after talking with outfitters and telling then when I was paddling there, they had closed for the season without telling me their season limits.

I'm glad I made the trip and met Jon and his gracious Lady, Joy. I enjoy driving across this great land of ours. On my return trip, I went south of Lake Erie and visited an old, college friend in Huron, Ohio. Great trip; nice to be home. Thanks for organizing it, Jon. We'll travel together again, sometime, I hope.

 

[oldsparkey]

I think all of us have had a trip like that at times.
Last year we put in on the St.Marys River (Florida -Georgia State Line ). Planned on making about 5 miles the 1st day so the rest of the trip would be two day lay overs.

The outfitter guaranteed us the river was open and easy paddling ... NOT QUITE SO. :twisted: If we made two miles it was a miracle , strainers , blow downs , and some we had to portage around. Trust me when I say the bank was not sand but mud that had the friction coefficient of some high priced grease. A couple of the guys actually dragged there canoe threw the woods to the river in place of just going around the obstruction ( one Huge A$$ Tree) on the bank. They made a bee line to the river , this was at a bend in the river.
Naturally the water at that tree was not shallow or easy flowing like the rest of the river.

A short ways on down river , another one and we managed to chop part of it ( branches) out of the way on the far bank to slide the boats threw. To put is simply , we bush bashed , ducked and slid over , went around and under along with all sorts of other maneuvers that 1st day. All of us was thinking that a 5 day trip would turn out to be a 15 day trip if it was like the 1st day on the river.

The outfitter told us he ran a Jon Boat up there to do some fishing.... I Don't Think So.

Chuck.

 

[Kayak Jack]

As Jon was dragging the boat across rocks, (I, of course, was hollering encouragement from my comfortable seat there in the boat), I started to wonder how ancient Indians ever got loaded canoes up and down rivers in the eastern third of the US. We have so many woods, they had to have encountered the same difficulties that we do.

A birch bark canoe would be torn apart doing what we were doing. Surely, they had techniques of which we are unaware. Maybe, they traveled in groups large enough to stop all canoes, gather the forces, and one by one lift the loaded boats through tangles? I'm pretty sure that visiting aliens did not use sky hooks to assist.

 

[jdupre']

Jack, those Indians were no strangers to hard work. Toughned up their whole lives by taking a living from the land. I'm sure if you had to do that stuff every day, you would find ways of doing it better,too. Also, their lives did not revolve around the white man's clock. No need to be at the take out on any certain day. You just did what you had to do no matter how long it took. Many of the ancient cultures had no word for "work". If you were carrying a boat through the brush, you were doing just that- carrying a boat- not working.

Joey

 

[tx river rat]

Indian life styles,a subject I have studied and love.
In this part of the country ,boats were not a big part of there life,300 years ago in my locale there werent any trees except on the flowing rivers ,it was all prarie ,between million of buffs,setting fires to run animals off clifs for easy slaughter,and wildfires that burned for months at times and several hundred miles trees didnt have much of a chance. so moving overland was much easier,just a couple hundred yards from the rivers it was wide open.
The indians were not like us they moved very light ,they had to ,no pack animials except dogs they used what was avalible.
Up north in the lake and big river country boats were used a lot more as they were in parts of the south,and they were built to the location and water they were used on,up north light birch bark,had to be able to carry them,down south dugouts from trees that would stand being submerged for years.
They were an awesome society at living off the land.
Ron

 

[Kayak Jack]

Up here is where the canoe was invented. No work, no taxes, no politicians, no horses, just squaws and dogs to carry loads.

Somehow, we thought we were going to improve on that system? sigh

 

[jdupre']

Ron, I'm with you on the ingenious Indians. Some people are big on the ceremonial dress and the theatrical aspect of their lives. I'm more interested in the every-day activities-- making clothes and accesories , weapons, snares, food preparation, etc.

Humorous fact: Today, when people talk about doing hard work, they compare it with digging ditches. When some of the plains Indians talked about hard work, they made the motion of scraping a buffalo hide.