Since I've never been down to the base of Bowers Falls, I'm wondering what the best route is to get there. One of my hiking friends always goes down river right, but thought there might be a shorter, faster way down on the left. Has anybody been that way?
Right now it looks like Matthew, Gale, Tom, and myself are doing Bowers Saturday or Sunday. Anyone else? Now, if we could just get some of that fog like there is on the Cloundland cabin cam this morning!
80% chance of rain for Saturday. Who knows, Sunday morning we could have some of that cloudland fog. There is also a pretty good chance I couldn't get to go Sunday.
Matt, maybe things will work out for you you Sunday - should have some low temps down near the dew point for some magical fog. Just need to get there early before it burns off.
You can get down from either side. (Of course, "getting down" is a relative term - there is no good access - you have to climb down part of the bluff either way.) I normally go down the far side of the canyon, but the last time I went down the near side (I don't know if river right or left is going up or downstream - a flaw in that description process - you have to be a boat person to understand it!). Both sides are farther than you think. By the way, there are several grindstones under there - I guess it has been too much trouble for anyone to haul them up and over the bluff! Could you imagine being an Indian and living under there way back when? I wonder what they thought of the waterfall, and if they had a name for it? There will be several active Phoebe nests under there this weekend - eggs are hatching now...
Tim, I had river left and river right explained to me at the gathering by Tom. You are always going downstream, it makes sense, who takes a boat upstream anyway.
I do! One of my most favorite photos of a river was made after I floated a mile and a half UPstream from Woolum to Skull Bluff on the Buffalo River - that photo is now the cover of the new Buffalo National River brochure and was worth the effort. And I nearly always go upstream when I travel along a river when not in a boat - more interesting to me. I've always been known to take the trail less traveled though, and go in the opposite direction of society in general - I find the views are better. So I guess I'll always remain confused when someone make a reference to river right or left - guess you just have to be a boat person for it to apply...
River right and left make sense to me! As I was once told in my early days of paddling, lean downstream not upstream, except in an eddy lean upstream which is really downstream, because the current is flowing the opposite direction, so I guess an even better explanation would be to reference river right and left based on the direction of the current. Have I confused you yet? So, river right is on the right side of the direction of current flow and left is the left side of current flow. Eddys are excluded
I went down yesterday on the left side, theres "steps" that are two or three feet tall. It's pretty easy going down, but coming back out was kind of difficult since the rocks were wet and pretty slick. The trail in yesterday was covered in water and someone had ridden horses down it, so it was chewed up pretty badly. When there is storm damage in the trail, you can tell where people have cut through the woods around it. The turnoff to get down to the falls had lots of trees down around it so it was kind of hard to spot the rock cairn on the side. It's an awesome place though, and it was well worth the trouble to get to it.
I was just thinking about that paddling upstream trip, where that map cover shot was made, the other day. I took part in a swiftwater rescue course about half way up that same stretch and had to paddle up there that day too.
But, in the middle of all of that we had to do an actual rescue of a kayaker that had gotten in trouble and bounced his head off a rock underwater. During that trip, I was taken back up the river in a jet-powered boat.... That was much easier!!
Been getting lots of comments on the map cover... You really should have found a better looking model though...
I bet there is a lot more water in the river now and the jet boat would be a lot better for sure! I have a better-looking model to put in the canoe but they wanted an old, grizzled, rugged "character" model so I'm glad we used you! (actually they did pick the yellow canoe over a red kayak I had with a lovely female sitting in it - those were the two finalists)
Discussion
9 repliesRight now it looks like Matthew, Gale, Tom, and myself are doing Bowers Saturday or Sunday. Anyone else? Now, if we could just get some of that fog like there is on the Cloundland cabin cam this morning!
You can get down from either side. (Of course, "getting down" is a relative term - there is no good access - you have to climb down part of the bluff either way.) I normally go down the far side of the canyon, but the last time I went down the near side (I don't know if river right or left is going up or downstream - a flaw in that description process - you have to be a boat person to understand it!). Both sides are farther than you think. By the way, there are several grindstones under there - I guess it has been too much trouble for anyone to haul them up and over the bluff! Could you imagine being an Indian and living under there way back when? I wonder what they thought of the waterfall, and if they had a name for it? There will be several active Phoebe nests under there this weekend - eggs are hatching now...
I was just thinking about that paddling upstream trip, where that map cover shot was made, the other day. I took part in a swiftwater rescue course about half way up that same stretch and had to paddle up there that day too.
But, in the middle of all of that we had to do an actual rescue of a kayaker that had gotten in trouble and bounced his head off a rock underwater. During that trip, I was taken back up the river in a jet-powered boat.... That was much easier!!
Been getting lots of comments on the map cover... You really should have found a better looking model though...