HAUNTED RIVERS

“The eeriness of this lonely island, set among a million willows, swept by a hurricane, and surrounded by hurrying deep waters, touched us both, I fancy. Untrodden by man, almost unknown to man, it lay there beneath the moon, remote from human influence, on the frontier of another world, an alien world, a world tenanted by willows only and the souls of willows. And we, in our rashness, had dared to invade it, even to make use of it!” --- Algernon Blackwood

It's only in the daylight we see rivers with wonder and magic. Our favorites can often offer us serenity or endless thrills. Who of us doesn't look to see around each bend in a wild river, leading us to either the rumble of rapids or floating lazily in the sun.

We take ease near the stream in the light of day, where our imaginations and our innermost fears are not exploited by the sun.
Yet, it's in the night, when those comforting rivers can turn foreboding. With each whisper of sound or shadow in the moonlight, our perceptions of uncertainty, dread, and fear can bewitch us.
In Algernon Blackwood's The Willows, a novella about an adventurous canoe trip down the River Danube, it's only the night that the voyage turns frightful when mysterious forces emerge from within the forest creating spine-chilling sounds and bizarre shadows.
"I felt of dread was no ordinary ghostly fear," the narrator tells us, "It was infinitely greater, stranger, and seemed to arise from some dim ancestral sense of terror more profoundly disturbing than anything I had known or dreamed of. We had “strayed,” as the Swede put it, into some region or some set of conditions where the risks were great, yet unintelligible to us; where the frontiers of some unknown world lay close about us."
So. what's out there enshrouded in or along the watery brink? Is it a ghostly presence from the past? A spirit wandering lost, or a phantom bent on destruction.
Or is it just a concoction of some old scary tales meant to make us cringe and look over our shoulders in apprehension on a cool October night? What do you believe?
So, whether you're daring or doubtful here are a few of our nation's haunted rivers you might want to visit (if got the nerve), this Halloween or anytime, for your opportunity to see a ghost.

Pocantico River, New York

 Pocantico River

The Pocantico River in western New York was made famous by Washington Irving's Halloween classic The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Ever since people have been keeping a keen out for the Headless Horseman. Who, as the story said, would ride alongside the river looking for hapless victims.
The Pocantico is a nine-mile-long tributary of the Hudson River following an urban setting, But even today, it has a dark and unnerving nature. "The Pocantico winds its wizard stream among the mazes of its old Indian haunts, sometimes running darkly in pieces of woodland," wrote Irving.
He had obviously heard the tales surrounding the Old Dutch Church, Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, and Spook Rock to inspire his story of the Headless Horseman.
Spook Rock sits on the east­ern side of Rock­e­feller State Park, next to the Saw Mill River Park­way. Just its name conjures up ghosts. The his­tory of Tar­ry­town tells the leg­end of the Lady in White who haunts the rock after dying in a snow­storm. It's said you can still hear her cries of the howl­ing of the wind and see her ges­tures to warn of impending winter storms.
It also tells of the ghost of a colo­nial girl, who jumped to her death there to escape a Tory raider dur­ing the rev­o­lu­tion. As well as the heartbreaking tale of Star Girl the spirit of an In­dian girl who roams the area lament­ing the death of her lover and son.
It is said that even to­day, on a quiet spring night, one can stand on the banks of the Pocan­tico River and still hear Star Girl cry­ing out for her lover and child.

Blackwater River, Florida
   

Blackwater River 

The Blackwater River is considered a favorite spot for canoeing, kayaking, and camping in Florida's panhandle. Streaming through undeveloped lands by paddling the river is, said to be like going through beautiful tropical rainforest. But beware, for the Blackwater has two mysterious and sinister residents in its mist.
Locals will warn you to be careful when taking a dip. They say that there's a deathly pale-looking woman with long jet-black hair smelling of rotting flesh who will drag you under the water, attempting to drown you in the river. So far, only a lucky few have escaped her vile clutches.
While in Blackwater River State Park, a woman wearing a long white gown covered with blood is said to appear near the oldest white Atlantic cedar tree in the park. Legend says she was sacrificed there in a bloody ritual.
Rumors now say that people who visit the spot experience chills and have the feeling of being suffocated as a result of all the sacrificial rituals that took place there.
And one final warning. If you do see this ghostly woman is white, don't look in her eyes and runway. Otherwise, you could be next.

Tombigbee River, Alabama
  

Tombigbee River

Tales of ghost ships and phantom vessels are common folklore along both coast and the Great Lakes. Fleeting images of ships disappearing into the fog have been reported by sailors and beachcombers alike.
Over the years, witnesses have reported seeing “The Phantom Steamboat of the Tombigbee” fully engulfed in flames along the shore of Alabama's Tombigbee River near Pennington, Alabama.
Side-wheeled paddle steamer Eliza Battle was the most luxurious riverboat on the river until disaster claimed her on a cold winter night.
On March 1, 1858, she was fully loaded with more than 1,200 bales of cotton and carrying 101 passengers and crew when a fire broke out on the main deck. Panic ensued as the blaze spread over the boat. Passengers, mostly in their nightclothes, could only escape the flames by leaping into the icy river waters.
In the end, the ship sank, leaving somewhere between 26 to 33 people dead due to mostly exposure to the freezing water.
Soon after the disaster, ghost stories began to circulate. Witnesses claimed to see the ill-fated “Eliza Battle" ablaze again near where she sank, accompanied by screams of people begging to be rescued. The sightings of the burning steamers are to happen mostly on cold and windy nights. 

Mississippi River, Missouri & Illinois

 

Tower Rock

From its source up in Minnesota down to the Gulf of Mexico, the Mississippi River is brimming with bigger-than-life stories and legends and of course, ghostly yarns.
And nowhere is the river more haunted than Grand Tower, Illinois, to Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
According to the local folklore, the paranormal activity likely stems from the two massive boat accidents and one spooky reunion at Tower Rock.
On an October night in 1869, the steamship Stonewall was traveling on the river when it caught fire in what would become one of the worst disasters on the river.
It's estimated that the death toll was somewhere between 200 to 300. But nobody knows for sure because the passenger list was burned up with the steamboat.
Witnesses reported watching The Stonewall burn for nearly two hours before sinking into the river on that eerily dark and quiet.
Seventeen years later on another October night, the steamboat Mascotte's boiler exploded, engulfing that ship in a fire. Eyewitnesses said as the fire raged, the ship's smokestack fell over the gangplank, trapping passengers attempting to escape. All in all, the river disaster claimed 35 lives.
Psychics say the spirits of the dead in these disasters remain to this day. They have told of seeing the ghosts of these tragic ship fires making lonely pilgrimages back to the water from the local cemetery and of seeing unearthly hands and fingers reaching out of the dark river water.
It's also not uncommon for barge captains and crews to observe unexplainable lights bouncing across the water and hear ghostly screams and cries for help while passing through the spooky stretch of river.
The nearby Tower Rock offers even more supernatural lore for the Big Muddy. The 60-foot rock formation has been a silent sentinel along the river throughout its history. Boatmen would celebrate passing by it with a drink of good cheer. River pirates used it as an ambush spot, and Meriwether Lewis of the Lewis & Clark would write about its peril: “strong currents thus meeting each other form an immense and dangerous whirlpool which no boat dare approach in that state of the water…”
But the spookiest story of the rock happened in 1839 when an entire wedding party's boat got caught in a giant whirlpool and sucked under the muddy waters. Only one slave survived.
On that very day, a baby niece to the groom was born and given the same name as the bride. And twenty years later, to celebrate her birthday, she holds a party upon Tower Rock.
And as the story goes, the gathering was suddenly astonished when members of the wedding party arose out of the Mississippi River and presented her with a mysterious parchment scroll forewarning her of the Civil War. After delivering the prophetic message, the entire ghostly group, once again disappeared into the murky waters of the river.

Missouri River, Nebraska
  

              Blackbird Hill by Karl Bodmer

Blackbird Hill is a distinctive 300-foot-high landmark on the west side of the Missouri River in northeastern Nebraska. It was well-known to river travelers throughout the 19th century. In 1804, Lewis and Clark climbed the rise to visit the grave of an Omaha chief, while famed frontier artists George Catlin and Karl Bodmer painted it in the 1830s. Traditional Native American accounts say that Chief Big Elk is buried at the site. It is also said to be haunted by the spirit of a young woman who was murdered on the hill more than a century and a half ago.
According to local folklore, a young couple fell in love and agreed to marry. But first, the boy had to make his fortune, promising her he would return for her. But after years of waiting, the young girl finally gave up, thinking her husband-to-be was dead. She married another man and settled atop Blackbird Hill.
As the story goes, it was years later when the former lovers were once again reunited, when the young man came looking for her on the banks of the Missouri River. Overjoyed to see him, she confessed that she had never stopped loving him and only married another because she thought he was dead. Surely, it was fate that brought the long-lost lovers back together. She told him that she would go home to tell her husband that she wanted out of their marriage, so they could leave together in the morning.
When the girl returned to the cabin, she explained the situation to her husband, saying she did not love him and intended to leave him to marry her first love. At first, the husband begged her to stay. But when she refused, he went into a bitter rage and attacked her with his hunting knife. Mortally wounding her and with nothing to live for, he carried her to the cliff of the hill overlooking the river and leaped with her into the river far below. The woman’s death scream pierced the air until it was silenced by the muddy waters of the Missouri River. The young lover witnessed the couple tumble and drowned in the river, and he also became a victim as he later died of a broken heart.
A century and a half later, the river no longer touches the base of the hill Blackbird Hill, but the young woman’s restless soul remains. According to the legend, on October 17th, the anniversary of the murder-suicide, the woman’s chilling screams can be heard at the top of the hill. Over the years, dozens of people reportedly have heard her cries of terror.

So, what do you believe? Are these just good old-fashion ghost stories passed down over the years?
Or are there really haunting spirits out there at the edge of the water?
Whatever you believe, these tales have intertwined with the history and folklore of these waterways. They have captured our imaginations and can provide us, that is if you’re feeling especially brave, a spooky adventure where you can go see for yourself. But only if you dare.

Happy Halloween

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EXTREME PADDLER PLANS TO PADDLE EVERY RIVER ON THE PLANET

As springtime comes, many paddlers are contemplating their plans for summer adventures. Extreme adventure kayaker Rick "Rhino" Ryan is gearing up for a never been done before odyssey paddling every river on earth. It will be a 50-million-mile journey that will take him to unexplored wildernesses in the far reaches of the world.

"I'm always looking for new epic challenges," said Rhino, "I thought I'd start with all the rivers of America. But then I thought maybe not big enough, maybe North America, and from there it just cascaded into all the rivers of the world. So, I'm going colossal!"

According to Alexa, there are about 165 major rivers in the world. Rivers vary in size and distance. There are 76 rivers in the world over 1000 miles long. Located in the continent of Africa, the Nile River is the longest at 4,135 miles. The Amazon River in South America is 3,980 miles long, while the Mississippi River and the Missouri Rivers is the longest river system in North America at 3,902 miles, just to name a few. There are thousands of smaller rivers, but the exact number is difficult to determine. Hydrologists studying images from a NASA Landsat satellite estimate the United States alone has around 3.5 million miles of river miles. While the earth calculates some 58 million river miles on the planet.
"It's definingly going to be a lot of paddle strokes, "said Rhino.

Rhino is a world-class paddler who's always looking for his next challenge. He's tackled some of the planet's most dangerous waterways for nearly a decade, always looking for that next thrill that most would consider a death wish. He has traveled all the big rivers of the world like the Colorado, Amazon, the rivers of Nepal. But it was down a jungle river in California that made him a legend in the paddling world.
In 2021, brought on during the Covid-19 shutdown, he jumped the fence at Disneyland to paddle Adventureland's Jungle Cruise Waterway, what some called the globe’s most treacherous river.
"I remembered the river ride as a kid," said Rhino, "That was the first trip river trip that got me hooked on paddling. It was crazy! Lions, hippos, tigers, and danger everywhere! I was lucky to survive."
Officials weren't too happy, however. That voyage trip did get him arrested, and he now has a lifetime ban in the park.

"He been thinking of doing this for quite a while," said Dan Masters of Master of Disasters Kayaking & Trips, "A lot of paddling expeditions compare their trip to that of like that of going to the moon. This one is like going to every star in the heavens. But he'll do it. I'm sure he will get it done in half the time most people would think. It would take two or three lifetimes for a lot of paddlers."

While the big-name rivers like the Colorado, Nile, Amazon, and Indus River are all well known. It's the not-so-famous ones that Rhino is looking forward to running the most.
"I plan to be shooting the big whitewater waves, the easy flat water, and every in-between. There will be a lot of first descents down forgotten rivers. There will be some spectacular drops and challenging water along with some incredible views of both remote as well as urban landscapes."

And you will be able to come along. Rhino's odyssey will be shown on Extreme Sports Adventure productions. ESA is the company that produces, The Real Wives of Kayakers. It's a highly rated TV show featuring women partnered with paddlers living the life, that believe it or not, does not always go steady with the flow. That show focuses on women living their dream of setting camera shots, making room for another boat in the garage, lonely shuttle drives, and dealing with smelly wet neoprene.

"I'm excited about having them along." said Rhino, "It will be part travel show, part food, and a lot of action. It will be a really great show or at least a swell beer commercial."

Rhino, who seems to have been prepping for this voyage for years, says he will use 57 different types of boats for his epic expedition.
"I got them all stashed in the garage," said Rhino, "I'll use pack rafts for those small hard-to-navigate rivers. My creek boats for the wild rivers. My sea-going kayaks for long stretches of water. And my canoe for places like the Mississippi. I'll even have a horse tank in Nebraska and a bathtub for Florida."

Rhino's wife Debbie, who will be along for a good part of the trip, said, "I'll miss him when I can't be with him, but it will be great to finally park the car in the garage."

Rhino expects the epic expedition to begin on April 1st.

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HAUNTED WATERS: 13 SPOOKY PLACES TO PADDLE

Photo Illustration by Deborah Ann Klenzman

Nothing in nature is that even; man is the inventor of straight edges. --- Stephen King

It's only in the daylight when we see our waterway playgrounds with wonder and magic. Our favorite lakes offer us that nostalgic serenity we recall from our summers as youths. We look to the bends in wild rivers, leading us on to either the rumble of rapids or floating lazily in the sun. And who doesn't love a day by the sea while watching those mighty waves crash against the shore?

Yes, yes, we will take ease near the water in light of day, where are our imaginations and our innermost fears are not exploited by the sun.
Yet it's in the night when those comforting waters and whimsical shorelines can turn foreboding. With each whisper of sound or shadow in the moonlight, our perceptions of uncertainty, dread, and fear can bewitch us.

In Algernon Blackwood's The Willows, a novella about an adventurous canoe trip down the River Danube it's the night that turns frightful when mysterious forces emerge from within the forest creating disturbing sounds and bizarre shadows.
"I felt of dread was no ordinary ghostly fear," the narrator tells us, "It was infinitely greater, stranger, and seemed to arise from some dim ancestral sense of terror more profoundly disturbing than anything I had known or dreamed of. We had “strayed,” as the Swede put it, into some region or some set of conditions where the risks were great, yet unintelligible to us; where the frontiers of some unknown world lay close about us."

So what's out there enshrouded in or along the watery brink? Is it a ghostly presence from the past? A spirit wandering lost or a phantom bent on destruction.
Or is it just a concoction of some old scary tales meant to make us cringe and look over shoulders in apprehension on a cool October night. What do you believe?

So whether you're daring or doubtful here are few of our nation's haunted waters you might want to paddle (if got the nerve), this Halloween or anytime, for your opportunity to see a ghost.

Seguin Island Lighthouse, Maine

Coastal and Great Lakes lighthouses are filled with rich histories of triumph and tragedy. Stories from these desolated posts have shown both amazing courage as well as madness and murder. Due to the latter, it's no wonder so many lighthouses are considered haunted.

The Seguin Island Lighthouse located off the southern coast of Georgetown, Maine is no exception.

Seguin Island Lighthouse

Commissioned by George Washington in 1795, the lighthouse was rebuilt in 1819, replacing its original wooden tower with stone and then again in 1857 this time installing a bright powerful Fresnel lens into its tower on top of a rocky speck of land about two miles out to sea.

Considered one of the most haunted places in New England, scary tales abound about this lonely beacon.
Witnesses have reported having seen the ghost of a young girl who is said to be buried not far from the lighthouse grounds. They say, she has been seen running up and down the stairs of the tower, laughing and waving.
There are other accounts that the ghost of lighthouse's first keeper John Polereczky, nicknamed the Old Captain is still seen about the outpost at sea.
The story says Polereczky died penniless on the island in 1804 and ever since has haunted the tower and the keepers who came after him.
In 1985, while in process of decommissioning the lighthouse and packing up the place, the apparition of the Old Captain appeared at the bed of the warrant officer warning him not to take the furniture and to leave his home alone.
The very next day, the boat that was to carry that cargo back to the mainland, was sunk in a freak accident while being loaded with that very same furniture.
But perhaps the most frightening story is that of the lighthouse keeper and his wife.
To stave off the loneliness and monotony for his wife, the keeper ordered a piano to their island outpost. She was delighted, but unfortunately, she couldn't play without sheet music which she had only one.
Only able to play one song, she played it again and again and again, until eventually, it drove the lighthouse keeper insane. In a fit of madness, he took an axe and chopped the piano to bits. Then in his rage, he turned on his poor wife and killed her.
Realizing the ghoulish deed that he had just committed, he then took his own life too.
Ever since it's been said, that on foggy nights you can still hear that ghostly piano playing across the waves while both mariners and former keepers have claimed to have seen the ghost of the lightkeeper walking toward the sound carrying an axe.

Hessian Lake, New York
The Knickerbocker state is a bastion for ghostly tales and haunted places. Following the Hudson River upstream from New York City, you will come across the town of Sleepy Hollow where Washington Irving penned his classic tale of Icabod Crane and the Headless Horseman.
Keeping following the river even further and you will reach Bear Mountain State Park and Hessian Lake, perhaps the inspiration for the Hessian soldier looking for his head.
Hessian Lake is a peaceful crystalline body of water that sits at the base of the mountain. While no swimming is allowed, the lake is a perfect spot for kayaks and canoes. And because of the story of how the lake got its name, many folks wouldn't care to take a dip in it anyway.

Hessian Lake

During the Revolutionary War, British Redcoats and German Hessian auxiliaries soldiers engaged American Patriots in a fierce battle along the lake and river. The Americans held the ground behind a stockade wall and detachment of Hessian chasseurs led the charge to capture the fort. Repulsed, again and again, the Hessians and Redcoats eventually overwhelmed the Patriots, but at a great cost.
According to local legend, some 250 Hessians fell during the battle and their bodies and body parts were then cast into the lake. It was said, it turned the water red with blood, prompting it soon to be called "Bloody Lake."
Timothy Dwight who went on to become President of Yale College revealed the horrors of the lake after visiting its battlefield, “We found, at a small distance from Fort Montgomery, a pond of moderate size in which we saw the bodies of several men who had been killed in the assault upon the fort. They were thrown into this pond, the preceding autumn, by the British when probably the water was sufficiently deep enough to cover them. Some were covered at this time but at a depth so small as to leave them distinctly visible. Others had an arm, a leg, a part of the body above the surface...Their faces were bloated and monstrous and their postures were uncouth and distorted."
Years later, the name of the lake was eventually be changed to Hessian Lake, but the creepiness it seems has to have never left.
Ghost hunter Alexandria Holzer, told the local paper in 2016, "There are a lot of lost souls in that area."
Many folks have claimed to see uniformed Hessian spirits roaming the lake's shoreline at night. One even reported specter with missing limbs and glowing eyes.
Of course, that would rule out our Headless Horseman.

Beaver Lake & The French Broad River, North Carolina 

While enjoying a leisurely paddle along the edge of Beaver Lake, don't be surprised if you catch sight of beavers, turtles, osprey and maybe a ghost or two.
Man-made Beaver Lake near Asheville NC is said to have a reputation for ghostly activity after a number of drownings and apparent suicides that have occurred there.
According to local folklore, the lakeshore is haunted by two spirits. One is believed to be that of a young man who drowned in the 1970s, while the other is that of a young woman who is thought to have committed suicide. She is said to be seen on the dam looking down over the water.
While the ghosts of Beaver Lake seem to be lost in sadness, the Siren of the French Broad River is bent on fiendishness.

The French Broad River

Formed some 300 million years ago, the French Broad River is one of the oldest rivers in the world as it flows through Asheville, featuring great hiking and biking unlimited paddling opportunities, that is as long as you can avoid the siren.
Based on a Cherokee legend, the Siren of the French Broad River seems as old as the river itself. The story first appeared in 1845 and was later retold in Charles Montgomery Skinner's 1896 Myths and Legends of Our Own Land.
The tale involves a beautiful dark-skinned and dark-haired woman who enchants her young lovers to the upper reaches of the river that are filled with rapids and whirlpools. Luring them ever closer and closer to the water, she appears to them in the nude at the water edge. When reaching for her, her warm skin suddenly becomes scaly and cold and her face turns into a grinning skull of death. A loud, devilish laugh rings through the forest as her victim is yanked under the water,  never to be seen again.

Blackwater River, Florida
The Blackwater River is considered a favorite spot for canoeing, kayaking, and camping in Florida's panhandle. Streaming through undeveloped lands, paddling the river is said to be like going through beautiful tropical rainforest. But beware, for the Blackwater has two mysterious and sinister residents in its mist.
Locals will warn you to be careful when taking a dip. They say that there's a deathly pale looking woman with long jet-black hair smelling of rotting flesh who will drag you under the water attempting to drown you in the river. So far only a lucky few have escaped her vile clutches.
While in Blackwater River State Park, a woman wearing a long white gown covered with blood is said to appear near the oldest white Atlantic cedar tree in the park. Legend says she was sacrificed there in a bloody ritual.
Rumors now say, that people who visit the spot experience chills and have the feeling of being suffocated as results of all sacrificial rituals that took place there.
And one final warning. If you do see this ghostly woman is white, don't look in her eyes and runway. Otherwise, you could be next.

Tombigbee River, Alabama
Tales of ghost ships and phantom vessels are common folklore along both coast and the Great Lakes. Fleeting images of ships disappearing into the fog have been reported by sailors and beachcombers alike.

Tombigbee River

Over the years, witnesses have reported seeing “The Phantom Steamboat of the Tombigbee” fully engulfed in flames along the shore of  Alabama's Tombigbee River near Pennington, Alabama.
Side-wheeled paddle steamer Eliza Battle, was the most luxurious riverboat on the river until disaster claimed her on a cold winter night.
On March 1, 1858, she was fully loaded with more than 1,200 bales of cotton and carrying 101 passengers and crew when a fire broke out on the main deck. Panic ensued as the blaze spread over the boat. Passengers mostly in their nightclothes could only escape the flames by leaping into the icy river waters.
In the end, what was left of the ship sank leaving somewhere between 26 to 33 people dead due to mostly exposure in the freezing water.
Soon after the disaster, ghost stories began to circulate of witnesses seeing the ill-fated “Eliza Battle" ablaze again near the place where she sank accompanied by screams of people begging to be rescued. The sightings of the burning steamers are to happen mostly on cold and windy nights.

Mississippi River, Missouri & Illinois
From its source up in Minnesota all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico the Mississippi River is brimming with bigger-than-life stories and legends and of course, ghostly yarns.
And nowhere is the river most haunted than from Grand Tower, Illinois to just past Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

According to the local folklore, the paranormal activity likely stems from the two massive boat accidents and one spooky reunion at Tower Rock.
On an October night in 1869, the steamship Stonewall was traveling on the river when in caught fire in what became one of the worst disasters on the river.
It's estimated that the death toll was somewhere between 200 to 300. But, nobody knows for sure because the passenger list was burned up with the steamboat.
Witnesses reported watching The Stonewall burn for nearly two hours before sinking into the river on that eerily dark and quiet.
Seventeen-years later on another October night, the steamboat Mascotte's boiler exploded in engulfing that ship in a fire. Eyewitnesses said, as the fire raged, the ship's smokestack fell over the gangplank, trapping passengers attempting to escape. All in all, the river disaster claimed 35 lives.
Psychics say the spirits of the dead in these disasters still remain to this day. They have told of seeing the ghosts of these tragic ship fires making lonely pilgrimages back to the water from the local cemetery and of seeing unearthly hands and fingers reaching out of the dark river water.
And it's also not uncommon for barge captains and crews to observe unexplainable lights bouncing across the water and hearing ghostly screams and cries for help while passing through the spooky stretch of river.

Tower Rock

The nearby Tower Rock offers even more supernatural lore for the Big Muddy. The 60-foot rock formation has been a silent sentinel along the river throughout its history. Boatmen would celebrate passing by it with a drink of good cheer. River pirates used it as an ambush spot, and Meriwether Lewis of the Lewis & Clark would write about its peril: “strong currents thus meeting each other form an immense and dangerous whirlpool which no boat dare approach in that state of the water…”

But the spookiest story of the rock happened in 1839 when an entire wedding party's boat got caught in a giant whirlpool and sucked under the muddy waters. Only one slave survived.
On that very day, a baby niece to the groom was born and given the same name as the bride. And twenty years later to celebrate her birthday, she holds a party upon Tower Rock.
And as the story goes, the gathering was suddenly astonished when members of the wedding party arise out of the Mississippi River and present her with a mysterious parchment scroll forewarning her of the Civil War. After delivering the prophetic message the entire ghostly group once again disappeared into the murky waters of the river.

Yampa River, Colorado 

Stories of boaters encounter with La Llorona or The Weeping Woman have been told along river banks all the way from Montana to New Mexico. And, nowhere does legend live more than on the shores of Colorado's Yampa River, where the folktale warns, that if you hear La Llorona crying, you must run away as fast as you can.

Yampa River

The legend of The Weeping Woman has been a part of Hispanic culture in the Southwest dating back to the conquistadores. It is said, that La Llorona was the most beautiful girl in the village with long flowing black hair. She was very poor until she married a rich man. She loved him very much and blesses him with many children. But she is heartbroken when she finds out he was unfaithful. In her despair or jealous rage, she takes her children to the river cast each one of them into the river.
It's only then, when she sees her young children sinking into the current of the river, that she regrets her madness and rushes toward the water to save them. But, as the story goes, she either falls, striking her head or drowns suffering the same fate as her children.
And in death, her remorseful soul must now wander the shores of the river alone weeping for her children.
River boaters to this day, say they have heard her wailing along the river canyons. Wearing gown white, she is said to roam the rivers and creeks perpetually crying for her children.
It's also been told, that she is to be feared because some believe she will drag an unsuspecting victim and drown them in a watery grave like she did to her children.

Yellowstone Lake & The Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River, Wyoming
It's not surprising that the oldest and most famous national park abounds with legends, myths, and tall tales, but did you ever think that Yellowstone National Park was haunted too? And by the number of ghost stories reported in the park, bears aren't the only to look out for.
Two of the park's folklore favorites come from Yellowstone Lake and the Lower Falls.
Paddle out on to Yellowstone Lake, the park's largest body of water and you may come across the small and uninhabited Stevenson Island which some folks say is haunted.

E.C. Waters

The skeletal remains of the wrecked E.C. Waters steamboat lay beached along the island's shore, but if that not creepy enough there is a story about the body of a drowned frontiersman who appears lying facedown nearby.
As told in S.E. Schlosser's Creepy Yellowstone, in 1929 a park worker checking out the island stumbled upon a body clan in buckskin looking like a fur trapper from the prior century.
"I turned the body over and stared into a pair of bulging brown eyes on a blue-white face," said the worker in his account, "And then, in between one breath and the next, the body vanished. Suddenly my hand was gripping empty air instead of an old-fashioned jacket.
Spooked by the episode, The park worker quickly left the island on his boat saying, "No more ghosts for me!"
And even older ghostly tale dates back to 1870s when a group of Native Americans being pursued militiamen for stealing horses was swept over the 70-foot falls of the Lower Yellowstone.
As S.E. Schlosser told it in Creepy Yellowstone, the small band of Native Americans was no match for the well-armed militia. They hastily constructed a raft to cross the river above the falls in an attempt to get away.

The Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River

In a hail of bullets, men and women of the tribes' raft along with stolen horses swimming alongside were swept downstream in spite of their best paddling efforts.
The doomed craft moved closer and closer to the falls, "carrying the wailing women and the unmoving braves, who began chanting a soft death-song."
In silence, the members of the militia watched as the raft and slipped over the edge of the falls disappearing into the roaring white foam with its human cargo.
And to this day, it's said, that when you stand on the platform at the brink of the Lower Falls of Yellowstone, you can still hear the voices of the chanting warriors singing their death song over the roar of the falls. And sometimes, the river water flows with a red tinge, as if stained with blood.

The Great Salt Lake, Utah
The creepy tale of Jean Baptiste is a ghoulish one indeed. A gravedigger in Salt Lake City, Baptiste was discovered to have been stealing clothes and jewelry from the bodies he had buried.
Over three years, Baptiste was said to have robbed the graves of more than 300 people, stripping them of clothing and possessions, before dumping their naked bodies back in the caskets.

The Great Salt Lake

The public was outraged for such a loathsome crime, but the case didn't call for his hanging. But even so, the local authorities devised an especially cruel punishment. First, his forehead was marked with the sentence, “Branded For Robbing The Dead.” Next, his ears were cut off, and then so no one would ever have to look at him again, he was banished to a remote island in the Great Salt Lake.
Baptiste was paddled out to Fremont Island, the lake's third-largest island on its eastern side and pretty much left there to die.
Weeks past before authorities came to check up on Baptiste but found no sign of him anywhere.
There was speculation that he built a makeshift raft and drown in the lake while trying to escape, while another story says, vengeful citizens came island to exact their own justice. Years later, it was said, hunters found a skeleton believed to be Baptiste's with leg irons.
All that matters is, he was never seen alive again. His ghost, however, still haunts the isle and the great lake.
It's been reported that the ghastly apparition of Jean Baptiste has been spotted along the lakeshore carrying an armful of wet and rotting deadmen's clothes before walking towards the water and then disappearing into thin air.

Cannon Beach, Oregon
At the northwest corner of Oregon, you'll find the idyllic coastal town of Cannon Beach offering windswept beaches, stunning coastline views and of course its share of spine-tingling tales
The Argonauta Inn Beach House is said to be haunted by the spectral presence of Genghis Hansel.

Cannon Beach

No one seems to know anything about him except he was a guest of the hotel before he disappeared without a trace during a storm in 1952. Today's hotel patrons have reported feeling his foreboding presence while staying there. Our guess is, he must have really liked the room service.
About the same time that Genghis Hansel's ghost started spooking the beach house, The Bandage Man, began scaring the bejebus out of the area's teenagers at the secluded makeout spot along the beach.
Apparently, the "The Bandage Man" completely kills the mood when he shows up in the rearview mirror completely wrapped in bandages and smelling of rotting flesh.
Said to be a victim of some terrible sawmill accident, the phantom shakes and pounds on the car or truck doors and windows causing the young couples to scream in terror.
In some stories, he quickly disappears, while in others, after the couples escape by driving back to town, it's only then they discover the bloody fingerprints on their vehicle's door and windows.

So what do you believe? Are these just creepy stories passed down over the years? Or are there really ghostly spirits out there. Whatever you believe, these tales have become intertwined with the history and lore of these waterways. They have captured our imaginations and provide us with an opportunity for a spooky paddling adventure to go see it for ourselves. But, only if you dare. 

Happy Halloween

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LIKE DAD

 BY OUTSIDE ADVENTURE TO THE MAX GUEST BLOGGER TAYLOR CARLSON

My siblings and I continue to have the same argument. Who is the most like Mom or Dad? While I can see a lot of our mother in my sisters, by having a passion for cooking and strong religious family values. I started to think, what makes me the most like my father? I agree that unlike my younger brother, Cole, I share more similar interests in pop-culture with my father.

From my enjoyment of old adventure movies like Indiana Jones to his taste in 70s folk music to even, yes, wearing the same out-of-style clothing I wore back in high school (apparently, Livestrong bracelets aren’t a thing anymore). Yes, as I’ve gotten older I’ve become more and more like my Dad. And while this may sound like a sigh of relief for my brother, there’s one thing that he, along with me and Dad, share a strong passion for The Great Outdoors.

One of the first camping trips I remember sharing with Dad was during the week of Father’s Day in 2002. Dad and I, along with my Boy Scout troop, took part in a father-son fishing trip to the Paint Lake Provincial Park near Thompson, Manitoba, a small nickel mining town near the Hudson Bay. Prior to this trip, Dad could only attend small, weekend outings to nearby Minnesota lakes due to his busy schedule.

However, that was not the case with embarking on a 700-mile trip through the Canadian wilderness to spend one week in a wooden lodge, only eating nothing, but what we caught (or what the resort diner was serving across the lake).

At the time, I was at that age where I was not that impressed with being in the middle of nowhere. Instead, I just wanted to do teenager stuff like run around in the woods with my friends or simply stay inside my cabin and read some paperback book that I took along. But my father was excited and woke me up every morning at 4 AM to watch the sunrise as we cast our fishing poles off the dock. By the end of the week, I ended up catching the biggest walleye out of the troop.

Since that trip, every summer, to this day, I long for spending time in nature. The wide open lakes, the sound of the loons, the smell of a campfire, and the sight of the northern lights. But nothing reminds me more of that than of the great state of Minnesota. In June 2006, as I was coming to end of my journey on the Boy Scout trail and advancing towards the lifetime rank of Eagle Scout, my father had this grand idea for me to continue my career in Scouting by encouraging me to apply for my first ever job as a camp counselor at Camp Wilderness, a Boy Scout camp in northern Minnesota.

His reasoning was he wanted me to have a “life experience” and not work the boring, in-town job at a local McDonald's like other teens. Despite being against the idea at first, in retrospect, the summer of 2006 was one of the best summers of my life due to my time spent as a counselor.

In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I continued going for seven more summers, even becoming a counselor at my sisters’ Camp Fire Girls summer camp. Dad and the family did visit me often on weekends. While Mother took us to cute nearby towns to enjoy an ice cream cone, Dad took me on even more camping trips like to Bemidji State Park or to Lake Itasca, the source of the Mississippi River.
> It was during these trips that I picked up another trait from my father: becoming that annoying know-it-all guy on a vacation who points out historical landmarks only to give a history lesson to those who listen. In repeated trips to Bemidji, I don’t know how many people I have told people that the local Dairy Queen is built on the sight of tribal huts of Chief Bemidji.

As me and my siblings became older, our days spent as counselors became numbered. Gone were the days of long summer camping trips with the Boy Scouts. Instead, the focus became on smaller, trips to go kayaking. It was time for us to spend as a family, reminiscing with stories around the campfire about previous camping trips. During the kayaking trips, Dad chose to go to places that we had never been before, mostly so that he could buy a new T-shirt from the gift shop.

On one-Fourth of July trip, we were kayaking through the Old Broken Down Dam on the river as I calmly paddle down river, texting some girl on my phone, as Cole and Dad excitedly awaited upcoming rapids. Dad warned me to put away my phone as the current will become stronger and that I might drop it. While I insisted that he was wrong that I won’t drop my phone, I didn’t predict that I was going to fall out of my kayak and into the water.

While I survived just fine, my phone did not. I was upset, but Dad knew how to help… by taking us all to our traditional last stop: Pizza Ranch Buffet!  Looking back, out of all the camping trips I have taken part of with the Boy Scouts or as a counselor, nothing has been more fun than giving me lifelong memories attending these trips with my father.

Happy Father's Day
Taylor Carlson
June 2017

Taylor Carlson is the oldest son of Outside Adventure to Max blogger Nick Carlson. He grew up in Fargo, North Dakota and spent many summers in camping, hiking, and boating in Minnesota. He now resides in Omaha, Nebraska. 

Up River Without A Shuttle

 “Going up that river was like traveling back to the beginning of the world, when the plants ran wild and the trees were kings. We sailed up an empty river into a great and silent forest"  --Joesph Conrad,  Heart of Darkness...

 In the past couple of weeks, I have been taking trips up the river and then back down. It is challenging in a way for me. All explorers went up the river from Lewis & Clark to Teddy Roosevelt. It's the drive to see what is around the next bend and the anticipation of not knowing what will be seen.

My kayak partner Erik Allen and I were for that challenge last month when we paddled up the North Fork of the American River from Upper Lake Clementine. We had traveled up another section of the river before at a place called Rattlesnake Bar and above Folsom Lake. There is a mixture of lake and river. Above Lake Clementine, it would be all river. Going up the North Fork follows an ever-rising gradient. The water comes in swift fashion. We would paddle pool to pool portaging through the rapids. Erik's longer sea kayak would help him muscle through the fast current a few times by vigorously paddling as hard as he could to pass over the ledge where the water was in a boil. Its nature's rowing machine.

"This is a marathon, not a sprint," Luke Kimmes told the Des Moines Register  "Physically, it's very demanding to paddle nine to 12 hours a day, but a lot of it is up here (he points to his head). It's that mind over matter idea."
Kimmes and five others are on different odyssey this year. They are on the Adventure to Rediscover North America Expedition, canoeing from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean. The journey will take them through ten states, and five Canadian provinces traveling the most way the upstream on the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers. It's well past 2,000 miles upstream before they are finally going downstream in the Red River Valley of the North and into Canada.
"This is the type of trip I dreamt about when I was a kid," said Kimmes, "It's a passion of mine to show others that getting outside and enjoying the environment is good for the soul. It's a lot better than sitting at a desk."

 I compare it to climbing steps. On some rivers, you will feel a gentle tug or push. When a river turns, it forms a bend. The strongest and deepest current will usually be found on the outside of that curve. So while Erik tries to power paddle through, I take the easy way, finding where the rapids are the narrowest to the pools. Locking my boat against the eddies, a relative calm where the main current flows reverse,  I climb out of my kayak and push it through the fast water. Leaning into the streaming and bracing against the boat.
I have waded before. In the Midwest, we could never really wade in many rivers. Their bottoms were made of mud and silt. You would quickly sink up to your ankles or knees in muck. Don't even think of wearing a pair of shoes. You would either leave them stuck in the mud or spend the next hours trying to scrape the sludge off them. There it's better to go barefoot with the mud oozing between your toes.
 Water shoes are a must today. A couple of weeks ago this water was snow. It is still cold against my legs and feet. This water has enough power to knock me down and the rocks underneath are slippery and jagged. My neoprene boots hold in my warmth and also protect my feet in the rocky river bottom. In my mind, I think about to the explorers and gold miners who stood ankle deep in this cold stream searching for new lands and new treasure. Before long we are back flat water with a roar of the rapids behind us.

"Really, it speaks to what this trip means to me, which is if you have a passion, part of passion is struggling and sacrificing for what you want." said the mastermind Adventure to Rediscover North America Expedition, Winchell Delano in the same interview with Des Moines Register, "The feeling when you cross that divide and you're going downstream again, it's like delayed gratification through cathartic pain."

In the Midwest the slope is measured in inches. It's like pouring water on a pool table and watching it meander to the table's lean. In the foothills of California, if there is water, it comes cascading down the canyons offering scenic beauty and solitude.  At one spot we are treated with the sight of a bald eagle. It pays us no mind as we paddle on in a quiet pool. When soaring, it could be on to the next canyon in the time it takes us to paddle around one bend. It's all new to us, even though it has been mapped, surveyed and Google earthed. When we are out here paddling up stream little matters. It's like we are the first to see it, hear it and touch it.
"Just one more bend," we say to each other. Or maybe even one further up. Lets see how far we can go, powered by trail mix and granola bar before turning back. Then we can turn around and ride the bouncy gentle rapids back to still waters.

Urban Paddler

The Mississippi River and downtown St Paul, Minnesota.

There is a whirl of activity at Hidden Falls Park in St. Paul, Minnesota. Shuttle buses are coming and going. Kayaks and canoes are being unloaded and carried to the grassy staging area next to the river. Numbers are have been assigned, pictures are being taken, while water, apples and granola bars are packed into the boats. It is the annual Migthyssippi River Adventure Race day on the Mississippi River. Over a 100 hundred paddlers have signed up for the 14-mile charity event through the Twin Cities. The paddler's instructions on the river are easy: Be Safe, stay to the right of the river when traveling downstream. Avoid all boats and barges and have fun.
A countdown from the loudspeakers and soon the river is filled with kayaks and canoes of every color and size. Before long the paddlers spread out going past Fort Snelling State Park and the skyline of St Paul giving each one their own perspective of the famous river. At times it is gritty and industrial, but also offers an oasis of nature in the heart of city dwellings.
Most paddlers feel like they are discovering it for the first time. They are surprised that an urban river can contain so much beauty and nature. It happens all the time for urban paddlers. The waterways thought to be dirty and polluted are found clean, inviting and full of wildlife. On the Red River between Fargo and Moorhead, I have seen deer, beaver and even a bald eagle along the bends of the rivers just blocks away from downtown. River otters splash and hide in the rocks underneath the Rainbow Bridge over Lake Natoma and the American River, while farther down Californian quail, deer, and Canadian geese find a haven in the sloughs.

The American River Parkway

On the river urban views are blocked by trees. The only reminder that one is even close to civilization is going to the cities train and highway bridges. The buzz of traffic echoes off the water giving us the only clue we are close to home. In some places, we go back in time past turn of the century mills and remnants. Along the Red River on the Moorhead side, I can still find broken bottles from the prohibition days when North Dakota was dry and Minnesota taverns were right on the river. On the American River, huge piles of dredge tailings are still visible from gold mining days. The waterways are no longer highways or dumping grounds and the rivers have now reclaimed their banks.

Paddling in downtown Fargo, North Dakota.

Canoeist Natalie Warren founder of the outdoor education nonprofit Wild River Academy has trekked the waterways across the country to observe how rivers are promoted in their communities. In a recent interview with Canoe & Kayak Magazine said, "When I paddled urban rivers from Minneapolis to Hudson Bay and from Minnesota down to the Gulf of Mexico, I realized that our local water trails have their own beauty and, even more, provide a classroom to learn how our country uses rivers. My experiences on wild and urban rivers inspired me to speak about building a culture around urban paddling, diversifying the paddling community, and increasing recreation, positively impacting all aspects of society."

Natalie Warren left and Ann Raiho in Fargo, N.D., during the 2011 Minneapolis to Hudson Bay Trip

Warren's goal is to increase recreation through the public waterways in river towns with the addition outfitters, hiking and bike paths, restaurants and interpretive centers, campgrounds and most important access to the water.
 "I hope to highlight the positive ripple effects of opening up to the river and prioritizing water trails to improve recreation and trails, tourism and economies, and increased environmental education and ecosystem health. It all starts with a paddle in the water. Every time you paddle locally you are partaking in a larger movement for the betterment of communities, ecosystems, and the future of river-town economies."
Paddlers taking part in the Mightyssippi River Adventure finished the day under the Interstate 94 bridge, 14 miles downstream. They came away with sore muscles and smiles with this annual day on the Mississippi. Of course for some, this experience is only a warm up to their annual Boundary Waters trip or lifelong dream of going down the Grand Canyon. However, paddling locally and exploring their neighborhood water trail gave them a low-cost view of the river, right in their own backyard.