River Crossings

Going to be doing part of the Old River Trail in the Buffalo this weekend, and Eddie and I were talking about various ways to do river crossings. We will have about 6 crossings that will probably be over the tops of our boots, so I thought I would get some ideas as to what is everyone's favorite way to cross a river in the cold.

Most of these crossings this time of year is nothing more than a few steps to cross the river... When I did it in November the widest point was less than 20 feet. But on the average they are just over the top of my high top boots. Not a lot of stones to step on to cross but it is very rocky. An the crossings are very fequent and the problem with wearing a shoe that you can slip out of for a bare foot crossing is that the rest of the trail is deep sand. I am thinking of 4 Kitchen trash bags.. The Glad Force Flex ones.. I know these suckers are very strong. I think I can simply slide one on each foot and walk to the other side. Then slip it back into my pocket. The other two are incase one develops a leak. The bags are cheap, very ultra light and take up almost zilch space. They also can be used for.. are you ready for this... picking up trash hahahahaha

Thanks for the tip TM, that sounds like a really good idea. My boots are gortex, but not all that high. Most of the time I just man up and cross bare footed, but now it would take all day to warm them back up. I really like your trash bag idea.

Dwight

I am not a big fan of Gortex on my feet. I have had the stuff freeze while wearing it. Not fun walking in a block of ice for a day. I usually perfer a all leather high top boot that waterproff. But when the water gets from 6 to 14 inches what do you do... lol. I looked at the knee boots but thats a expenisive fix and I would not want to walk 12 miles in thouse things lol. Then theres gators but thats not really a good choise for water crossings and I don't care to walk in them. So I was thinking of a bag. HEY TRASH BAGS came to mind. But they have to be thick as you will tear through them when you walk in them. But I know the Force Flex ones are tough, puncure proof and light and cheap. But I don't know how abrasive resilant they are so I prob. will take 4 just in case. Colt said he had the 60 gallon contractor bags but I think they may be to large. You will have to hold them up afterall. The tall Kitchen bags are going to be ideal I think. I am now almost totally conveinced about these things lol. I will have to try them out now just to give a test report when I get back.

And I will try out the contractor bags to see how they work out. Being big may help in holding them up... I dunno. We will see. Any other ideas you guys have? Would love to test out various options this weekend to see what works best and report back.

Oh and Preacha what you going to do? Now that your going to MAN up hahahahaha. The crossings is like 6 if I remember and all within like 3 or 4 miles...

I think I am gonna try the force flex bags myself. I really like that idea.

Dwight

I got a box of 100 hahahaha..