Bad Vibes on remote waters ?

[troutbert]

What weirds me out sometimes, is when I'm literally in the middle of nowhere on a stream and I see one of those stacked stone figures. I do scatter them.

The people that do that are harmless, IMHO.

 

[krayfish2]

I knock them over too 🔨🔨

 

[dryflyguy]

What weirds me out sometimes, is when I'm literally in the middle of nowhere on a stream and I see one of those stacked stone figures. I do scatter them.

Are you talking about stone piles people make to a mark split or fork in a trail?

 

[troutbert]

Are you talking about stone piles people make to a mark split or fork in a trail?

If you Google "stacking stone art" and look at the images, you'll get the idea.

In my earlier days of hiking and trout fishing, I don't recall seeing this. But it's become pretty common in more recent times. I can't remember exactly when I started seeing these in Spring Creek canyon and other places. Maybe 10 years ago?

 

[wildtrout2]

Are you talking about stone piles people make to a mark split or fork in a trail?

No, these are stacked stones that are nowhere near any kind of trail/trails. I usually find them in the creek bed itself, or very close to a stream.
As TB mentioned, I'm sure the folks that do this are harmless, but I still find it pretty strange.

 

[dryflyguy]

No, these are stacked stones that are nowhere near any kind of trail/trails. I usually find them in the creek bed itself, or very close to a stream.
As TB mentioned, I'm sure the folks that do this are harmless, but I still find it pretty strange.

Guess people who don't fish, have to find something else to amuse themselves along streams

 

[wildtrout2]

In my earlier days of hiking and trout fishing, I don't recall seeing this. But it's become pretty common in more recent times.

I agree. I started seeing this in roughly the last ten years as well. It's a fairly new phenomenon.

 

[dryflyguy]

I had a strange evening while trying to camp along Big Pine creek years ago.
It was at a designated state forest camp site located a short distance downstream of Slate Run village.

I prepared my bedding to sleep in the back of my truck as usual, and crawled inside to go to sleep.
Shortly afterward, I felt something scurry across my chest.
Flipping a light on, found that a mouse had gotten inside the back of my truck.

Getting rid of it turned out to be a major chore.
Ended up pretty much pulling everything out of the back of the truck to finally get the little devil out.

Put everything back, and finally got settled back in after midnight.

Just as I was starting to nod off, a weird scraping noise started underneath the truck.
Got up and took a look under neath. Found a porcupine, and his quills were scraping the undercarriage
every time he moved. And it wouldn't leave.

I got a stick and kept prodding it. Finally getting it out from underneath, and shooed it away.
Or so I thought.

Shortly after trying to get back to sleep, the scraping started again.
And sure enough, porky was back.
Guess he either like it under there, or was trying to get into the truck.

It was like 3 AM by now, and I had enough.
After prodding the critter out from underneath again, I got out of there.
And spent what was left of the night at a pull off along slate run road

 

[Zipper]

They are called cairns.

 

[wbranch]

I had a potbelly pig follow me down a stream as I fished. When I stopped the pig would stop and watch. The guy at the house next to the place where I parked said he does that to everybody .. he likes people.

Oh yeah .... Lordville is a very odd place. A lot of snakes too.

Lordville is a bit too sketchy for me. I used to fish there often but have stopped because property owners vandalized two of my friends vehicles. Painted them with some extremely hard to remove red paint on the windshield and mirrors. Also laid nails that stood upright all around the tires. Wrote a message "Don't ever come back". That sucks but it isn't worth someone ruining my car.

 

[wildtrout2]

Lordville is a bit too sketchy for me. I used to fish there often but have stopped because property owners vandalized two of my friends vehicles. Painted them with some extremely hard to remove red paint on the windshield and mirrors. Also laid nails that stood upright all around the tires. Wrote a message "Don't ever come back". That sucks but it isn't worth someone ruining my car.

Wow, that's rather extreme! Sadly, it doesn't surprise me though. I guess it's just another negative sign of the times.

 

[falcon]

That stuff was going on at Long Eddy also. People there got caught.

 

[dryflyguy]

Lordville is a bit too sketchy for me. I used to fish there often but have stopped because property owners vandalized two of my friends vehicles. Painted them with some extremely hard to remove red paint on the windshield and mirrors. Also laid nails that stood upright all around the tires. Wrote a message "Don't ever come back". That sucks but it isn't worth someone ruining my car.

Were your friends parked at the access lot?

Have gone there several times when the lot was full.
Thought about parking above at the end of the bridge, along the tracks.
But was warned by others not to do it

Lordville is strange
After I do park in the lot, I go up and walk out on the bridge to take a quick look for risers.
A few times times locals have driven by, honking their horns and motioning for me to get out.

 

[hooker-of-men]

Is there some specific context or history to the Lordville situation? Seems bizarre there would be some kind of local concerted effort to drive people out. (I know it happens with tourists in all sorts of situations, but still strange in regard to parking/ fishing at a well known spot.)

 

[wbranch]

The incident I am referring to occurred when they were parking on the road. The road from the beginning at the bridge all the way down to the parking lot is a public thoroughfare. They were parked in the hollow where the road and the RR tracks are very close together. I parked there for decades from around 1972 to 1995 and never had any issues. I guess new people moved in and want unobstructed views of the road & river.

 

[dudemanspecial]

This year I was fishing a brookie stream with a friend and a wind came up. It didn't seem like the wind was all that strong, but it had the tree branches moving.

A branch fell down from a tree right next to me.

Then a branch came down and hit me square on top of the head. It wasn't big enough to do serious damage, but it was big enough to hurt and scare the heck out of me. That shook my confidence for a while.
I've never had a branch come down and hit me in the head before. It's kind of surprising considering how much fishing, hiking, camping I've down with tree limbs overhead.

This is the number 1 thing that is in the back of my mind when out fishing. You never know. There was a couple jogging on a trail in Pittsburgh a few years ago that had a branch fall on them and it killed one (maybe both can't remember for sure) of them. A friend had one fall on his CRV and almost killed him. An inch further could have crushed his skull. Totalled the car but he didn't have a scratch.

 

[dudemanspecial]

I used to get stoned while fishing pretty regularly, and consequently would get really weirded out when fishing far enough away that I couldn't see my car or anyone else. Every little noise, everything I thought I saw just made me get that feeling like something was about to attack me or something. Many a time I walked back closer to civilization in the middle of good fishing because I was tweaking out.

Now I never do that (when fishing) and pretty much never get that feeling anymore. I get so ultra focused on the fishing and someone could literally sneak up on me and I would never know.

 

[troutbert]

To avoid getting the heebee jeebees, it helps to not watch horror movies.

Or the news.

 

[KeviR]

I floated the W Br Susq from Karthus to Keating several years ago. (Prior poster might remember that). We were canoeing to fish the tribs for brookies. At one (Little Birch Run, I think) we split up to assess whether it was worth continuing. I was walking upstream with a high bank on my left, mostly covered by a drooping tree branch. The deeper sie of the run was on my right, so I was trying to stay tight to the tree branch as I waded into position to fish. I was standing facing the run with my back to the branch. I was getting ready to cast and I backed up just a bit more and a rattler started to buzz and it seemed like it was right next my ear. Man, did I jump! I stumbled as I did, and fell face first in the creek and banged both knees on the bottom. Anyway, I picked myself up and took stock of the situation. Using my rod, I swept a twig of the branch aside to see the snake. It was on a ledge at about shoulder height and maybe only 2' from the branch. So it really was pretty much by my ear when it started to rattle. I went to find my buddy and we got out of there. After that we just called it Bad Karma Run. I still get the willies thinking about it.

 

[krayfish2]

Speaking of long eddy, had some bad experiences there. Big shaved head dude on 4 wheeler pulled up right next to my driver side mirror as I backed over the tracks. "What's up p***y?" then turned the 4 wheeler and pelted me with a rooster tail of gravel. When I yelled, other dude on foot stepped out in the yard with a AR slung across his belly. "leave, you're not welcome". Don't know if it was real or airsoft as it was 11pm or so.

If you parked on the gravel by the tracks, they'd have your car towed to impound in Margaretville! If you aren't familiar, it's like parking on Penns and your car is towed to Harrisburg. Think there was an incident where an angler pulled a pistol and troopers responded. Pre-covid, they'd park cars, lawn tractor and other things on the ramp so you could not access ramp. Came to a head when they got a front end loader to put up a highway barrier across the ramp. They stranded several boats that evening. Couple weeks later, I called DEC officer on my 3 hour drive up and he was actually standing on the ramp with the property owner. I heard the officer in the background say..."Do I make myself perfectly f*****g clear. If I come back again, no conversation, straight to jail". Since then, no issues.