Fording Streams and Rivers When Hiking

You are braver than I am, @2sweed. I don't think that I have usually tried to wade through water where i thought it might be dangerous or the current might be too swift.
Your suggestions do sound like you know what you are doing though, so you must be very experienced. I have trouble with balance anyway; and I learned early on that the rocks in even a shallow creek can be very slippery. I do usually carry a stck to help with balance (as you can see in my avatar), but now I pretty much avoid any place where I think I might slip and fall.

 

You are right about that, @2sweed! I always loved wading around in creeks, too. Sometimes we found crawdads hiding under the rocks, and the kids and I had a lot of fun chasing them from rock to rock in the slippery creeks trying to catch the little critters. They were always mad when we did catch one of them, and it was fun holding the crawdad and watching him wave his tiny claws at us angrily. If they got a hold of you on the finger (or anywhere), it sure did hurt though. We didn't keep them, or eat them like some people like to do. For us, it was strictly a "catch and release" kind of sport, and the fun was in the stalking them down and catching them.

 

I am content to just sit on the bank, @2sweed; but I still like to have my fishing pole and catch a few of those fishes as they go swimming by ! When Robin and I were out fishing this fall, there was a huge brownish fish that swam right up next to the shore, and i was sure wishing that he would try biting on my bait; but he just was cruising through and not eating , I guess.

My friend (who goes by the user name of Hayrake) is an avid camper and fisherman. She and her husband take the horses and go on trail rides all of the time, plus they have kind of a camp area that they like to go to and spend a week or more at a time camping and riding and fishing in the summer. I would love to still be able to do all of the things that she does. She is in a senior forum that I am in, and she was posting some awesome pictures of their trail rides, and one of her husband with a whole pile of nice catfish that he had caught.

But, I think i will not be doing that, and like you said, just enjoying the stream and watching the fish swimming by is still a good thing, too.

 

Hayrake did actually sign up but I think she is still waiting to be verified . I am looking forward to her stories, too, 2Sweed. She is still young enough to go out and trailride, fish, and camp. When I was her age; I was still doing those things, too; now I mostly just do little things like the afternoon hike with Robin.
I went to Walmart and found myself a sturdy pair of tennis shoes, so I have something better than my sandals for when we go out to the lake again.
The ground was slippery because it was muddy, plus it was a bad slope, and had tree roots to trip over. My old sandals were totally sliding around on my feet; and trying to turn sideways ; so I realized that I definitely needed some better shoes.
When we are out, Robin is always finding rocks or something that has a fossil in it, and I enjoy seeing the fossils, too. The big rocks along the side of the quarry have a lot of seashells in them, and little bits of fossila from when the area was a shallow sea at one time.
I also like to look at interesting little wild plants. The violets are pretty. I have a lot of those in my yard at home, so they are not unusual to see around here, but always pretty nestled in the green undergrowth.