🚀 go-pugleaf

"Nunes" <nunes@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:21c9f6cc.0211040731.2663b25c@posting.google.com...
> Does anyone know of a trail system that uses irrigation ditches.  We
> have several ditches in the community and want to use them as walking
> trails but need to figure out a way to approch the ditch companies.
> There major concerns regarding liability.  Any help that you could
> provide would be appreciated.

Not irrigation ditches but the C&O Canal has a LONG system of walking
trails.

The C&O Canal (from Washington, DC to ?? Maryland) still has water for much
or most of its length and is also a canoe route.   The tow path (the Canal
was started before the Civil War) is good for bikes and hiker/campers.

Seems to me that you folks out West are missing a opportunity with your
irrigation canals.   That would make GREAT canoe canals.   I understand that
there is a significant current in these waterways to the strong of back
would go UP stream and the recreational type will go DOWN stream.   Money
can be made renting and backhauling canoes.

I think it would be a LOT OF FUN to canoe through the middle of a near
desert!

In article <3dc6af16$0$22625@dingus.crosslink.net>, gilmer@crosslink.net
writes:

> Seems to me that you folks out West are missing a opportunity with your
> irrigation canals.   That would make GREAT canoe canals.   I understand that
> there is a significant current in these waterways to the strong of back
> would go UP stream and the recreational type will go DOWN stream.   Money
> can be made renting and backhauling canoes.

Irrigation canals are not shipping canals.  They rarely present a clear
channel.  People who fall into irrigation canals often die.  Irrigation
canals run through pipes, weirs, culverts and pumping stations, and flow
rates change without notice.

There are some shipping canals in the west that you can canoe, like the
Hood Canal in Washington State.  And of course, you can canoe the entire
Puget Sound, if you like, or any of dozens of rivers or thousands of
lakes.

--
http://home.teleport.com/~larryc

>
> Irrigation canals are not shipping canals.  They rarely present a clear
> channel.  People who fall into irrigation canals often die.  Irrigation
> canals run through pipes, weirs, culverts and pumping stations, and flow
> rates change without notice.

I guess my mental image of a Western Irrigation Canal came from some old WPA
photo showing a canal between built up banks meandering through the desert
someplace.

One would think from just from an efficiency viewpoint, the managers would
want to attempt to keep a near constant flow.

>
> There are some shipping canals in the west that you can canoe, like the
> Hood Canal in Washington State.  And of course, you can canoe the entire
> Puget Sound, if you like, or any of dozens of rivers or thousands of
> lakes.

Again, my mental image was of leisurely going through the desert.   Surely
there must be SOME irrigation canal that can be used that way.

You have just taken my $1 million idea and told me it ain't worth $.02!

On Mon, 04 Nov 2002 19:57:55 GMT, Larry Caldwell <larryc@teleport.com>
wrote:

>In article <3dc6af16$0$22625@dingus.crosslink.net>, gilmer@crosslink.net
>writes:
>
>> Seems to me that you folks out West are missing a opportunity with your
>> irrigation canals.   That would make GREAT canoe canals.   I understand that
>> there is a significant current in these waterways to the strong of back
>> would go UP stream and the recreational type will go DOWN stream.   Money
>> can be made renting and backhauling canoes.
>
>Irrigation canals are not shipping canals.  They rarely present a clear
>channel.  People who fall into irrigation canals often die.  Irrigation
>canals run through pipes, weirs, culverts and pumping stations, and flow
>rates change without notice.
>
>There are some shipping canals in the west that you can canoe, like the
>Hood Canal in Washington State.  And of course, you can canoe the entire
>Puget Sound, if you like, or any of dozens of rivers or thousands of
>lakes.
>
A lot of people have drowned in the California Canal that carries
water through the Mojave Desert from Tehachapi to Silverwood Lake.
I've been told there is a serious undertow caused by the dynamics of
water as it flows in a vee shaped concrete channel. I don't know
whether that's case or not, but the sides are very steep and would be
difficult to climb out of even for someone not fatigued by the
undertow. On a hundred-plus degree day it can be very attractive, but
only an idiot would jump in.
Western canals are designed for one purpose: The efficient movement of
life-sustaining water.
Bud