BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

Thank you for cross posting! To keep that thread more on-topic (whatever that topic is...)

I run fairly regularly on the millvale-northside trail now, and past few times there have been people swinging from a rope swing into the river from one of the bridges closer to millvale - not that high. It looks like a gas, but I also recall spots in the river being shallow enough that wading didn't even look like fun.

Is there somewhere online to see some kind of nautical maps of the rivers, with depth... I'm thinking of the maps all the kayakers have of the tides and islands in BC, but since we have no tides I'm not sure what they'd show, or what they're called, or where to look for them.

Any help?

I have seen the rope swing, I have also seen police talking to folks who were no longer using the rope swing and instead resting in the back of the cruiser. Would be interested in some depth charts, have seen them before but never cared. Perhaps it's time to bust out the kayaks again.

wait, it's illegal to rope swing into the river? I suppose someone could stretch it into jumping off a bridge, which, due to rescue costs I could likewise see it as a discourageable offence, but an arrestable offence? Ticket, stern talking to, please be on your way... Maybe they had other reasons to get a ride?

I don't think it's an arrest. If you don't have an ID then police cannot write a ticket. So, IMHO, police is allowed to hold you until they get positive identification.

Not sure what the reason for the detainment. The swing, AFAIK, still exists. I would imagine some small effort to reduce its length or cut it down would have happened had it been illegal.

I just thought of that, there might not be much room in swim trunks for ID, and if they're local they could have walked there and left it at home.

Next time I run past I just realized I can check with the places that rent Kayaks and see if they've got maps posted, I'd imagine they'd at least be able to tell me what the maps are properly called.

@ejwme:

"Do you folks have any depth charges I can get with the kayak?"

[confused look from Kayak Pgh staff]

"Depth CHARTS! I meant CHARTS!"

lol. Girl scout camp I went once to had some Attempted Fish Poaching issues, the locals kept dropping dynamite into the creek. There were no fish in the creek, but for those who thought it was a brilliant idea, lack of prey must not have been important.

Tying dynamite back into bicycles, the movie "The Triplets of Belleville" has a dynamite fishing sequence.

As to the rope swing, the last I looked, Mount Yinzmore was still there. Maybe 2 or 3 weeks ago. It's actually on the 30th Street Bridge, the spur bridge from the 31SB to Herr's Island.

LOVED that movie, it's one of my all time favorites. Mount Yinzmore? There are faces involved?

I swim from the 6th st bridge to the 16th street bridge all the time. I can't touch just a few meters from the shore. Some yinzer dropped his fishing pole from a dock and asked me to get it and I dived down a ways and never got to the bottom so it must be fairly deep. Plus there is cruise ship docking in front of PNC so it must be deep there for that.

Seems hard to find depth charts. I think the Army Corps of Engineers sells them. I was reading a bit and seems like the Allegheny, Mon, and Ohio average about 9 feet to 20 feet deep in the shipping lanes. Obviously that means some holes are deeper. All three are considered to be shallow water rivers, so most of those big boats that come through must not need any more than 9 feet to safely travel. But its shallow enough in places I'd think twice about jumping off a 50+ foot bridge.. But certainly perfect for some good rope swinging.

I used to swim in the Allegheny all the time, and its hard to swim to the bottom of. After about 12 feet or so, the pressure gets to me. Plus, its nearly pitch black and scary down there. Giant catfish and all.

http://www.erh.noaa.gov/ohrfc/

I am on the river almost every day, I have jumped off some of the bridges and I've gone off the rope swing with police permission!

I would think twice about going off the rope swing right now, the rope is looking sad.

@ejwme

There are several rope swings around the rivers.

I think it'd be best to first investigate the depth of the area you're jumping in first. I know a lot of areas around Washington's landing are so shallow that swimming a freestyle stroke will land your arms in the ground

@mark also it just rained a whole bunch.

Just posting to confirm the rope swing near Millvale/Herrs Island is still there. I would also highly recommend against using it. The water in that area is almost to shallow for swimming, ie. < 4'

Yeah, I kayaked through there on Sunday. Rocks are clearly visible on both shores.

The back channel behind Herr's Island is very very shallow right now. And there is a combined sewer alert issued after yesterday. The river is not *always* good for swimming.

Probably by the Ft Duq bridge it's deep since you are near the point and near where big ships dock. But I still wouldn't jump off that bridge. If there were no boats in the area it might be fun to jump off the big ship dock that is right behind the stadium.

BTW, when I was young, word had it that if they caught you jumping off one of the major bridges, they would take you to Western Psych for overnight observation.

Not sure if that is still true.

I do recall a couple of incidents where someone was climbing a bridge and threatening suicide.

I think the back channel is what I'm thinking of when I suggested it was pretty shallow. There's also a stretch rather near the point where the shore looks like a nice gradual slope and some debris sticks up - this may be directly followed by a sharp drop-off into abyss, I don't venture far.

Giant catfish... It's a conundrum: I want to swing off the ropes into the river because it's awesome, but I don't want to then land in a river deep enough to harbor bloodthirsty seamonsters. I don't want to land on 4 feet of muck either.

Reminds me of a question I had for the river swimmers here... near the Millvale trail parkinglot, at the foot of steps down to the river, while playing with the pups I saw a hypodermic needle at water's edge... We didn't hang out to look for more, and I didn't remove it (feel like crap for that, but handling sharps w/no protection AND 120# of excited dogs at the same time didn't seem like the best plan). Is that common, and I'm just naive?

A number of years back I coached a runner who was recovering from a compression fracture of some vertebrae sustained from a recreational jump and poor landing off an 80 foot bridge.

After numerous months in a cast, his docs said he would never run competitively again. He did have to limit his running for a few years, but thought of that comment every morning while cross training staring at a brick wall. He finished 18th in Division III cross country nationals that fall.

Be careful out there!