Yesterday I took the opportunity to head down to my home waters for a quick jaunt through the pocket water of the Bowl and Pitcher. Part of Riverside State Park, it's full of mountain bike and hiking trails...it's truly a great place to escape the city and at times can make you forget you're amongst 500,000 other humanoids. So yes, its a gorgeous place and I feel lucky to have it 5 minutes from my house.
To get to the other side of the river, there is an iconic hanging bridge that goes over the river and allows access to the best wade fishing for about a mile stretch of the river.
Now here's where it gets weird. Across the bridge I go, up the trail to where it connects to a network of main trails. Taking a right, I damn near ran smack into a car just like this. A 1992 Ford Tempo
Knowing the history of our river, I always feel like I am on the cusp of finding a body....in the water or not. I know it's going to happen. Staring back at me is this car on a trail, I thought it was my time to smell the stench.
Now a bit of background to where this car is. To get to this location, it would have had to access this particular access road from about 3 miles away, break 3 gates to get through, drive on the Centennial Trail for quite a ways and then past the night patrols of the park rangers. All in all, it took some work and gumption to pull this one off. If someone was stole it and was joy riding...I can think of about 400 other places to dump a car that wouldnt have taken near as much work.
Needless to say, I approached the car with a serious degree of trepidation. I could already see one window busted out. Was someone hiding in the bushes ready to ambush? Was Sasquatch behind this?
Turns out nothing of interest was in the car, just some kids toys thank god. I jumped on the phone to the ranger
Me--"um, do you guys know you have a early 90's Ford Tempo parked up here above the hanging bridge?"
Ranger--in disbelief..."WHAT?"
Me--"Yep, just parked here...might want to come check it out"
Ranger--"Well holy sh&*t, we'll be right there"
Off I went to fish, still in disbelief of where this prime example of American automobile engineering had made it to.
Thankfully, these guys were all I found for the rest of the day.
Any other great Spokane River stories you'd like shared here....send them my way via email and I will post it up. Thanks!
sweet find mills
ReplyDeleteI've seen some weird stuff while fishing, but one of the most unsettling sights was a pile of shoes on the Cumberland River. I couldn't help but think there was a pile of bodies somewhere that these belonged to, like in The Road or something.
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