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Yesterday on the Monongahela 8 miles upstream of downtown Pittsburgh. Not an exotic site or pristine wilderness, but still a lovely place to launch with a good friend on a beautiful 72 degree day with a light breeze, and only 20 minutes from my door. Other than one small cabin cruiser in the first mile of our 14 mile round trip and one double ore barge, we had the whole vast river to ourselves for 6 hours along with many green and great blue herons, an osprey and lots of ducks and geese. We did go as far as where the renegade alligator was reported in the area last week (no news updates lately on whether it’s been rounded up) but didn’t spot it.
40 years ago both banks of this river were completely lined with steel mills and barge docks. There are still rusting remnants of that along the tree-lined valley but now there are fishermen catching walleye and striped bass from the shore and we sometimes spot beaver and fox.
(Close up shot is just to show off how the metal flake in the gel coat on my salvaged $300 Avatar sparkles in the sun.)
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I think there have been a few more the last couple years.
There was one right before my husband climbed Rainier , the week before nearby I think if I remember right.
Five years ago or less?
And the girl in Cali on her
Mountain bike who had her face mauled pretty bad.
And they say they pull your entrails out 
Really nice WL
Beautiful
Alligator???!!! WTH
It is amazing how much all that has changed over the last 50 - 60 years. In the '60s we would drive in from Ligonier to either Bellevue or Osborne to visit the grandparents & be driving by the J&L Blast furnaces. I can remember a few occasions where smoke from the Mon valley would make it all the way to Ligonier.
Yup. Pittsburgh has regular cycles of errant pet gators escaping their owners. In 2019 there were 5 here in the 3 Rivers area. Last week 2 separate escapees (one almost 4 feet) were eventually captured in the Kiskiminetas River, about 45 minutes northeast of the city, but this latest one (under 30" I believe) was spotted heading for the Monongahela near the terminus of our urban paddle yesterday. Pittsburgh made the national news with this recent marine “invasion”.
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About 30 years ago a couple I used to climb and winter backpack with who lived on a mountainside above Nederland, Colorado lost their full grown husky when a starving female mountain lion that was nursing a pair of cubs climbed into the dog’s pen in the middle of the night and killed and ate it within earshot of the house (very traumatic for the wife, who was home alone with no firearms in the house). Authorities tracked and shot the cat in the aftermath, one of the orphaned cubs was struck and killed by a car and the other was rescued and fostered by a wildlife rehab agency. Sad situation for all involved, human and animal.
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That’s a nightmare.
I love wildlife but if they come for me or my dog I’d not blink. I watch this girls YT from Iceland and the polar bears are always after her dog.
Speaking of dogs, my little baby seems to be enjoying his vacation with his girlfriend.
We only have a wild fox in our neighborhood coming after some backyard chickens and the Germans have a helicopter flying around looking for it because they think it could be rabid.
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Oh speaking of alligators, they are eating the retirees down where my mom lives. Plucking them right off the golf courses! I was snorkeling in Palau (jellyfish lake a unique lake bio system) and later I saw they had huge crocodiles in there!
That would be a terrible way to go.
Crocodiles are native to Palau, and have been present on the islands for millions of years. The first crocodiles to arrive in Palau were likely small, freshwater species that followed ancient river channels from the mainland to the islands. Over time, these crocodiles adapted to the saltwater environment and eventually gave rise to the saltwater crocodile , the largest and most dangerous crocodile species in the world.
You can see that my imagination can run away with me 
I told my mom to stay away from those ponds on the golf course, I don’t want to be seeing that on TikTok
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@willowleaf that Avatar really suits you! I don’t remember many details of the plastic version I owned in the early 2000s, other than I liked it.
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I do love that boat. It fits like it was molded to me and has just enough rocker to handle like a sports car, with the skeg keeping it honest on the straightaway.
The rest of my fleet has been neglected since I picked it up 2 summers ago, a serendipitous find on Craigslist from a guy cleaning out his barn – his brother had left it there many years ago after FedEx dinged it up in shipping from California to PA – bro took the full insurance money and bought a motorcycle instead and left the state. I didn’t even realize that Perception made composite boats and apparently they only made this version of the Avatar in 2003 and 2004. I actually intended to either sell it or give it to a friend but it only took one test paddle with it to realize what a fantastic boat it was and realize I had to keep it. It’s truly an excellent hull design (and a pretty boat with that two tone fade and the sparkles). Had to buy a new OR hat to match it (in my defense, the hat was on sale and I had to spend my REI dividend on something.)
Occurred to me while paddling that the Eastpole GP cost more than the boat!
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There are still moldering remnants of the steel era along the banks. We’ve been watching this cable and pulley contraption gradually fall apart over the years. Lots of large concrete walls in some places where they used to unload coal and load pig iron onto the barges. Those remind me of ancient abandoned temples and castles. The other shot is closer to downtown, just west of the Birmingham Bridge with my bow pointed at Duquesne University and the former US Steel Tower (now occupied by the health care “non-profit” that ate Pittsburgh.)
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I followed the blog of distance kayaker, Freya Hoffmeister, during her solo 322 day circumnavigation of Austrailia in 2008-2009 and she often made reference to not being able to paddle inland up some of the rivers that came into the north and eastern coastlines to restock herself with fresh water due to there being salties up to 12’ long lurking along the inlets. At one point a shark hit the hull of her Epic 18 kayak along the north coast in murky waters, leaving a 15’ wide jaw mark.
Currently she’s paddling around North America and just finished one leg of the Alaskan and Northern Canada route, having to carry a rifle and set up a warning barrier around her nightly camps to provide some chance against hungry polar bears. She briefly had a recent boyfriend, a strapping Icelandic fellow, bail on partnering her on an earlier leg of that trip along bear country – he was too freaked out by the prospect of being eaten, I guess. (Though that could have just been one of the more imaginative invented excuses for breaking up to which the more hirsute gender is prone: “It’s not you, honey, it’s the giant carnivores…”.)
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Love the colors and the hat 
Predators eat their preys entrails first because that is the most nutricient part of the body. Sweatbreads in human terms.
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I read that bears do that as well.
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Really?!
Did you watch the documentary called Sea Wolves? Netflix
I eat raw fish about four times a week and yea, I have seen the worms on the dock in Hawaii. I really hope it’s been flash frozen.
Predators all eat their pray differently . The cat family usually eats the head first. Wolves tend to eat the rear hams first. Bears work their way for the meat first.