Niagara Falls Searchers Find the Wrong Body

Yesterday, I wrote about the young woman who had fallen over the safety railing and was swept over Niagara Falls to her presumed death. Searchers are still looking for her remains, but during the search, says a report by CBS News, a male body was found in the water below Horseshoe Falls. At present, authorities did not know the identity of this body.

Authorities told CBS that it was rare to have anywone swept over the falls themselves, but that more people are injured in the Niagara Gorge along the river below the falls. Parks Police Sgt. James Riddle says that people commonly ignore safety precautions in order to get a good photo or a better view. Unfortunately, too many of them end up with a much closer view of the bottom of the gorge than they intended.

I'm not going to spend a lot of time discussing tragedies like this, but I will say that where ever you travel, make sure you research the potential hazards and are prepared for them. Follow posted safety instructions and use common sense. I read about far too many hikers being lost, injured or killed in mountains and forests of New Hampshire. Most of those stories contain the words "...tried to take a shortcut..." and "...wasn't prepared for the weather."

• Hike Safe New Hampshire has everything you need to know to stay safe while visiting the White Mountains.

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Meanwhile, we are just a few days away from leaving for Montana. We've got most of the packing done and are finalizing our lists of things to bring. This afternoon, one of the house-sitters is coming by to get the full instructions package and to go over the responsibilities they'll have while we're gone. I'll also be outfitting the van with new tires and an oil change today. Not only should that help prevent trouble on the way, but it should help maximize gas mileage as well. As it's planned, we expect to spend about 9-10 hours of driving each day. We'll be using the Garmin GPS unit to help find hotels at the end of each day's travel.

We'll be hopping over to Vermont on Thursday night where we'll stay at my mother's house for the night. Bright and early Friday morning we'll all set out for our first destination: Niagara Falls. We expect to reach it in the early afternoon of Friday and we'll spend a few hours there having lunch, enjoying the view, and no doubt learning all about hydro-electric power and the history of Niagara Falls.

I'll post at least one detailed review of our visit to Niagara Falls with tons of photos, probably Friday evening from whatever hotel we reach for the night.  We hope to drive well into the evening on the first day to build up a little mileage buffer so we have the option to spend more time somewhere else later on.

Woman Swept Over Niagara Falls after Climbing Railing

As our family is planning a cross-country road trip, one of the stops we had planned was a visit to Niagara Falls. It's something that is on our way and that we haven't seen before. As one of the grat natural wonders of North America, it certainly merits a visit.

Today, however, I learned that a young woman was visiting the Falls on Sunday evening and fell into the river at around 8:30 pm, just about 60 feet upstream of the falls itself. The river current swept her away instantly over the falls. She is presumed dead, although as of Monday morning her body had not been found.

According to the report in the Montreal Gazzette, the woman climbed the railing to sit on one of the pillars with one leg on either side of the metal railing. She lost her balance as she stood to climb down again, says the report and fell to her presumed death. Surveillance video shows no signs of anything other than a tragic accident.

Accidents like these, however, remind us that when we are sightseeing, we need to be very careful and use common sense. Climbing the safety railing is never a good idea. It is after all the awesome power of Niagara Falls that makes it a tourist destination, a power that should be resepected.

Similarly, we are planning on a visit to Yosemite where as many as 19 people have died this year already, mostly from falls. Loose shifting rock along a cliff edge is extraordinarily dangerous. I spend considerable time in the mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire and there are places here with similar conditions. We don't always think of a visit to a National Park as a dangerous activity, and with proper attention to safety it isn't. For those who ignore warnings and safety barriers, however, yesterday's tragedy at Niagara Falls is a reminder that they can be very dangerous indeed.

Cross Country Road Trip Planning

At present, I am planning a cross country road trip to bring my son to college in Montana (from New Hampshire). We're planning to spend some time and sightsee along the way. Planned stops include Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore, Niagara Falls, the Wall Drugstore, and the Cleveland Zoo, but depending upon our daily mileage, we may have to change plans on the way.

For us this means getting house-sitters since we have two dogs, a cat, and a variable number of chickens. We've arranged for two responsible friends of the family to stay at our house, take care of the animals, and keep everything in order, and of course, the dogs will help make sure everything follows the normal routine. So, that's already taken care of and it's one big worry out of the way.

For the trip itself, my wife, myself, my son, and my mother will take turns driving as needed. We are planning to spend an average of 8-9 hours driving each day and have planned progress points mapped for each day. We had considered bringing tents and camping out along the way, but the thought of just one night of rain and then having to pack up everything wet for the next day's travel made hotels seem like a better option.

Because we are not sure exactly where we'll end up each day, we have not booked hotels in advance for the trip out or the trip back. We did, however, book several nights in a Bozeman hotel because it is a college town that will be filled with new arrivals and parents and we thought rooms might be hard to find during the orientation period for which we'll be visiting. That's done, and it's another worry out of the way.

If my wife had her choice, everything would be planned in advance, each hotel booked, tourist stop planned out, and so forth. I'm more of a travel by the seat of the pants type person. As long as I can plug in the destination on my Garmin and find my way there and home again, everything else will work itself out as we go. It's good, of course, that my wife ensures that we do some pre-planning when we travel, but we always also try to allow plenty of flexibility to react to changing conditions and new opportunities that present themselves along the way.

In this blog, I'll be providing detailed updates of the hotels and restaurants that we find along the way, as well as the tourist destinations that we visit. I'll talk about the drive itself, with road trip tips, and even talk about specific roads, scenery, traffic, and other highlights of the cross country excursion. I'll also try to use the down-time to catch up with some of the other places we've visited over the years, all uploaded via presumably complimentary wireless access at the hotels we choose along the way, or worst case, from the nearest Starbucks.

By the way, we're fond of bird watching and wildlife viewing so expect to learn about some of the best locations for that as well. It's a couple of weeks before our trip begins, so I'll get a number of posts up before then, including one about what I consider to be the best restaurant in New England, bar none.