Weirdly, in Cambridge, the River Cam is not marked as a natural waterway (fair enough, it is canalized) but the entirely artificial drainage ditches around the college back gardens and Hobson’s Conduit are.
Waterway Map
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#22The Yucatan peninsula in Mexico is very interesting here, completely empty of waterways which would make one think it's a dessert area per other similar areas of the map, yet it's a very lush tropical jungle. A ton of water yet all of it runs underground, cenotes [0] are (mostly) undergound sinkholes, amazing to swim in
Re: Waterway Map
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure how hills or urban areas block the ability to canoe... Waterways always are locally low and canoe trips on rivers will typically have hills on either side of you. And I've been on plenty of canoe trips that went through the downtown of a city. Most older cities are built in some place navigable by boat.
The parent was asking about getting down to the SF Bay from somewhere in Sierras. I'd have to study a map in detail but I doubt there are much in the way of east/west routes in that area. Also, while there are navigable waterways in cities they tend to be very limited. There's often one river in older cities that flows through the center somewhere. It really depends on the watersheds. You can get to Boston from prett…
San Francisco owes its growth as a city to the fact that the Bay provides a connection between the Sierras (and their goldfields) and the Pacific Ocean.
Regarding Boston, the interesting thing is that it used to be connected to the Merrimack via the Middlesex Canal. My understanding is that this is silted up now (which you presumably already know) but it shows how many more connections we used to have.
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#24And its inverse: the watershed calculator:
https://mghydro.com/watersheds/
Edit: and river runner:
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#25There's a group of people who regularly sail a great circle up the Atlantic, down the St. Lawrence & the Great Lakes, through the Chicago River & canals to the Illinois River to the Mississippi, and east along the Gulf Coast & around Florida. I can't remember anything more about it than that. Anyone?
I believe that is the Great Loop: https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/great-loop.html
Sounds like a great trip (IF you like being on a boat).
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#26To those who are thinking about waterway travel I recommend the book "The Unlikely Voyage of Jack De Crow: A Mirror Odyssey from North Wales to the Black Sea".
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#27When I was young, my grandfather talked about the possibility of taking his boat from his home in central Florida all the way to the coast. 40+ years later, this fills me with delight. He could have done it.
Definitely not all of these waterways are navigable. There are even underground ones, essentially pipes.
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#28Bunch of rivers in/around Toronto (Canada), but we've also lost a few to history as well:
* https://www.lostrivers.ca/disappearing.html
* https://www.hiddenhydrology.org/toronto-lost-rivers/
* https://www.blogto.com/city/2014/02/5_lost_rivers_that_run_u...
Re: Waterway Map
#29Weirdly, in Cambridge, the River Cam is not marked as a natural waterway (fair enough, it is canalized) but the entirely artificial drainage ditches around the college back gardens and Hobson’s Conduit are .
The data on Open Street Map (OSM) doesn't materialise mysteriously out of the ether! It is the result of people like you and I doing recces.
For just one effort to grab data there is a great app called "Street Complete" (SC) - give it a bash.
You know how the Cam is so why not tell us all? I live in Yeovil, Somerset and after a few sessions on SC, OSM has way more detail on my immediate surroundings than Google's cars will ever gather. They (Google int al) will probably "steal" my work eventually but then it is public knowledge so not stealing at all.
SC gathers a lot of information. For example it wants to know about accessibility, which has to be a laudable goal. OSM doesn't flog adverts so it is rather more inclusive than anything that the FAAANAAAANGS might contemplate. It isn't driven by financial profit, so you get back what you put in.
Re: Waterway Map
#30To those who are thinking about waterway travel I recommend the book "The Unlikely Voyage of Jack De Crow: A Mirror Odyssey from North Wales to the Black Sea".
Would also recommend "Travels by Narrowboat" available on Amazon Prime. The chug-chug of the diesel engine as John moves from one canal to another (with some sort of horrific/terrific can-based recipe thrown in every now and then) is great background TV to have on for that sort of occasion.