My little stretch of that river is a real lesson on how quickly a river bed can move. Within just two seasons, one section of river has moved 10 feet towards Woods Hill leaving the old section rock rubble dry, while another stretch has created a diversion dam, swampland, and water rapid heading in the other direction. The interesting thing is that it isn't high water by itself that creates these diversions. It's log jams and pileups, sometimes occurring up above a section of river that looks quite innocently and permanently held in place.
Another thing I noticed, walking down the other side of the river this last time (thinking it would be dryer - it wasn't), is that animal trails can become new side creeks and baby channels.
All these changes can and do occur in a stretch of river that local land owners have tried, over the years, to control by putting rip rap here and there when the river threatens to erode a bank and move. All that effort means nothing when something happens above the rip rap that causes the river to completely bypass all that human effort because a log/rubble pile-up upriver forced the waters into a completely new direction.
I just love that river.