For years, i've been following what is generally acceptable practice when fishing, which basically states that you can go where you want on a river as long as you stay below the high water mark, as that's not considered private property and you can't get nailed for trespassing. But i've heard some different info on this, and even to the point of people getting in trouble for even anchoring in a river in front of private property.

That indeed presents a scary idea to me, if my ethic about access that was taught to me by my dad isn't true, we need some kind of law that protects it.

Maybe like in Finland where they have "everyman's rights" where you can access any body of water as long as you don't leave a mess behind or harass people. But it's just wishful thinking here