What a Difference a Few Weeks Makes

Sometimes spring can be an amazing, a dangerous thing.  During winter the ground freezes hard and won't absorb water at all.  If spring warms up slow enough that's no problem at all.  If we get a warm spell and the snow melts fast, that can be a problem.  All that water from the melting snow, which would normally go down into our sandy soil, ends up going across our sandy soil.  If  you add heavy rain on top of a fast melt you can really have problems.  That's what happened this year and the result was the river that runs through town got very, very full.  Low laying areas got flooded.  That all began back in the middle of March.  Rain falling faster than the ice clogged waste water system could handle it.  By mid-April the ground was still frozen when we got some real heavy rain.  Water levels on the river got really high.  I went down by the river, along a route I occasionally take on my bike (in dryer weather) and took a look.

Before

After

My main interest was to see if the trails were drying out.  I had no idea the river was as high as it was.  A little bench on the river, that I sometimes stop at, was nearly in the water.

Before

After

In the "after" picture you can see two benches that are right down on the river.  In the "before" they were both completely under water and out of sight.

Before

The trail, where it comes out of the woods, was totally flooded and impassable.  You almost don't notice the gates in the "before" picture.

After

A little bridge on the old road wasn't submerged but the river was right up to the bridge.

Before

After

Another little bridge, almost just a sluice, really, was inundated with water.  Totally overwhelmed.  At this little bridge, the water was up over the bridge.

Before

After

People sometimes forget that when the ground gets this wet and waterlogged, it can take a little while to dry out.

Before

The road, which is always barricaded, was underwater.  It doesn't seem likes its ever a good idea to try to drive a vehicle around a barricade.  Especially when the ground is totally water soaked and soft.

After

Judging from the tracks, this was probably a truck that did manage to get out without being towed.  Then again, if it was winched out, that could be done without leaving tracks from the truck that did the winching.

In any case, its amazing to me to see the things that Mother Nature sometimes does.  And I'm glad that the trails have dried out and are passable again.  There's one spot on my favorite section of trail that is still being repaired.  It was submerged for a couple of weeks and because the water was fast moving, the trail sustained some damage.  The water has receded but the trial still needs to be repaired.  This isn't my photo, its from the folks that maintain the trail.  But it shows the damage.

This section of the trial still isn't open.  But once its open all the parts I use on a regular basis will be open again.  That will be a happy thing.  In the meantime, there's plenty of good trail open and available for use!

A stretch of trail high enough above the river that it didn't flood

Spring has sprung!