the sun has been shining a lot lately, so i have been outside playing rather than inside posting. but on at least a couple of my adventures, i had a camera along. bike rides two weeks apart gave me the idea for a 'that was then, this is now' display.
back on thursday, july 11th, we had a significant rain event. it rained, hard, all day at the house, and even harder over on the western flank of cardigan mt in orange.
the rain gauge in my garden poured out 3.4 inches--nearly 9cm for you folks on metric. my friend carol, who lives over in the morning shadow of cardigan said they got over 7 inches--that's approaching 19cm. clouds seem to stack up on the west side of the ridge line and just dump water big time. i remember at least two other major flood events and one huge--as in more than four feet--snow since i have been around.
deep snow is something i always welcome--deep water, especially flooding, not so much. this time, the flooding was more destructive than ever. i caught wind of some areas that were particularly hard hit and when the rain stopped on friday morning, i grabbed my camera and bike, and pedaled off to check things out.
going toward canaan, the water was pretty high, spilling over the banks of the indian river and into the fields. where the river banks contained things, a rushing, muddy flow made for a dramatic picture. when put side by side with a picture taken two fridays later, you can start to imagine how high and fast the water was.
water can cause a lot of damage flowing that high and fast, especially in places other than between the banks. that's exactly what happened up at the orange basin bridge. the valley news featured a picture of the washed out road at the culvert and up new colony road which runs alongside the brook as it flows down to the culvert.
this past friday, the 26th--the two weeks after the rain ride--i pedaled up the orange road to check out the bridge rebuild. the barriers were still up, but they let me lift my bike over. the pictures don't look nearly as crazy, things are close to being open again.
past the jersey barriers, i continued on up to the state park and raked down the clivus composting toilet--my summer 'friends of cardigan' assignment. on my way back down i passed jim, the man in the white t-shirt with the two kids inspecting the washout on new colony road pictured above. he was riding up hill and we stopped for a brief chat.
i stopped on new colony and took the picture of the form where they were going to pour a cement header for the 'new' basin culvert. a minute after i started on downhill, the cement truck passed me coming up.
down in town i stopped two places, the darling's blueberry patch and the bridge behind the ball field where i had taken a photo of the river at 'high tide' two weeks ago. the debris building up against the bridge helped push the water out of the bank and into center field.
pam and i went back with buckets to pick blueberries on sunday and i showed her the river at "low tide". the water has much receded, they have mowed the grass, but the incredible debris-jam against the bridge is still there.
i walked around and took a shot of it from the bank. my thought would be to come in with a chain saw and clear it out before the next big rain event, but you never know about the state. plus at the moment they are still fixing roads and bridges.
my final stop on friday's ride was the usual, sweeping at drummonds. robbie and i have been talking about my buying his 'old' mtn bike and he had it set up for me to test ride. after making a clean sweep, i took off across the highway and onto the lasalette trails. a sweet drive train made going up that long hill almost a dream. almost being it was pretty hot, i sweat a lot, and it was buggy. on a good hill it's hard to wipe the sweat out of your eyes or swat a persistent deer fly.
i took a digger on the way down, but managed to land in a soft, muddy patch--likely the reason i fell in the first place--and avoid any injury, beyond more laundry that is. the bike is a lot of fun!
all in all, even though some of the washouts were still washed out, it was a fine day to 'go outside and play!'
back on thursday, july 11th, we had a significant rain event. it rained, hard, all day at the house, and even harder over on the western flank of cardigan mt in orange.
the rain gauge in my garden poured out 3.4 inches--nearly 9cm for you folks on metric. my friend carol, who lives over in the morning shadow of cardigan said they got over 7 inches--that's approaching 19cm. clouds seem to stack up on the west side of the ridge line and just dump water big time. i remember at least two other major flood events and one huge--as in more than four feet--snow since i have been around.
deep snow is something i always welcome--deep water, especially flooding, not so much. this time, the flooding was more destructive than ever. i caught wind of some areas that were particularly hard hit and when the rain stopped on friday morning, i grabbed my camera and bike, and pedaled off to check things out.
going toward canaan, the water was pretty high, spilling over the banks of the indian river and into the fields. where the river banks contained things, a rushing, muddy flow made for a dramatic picture. when put side by side with a picture taken two fridays later, you can start to imagine how high and fast the water was.
water can cause a lot of damage flowing that high and fast, especially in places other than between the banks. that's exactly what happened up at the orange basin bridge. the valley news featured a picture of the washed out road at the culvert and up new colony road which runs alongside the brook as it flows down to the culvert.
this past friday, the 26th--the two weeks after the rain ride--i pedaled up the orange road to check out the bridge rebuild. the barriers were still up, but they let me lift my bike over. the pictures don't look nearly as crazy, things are close to being open again.
past the jersey barriers, i continued on up to the state park and raked down the clivus composting toilet--my summer 'friends of cardigan' assignment. on my way back down i passed jim, the man in the white t-shirt with the two kids inspecting the washout on new colony road pictured above. he was riding up hill and we stopped for a brief chat.
i stopped on new colony and took the picture of the form where they were going to pour a cement header for the 'new' basin culvert. a minute after i started on downhill, the cement truck passed me coming up.
down in town i stopped two places, the darling's blueberry patch and the bridge behind the ball field where i had taken a photo of the river at 'high tide' two weeks ago. the debris building up against the bridge helped push the water out of the bank and into center field.
pam and i went back with buckets to pick blueberries on sunday and i showed her the river at "low tide". the water has much receded, they have mowed the grass, but the incredible debris-jam against the bridge is still there.
i walked around and took a shot of it from the bank. my thought would be to come in with a chain saw and clear it out before the next big rain event, but you never know about the state. plus at the moment they are still fixing roads and bridges.
my final stop on friday's ride was the usual, sweeping at drummonds. robbie and i have been talking about my buying his 'old' mtn bike and he had it set up for me to test ride. after making a clean sweep, i took off across the highway and onto the lasalette trails. a sweet drive train made going up that long hill almost a dream. almost being it was pretty hot, i sweat a lot, and it was buggy. on a good hill it's hard to wipe the sweat out of your eyes or swat a persistent deer fly.
i took a digger on the way down, but managed to land in a soft, muddy patch--likely the reason i fell in the first place--and avoid any injury, beyond more laundry that is. the bike is a lot of fun!
all in all, even though some of the washouts were still washed out, it was a fine day to 'go outside and play!'
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