Monday, May 26, 2014

River Still High

I casually asked a couple of old timers yesterday if this wasn't some kind of record or maybe records that the Mississippi has been 1) high for this extended period of time or 2) that the Spring high water has been present this deep into May.  Both believed the former was the more likely possibility.

I was up early and out in the garage, my goal to be down in Alma for breakfast at 6:30 before they got busy at Pier4.  Easily away in time, the Ascot and I made the 45 minute trip with a few minutes to spare.  A beautiful early summer day early and on a motorcycle, just about my favorite way to spend time and yesterday's early is my favorite time to be outside.

My ride was a short one, breakfast only since there are just too many things I've been neglecting (and intend to neglect through the next weeks) around home.  I did stop in Wabasha, back on my side of the river to check out the boat landing and that's where I had a chance to reference river history, my memory and his, with old timer #2.

The ramp is squarely beyond the lamp post. I see that the electrical tower in the background appears to be vertical.....the Warning sign and lamp post may be succumbing to the constant river currents?? :)


Old timer #2 after putting his boat in.  I wasn't fast enough to capture his entire 100 meter drive from the 'center' of the bay back to dry land.  He's at the 50 meter line here......




12 comments:

  1. Wow! Lots of high water in your area. So what did you have for breakfast? :=)

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  2. Deb, the river started going down and then recent heavy rains sent it right back up again.

    Since I was quite early for a Sunday, things were quiet at the diner when I arrived. Cook and C.O.O. Paul chatted for awhile, while Jess brought me my coffee and then asked on his way to the kitchen if I wanted my usual, a #4. I threw caution to the wind yesterday and had the day's Special.

    Oh, and brought home some smoked salmon from their smokehouse as well. :)

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  3. It looks like a nice morning for a ride. Not good that the water has stayed that high for so long, but I guess it could be worse. Are there huge puddles in the fields?

    A lot of times when our water is high there isn't any local flooding, but the grass fields look like small lakes.

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    1. It was so nice out yesterday, another good day for riding. Today has been as well but I've not thrown a leg over.

      There is some standing water in a few fields though for the most part, our local soils can stand a lot of water with most everything that hasn't soaked in runs off into the rivers.

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  4. Usually we would get high water due to some blockage downstream. In your case is it because the river just can't move enough water?

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    1. That's really it Richard. I'd not thought about it that way but my hunch would be that the drainage area is large and the fall of the river slight. There has been a lot of rain throughout the area and the watershed is quite large. It was only a few weeks ago that up in the northern regions they received a foot of new snow.

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  5. Coop:

    can't say we have any flooding here. The Fraser River is our main river but it is Tidal and goes up and down with the tides and lately our ocean shores seems quite low and last week we had lots of sandy beach exposed because the tide was out so far.

    It may be a different story as you go inland but this time of year we are surrounded by snow everywhere except our Lower Mainland and the Fraser Valley so those of us in the City don't venture far from home

    bob
    Riding the Wet Coast

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    1. The region has had some very heavy rainfall and it takes a fair amount of time for everything to drain into the Gulf.

      I remember tides :), our Great Lakes have small ones but they are micro compared to yours.

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  6. Flooding... we've seen some too lately due to heavy rain falls but so far this is nothing against what you have to bear. Looks like a boat would be the best option to get around...

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  7. Most of us are pretty well off Sonja, the river stubbornly remains high only because of the latent volume and casual run to the Gulf of Mexico. It just doesn't seem to be in that big of hurry to get back to end of May levels.

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  8. Doug, this post reminds me of one of my brother-in-law's stock expressions. He has lived in Florida since the mid 70's and was fascinated by the new expressions he encountered that he hadn't encountered in Montreal, such as "I'll be there, God willin', the crick don't rise".

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    1. Those regionalism's are fun and what makes us much the same just not quite.

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