Rushin', Risin' River

Since we live right next to the Eagle river, and I take walks along the bike path and road that parallels it pretty much every day, I've come to really love watching the way it changes and grows and shrinks throughout the year.  This year, especially this week (the last week of May), we've been seeing some serious water volume flowing through our little river.  I've started taking pics (just with my phone, so pardon any poor lighting/technical quality that may show up in them) to document the high flow.  I honestly don't know if this will even make a lot of sense to anyone but us locals, but I thought it would be fun to show/remember this high flow - the highest we've seen it in our three springs in Edwards.

So, to set the stage, here are a few photos taken on March 19th.  Note: I wasn't actually taking pictures of the river, per se, but rather the geese in and around the river.  But, the river is there all the same, and these pics give you an idea of what it usually looks like before the snow melts.  Notice the large islands in the first photo and the rocks along the far shore in the second photo.  And actually, now that I look closer at photo #1, I can tell that we've already started to get some runoff/meltage because the field between the river and the trailer park (in the background) is flooded.  In the summer and fall, it's totally dry.  Just for context.

These next photos were taken on April 24th.  The first one doesn't show a lot of the river, but it does show a little footpath shortcut that many people walk/ride bikes on.  Pay attention to that path.  We'll see it again later.  The second photo sort of shows that those islands we saw above are now gone.

 

May 22nd and things are starting to pick up around here.  Below you'll see zero islands and much more water in that flood plain/field to the right.  Though you can't tell in this photo, the water is now stretching almost all the way across that field to the right (south) to just below the trailers and condos on our side of Highway 6 and to the background (east) nearing those homes (that are really dark and hard to see).

Now, May 23rd.  This first shot is taken from the boat launch area, looking west toward the bridge you drive on to get to our street.  Notice the water is coming up past the rocks that sort of line a boundary for the driving and parking area.  There's a puddle in the middle of the driveway and a sign to the right of the frame.  The sign is on dry ground, as you can see.  For now.  ;)  The second photo from this day just shows that there are no more rocks visible on the far side of the river edge; the water is creeping really close to those yards over there.  And photo number three is evidence that the river is rising, for sure: the walk Cal and I sometimes take down to the Catholic school and church on via a bike path/sidewalk next to the river is no longer passable.  Without waterproof shoes, anyway.

May 27th, first photo: Definitely no islands and the field is looking much like a lake these days.  The barrier between the river and the flood plain is becoming less and less visible.  Second photo: same path as above, with more sidewalk covered by water (you can tell by the distance of the redish-twigged bushes that are further in the background).  Third photo: there's that driveway and sign again (this time looking east so the sign is on the left) - won't be driving through that spot anymore (for a while at least).  Last year, I remember walking across the rocks near the sign to get past a similarly flooded driveway; this was the highest I ever saw the river get before this week.

May 28th: I'm now across the river (and the train tracks) from what used to be that sidewalk/bikepath.  The reddish-twigged shrub is barely visible - draw an imaginary line from the top to the bottom dividing the photo in half.  Then, do that again in the left half of your imaginary half-photo and you'll draw a line straight through the red bush.  I was trying to take a photo showing the beginning and end of the sidewalk as it became the river and then climbed up again, but I couldn't fit it in my frame.  In other words, the whole width of this photo used to be sidewalk on that far side and now it's river.

May 29th:  I took these first two photos from a little ramp pathway that goes down to the river from the end of our paved bikepath.  It's access for fishermen who like to get out in the rapids to fish.  Usually you can walk down the ramp the length of the rocks lining the sides, but it's not much of a walk to get to the water anymore.  In the third photo, I'm back near where I was in the first photo on May 23rd.  Even more of the driveway/parking area is under water, including that sign I told you to pay attention to.

May 30th: The first photo is looking toward the east from the middle of the bridge.  Only one rock on the left side is not covered by water (normally there are tons that are visible - someday I need to take a photo of the low version of the river so we have evidence to compare to, but for now you'll just have to take my word for it).  Second photo: looking west, that sidewalk from above is under the left side of the river.  Third: heading down that sidewalk - can't go very far and our red-twigged bush is no longer a good landmark because it's gone!  Fourth: the sign from the boat launch.  Fifth: the landing between the two fisherman access ramps from above.  And sixth: that shortcut path from April 24th?  Yeah, it's about 6-12 inches deep in water today, and the neighborhood boys were trying to get the guts to ride their bikes through it.  As I was walking back home, I even noticed the water had crept it's way within inches of the bike path that I walk on every day.  This is crazy!