Pictures from outdoor exercise.
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Took a walk through the forest along our river here in south town, and I found.....
First I thought, "NO WAY." I've seen morels in the wood chips in the parking lot. It's too early for them, and as I stooped over to take the picture (and harvest them), I realized they weren't actually morels. Oh well. They are Verpa (early Morels). They are edible, but not as tasty as Morels, very thin fleshed, and they cause stomach cramps in SOME people.
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My fiancee's son likes to collect/consume mushrooms and other native foodstuffs. I do my foraging at the grocery store.1
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David Arora wrote "the bible" on mushrooms. It's badly in need of an update, but it won't happen. He says be careful because often he's seen Verpa for sale in grocery stores as morels.0
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This us what spring looks like for me.
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Flowering cherry (Mt. Fuji) in my yard
Weather is too nasty to have Hanami. I haven't had one in YEARS, but maybe I'll just have some sake anyway. With all the heavy rain, these blossoms won't last.5 -
Flowering cherry (Mt. Fuji) in my yard
Weather is too nasty to have Hanami. I haven't had one in YEARS, but maybe I'll just have some sake anyway. With all the heavy rain, these blossoms won't last.
Gorgeous tree!! When I lived on the west coast, there were streets with enough pink cherry trees that it looks like pink snow when the wind blew...
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Those look like plum trees.
Here's a closer look at the Mt. Fuji double blossoms. They are lovely.
Another native plant I have in my yard is salmonberry, and it's flowering, too.
But the river's coming up. It's supposed to come up five more feet tomorrow mid-morning.
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@mtaratoot - Gorgeous front yard! Water sure is high...scary.
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The water is even higher today. I will take pictures around the time of the crest when I pedal around for lunch. This was also yesterday, and the little brown thing is a bench that is normally way high and dry even at winter high flows.
Predicted crest is just below (as in a third of an inch below) "moderate flood" of 30 feet.
A friend and I might go paddle on Friday. It will be very fast, but the trees have already stopped floating by at 10 knots.
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Those look like plum trees.
https://www.vcbf.ca/education/history-of-our-cherry-trees
In the article, it sounds like there's cherry and plums. Maybe I grabbed the wrong pic?0 -
Maybe, and maybe not. They are still lovely either way!
But mea culpa! I thought cherry blossoms were white. Mine have a little tiny pink tinge. The more pinkish trees I see around here (not too far south of you) are plums. They bloom a couple weeks before the cherries. But it appears there ARE cherry trees with pink blossoms. Go figure. I learned something today, so I guess I can check that box.1 -
The river crested yesterday. I'm off today, and I'm going to go explore. They have one eastbound lane open out of town. I went out on my bike on Wednesday and got some pictures of some of the inundation.
Looking south at the skate park and bike path. This is near the confluence of two rivers.
Looking north from the other side of the highway at the BMX track.
Two images of the intersection of the bypass and the main highway. This road was closed for almost four days.
Looking east towards the river in the far distance, this is the entry to and part of the parking lot for a large park. I will be paddling there in a little while....
From the far south end of that same park, where the bike path goes underwater. I will probably not be able to paddle that far since the water has receded considerably.
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Mother Nature doesn't rightly care about our inconvenience. She didn't put the roads there so she feels no compunction to keep them clear of flooding.0
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I went out exploring a local park today by canoe. I was out just shy of 2.5 hours, and I paddled 4.5 miles. I had one "portage" to close a circuit rather than backtracking.
This is my route:
I don't live far from the river, so I strapped my boat to a cart and walked a half mile to the entrance of the park.
I paddled up a path along the edge of the park. I paddled in to a flooded local farm.
I continued through the forest, then out to the sports fields.
I paddled back out to the parking lot, but I couldn't find a place to park. I was either in a fire lane or just didn't have a trailer. I did have my canoe cart folded up, but....
Then I went up the river path. It was very peaceful. I got out to the high ground and turned around rather than portage over because I would have ended up where I'd already paddled.
I did a shameless selfie; why not.
Then I sneaked out into the river to see how it looked at the take out. I was thinking maybe of going to do a trip and wanted to see how hard the landing was. It was actually easier than summer, but if you missed, you'd be hosed. The water was FAST. I got much farther upstream than I thought, and then got out in the current. I ferried over towards the other side, then pulled back over and back into the parking lot. I didn't get any images because I needed to pay attention to the water. It wasn't particularly challenging, but it was fast, and there were boils. I would have played more in a kayak. I did NOT want to swim. There is no shore. Swimming at these water levels could be really REALLY bad. Like deadly. So I just payed attention and enjoyed going fast on about 75,500 CFS.
On the way out, I had to get a picture with the park sign in the background.
I may repeat this post elsewhere. Sorry if you are on that forum, too. What a fine day! Now I have to go mow
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Good show with the float bags and general risk management. I know you're an old hand at water, but it shocks me how many people go out in flood waters without realizing how strange currents can be when water's flowing where it usually doesn't, and running at much higher volumes than usual even in the main watercourse.
We've had multiple cases locally of under-experienced people taking canoes and kayaks out in floods even in some pretty small and normally mild watercourses (not so small and definitely not mild in flood conditions) and paying for it with their lives, sadly.1 -
Right on @AnnPT77! I know you row; do you also paddle?
Moving water is a lot more powerful than folks recognize. I just got back from a little bike ride to look at the receding water. I got to where the bypass was closed, and I watched a DOT truck go through. I could see how deep his tires went, and it was shallow enough I probably could have got through with just minor wet feet. Were I wearing my muck boots, I might have tried. But that shallow water was flowing across the road. It easily could have knocked my bike over. Less than two inches deep!
My buddy on Monday wanted to go do a float during lunch Tuesday. It's about eight miles or so and ends near our houses. I told him let's wait for after the crest because as the water comes up, it mobilizes lots of debris that starts to settle back out when the water is going back down.
All that said, most of the areas I was paddling around would have been pretty safe for anyone with even minimal skill. I took a canoe rather than a kayak because it's a drier ride, and even with all the volume of water and lack of industry around the area -- I don't know what's in the water. I saw another person out on an inflatable kayak as I was returning from the first leg of my paddle. I can see how someone could be foolish enough to venture out onto the river. It looks pretty flat. There's no rapids. Frankly, it seems easy TO ME. But there were a few boils that I definitely noticed. With the wind picking up, that adds another element that can make a boat want to flip. The wind definitely affected how I could ferry. I do want to get out and float that section of river; maybe tomorrow.
It's kind of funny you mention the float bags. That's one of my whitewater canoes, and they ALL have float bags. It's not just because it adds "flotation" to the boat in the event of a capsize, mostly it's to displace volume in the boat. As you crash through whitewater, some inevitably gets in the boat. Yeah, you have to bail or get out and dump. But in the meantime, the boat is getting heavier and heavier, and that makes it harder to maneuver.
What you may not be able to tell is that my front float bag is broken. There's a crack in the plastic where you close the main inflation hole. I pumped it up before I left home, but it was mostly empty when I got home. You can see it getting soft even as early as the pictures of the soccer goal. Even more in this panorama I took from an eddy on the main channel.
I mostly use that boat to fish from. Not the best, but it works. I have another ancient whitewater canoe that I can run rivers with. Mostly I'm in a whitewater kayak or rowing a raft; it was good to get back on my knees with a single bladed paddle.1 -
Right on @AnnPT77! I know you row; do you also paddle?
Moving water is a lot more powerful than folks recognize. . . .
<remainder of very interesting post snipped for reply length, because you can still read it above>
I've done a good bit of canoeing over the years (my late husband and I normally vacationed in canoe-in places, most often Algonquin Park in Ontario). I'm more of a flat-water canoeist, though (and not even a fraction as skilled at that as husband was). I'm in mid-lower-Michigan, and flat water is what we have, inland. I've done a tiny bit of kayaking, but not much.
I sometimes joke that some women collect shoes, but I collect boats. I'm up to two rowing shells (single and double), 5 canoes (only 2 of which I really every paddle anymore; the others are sentimental) and a kayak.
Nowadays, almost exclusively, I row. But I enjoy most any human-powered watercraft, including those silly little paddle wheel boats with pedals (those do require an accompanying umbrella drink, however).
I hear what you're saying about people's perceptions of water's power - seeing people wading in shallows on the edge of even a small waterfall or something: Yikes. Even in your description of your flood-paddle, I'm seeing the things that make you safer than many would be. You're used to reading water; you're seeing the boils, the swift current, the effect of wind in the open, etc. It surprises me how little even some of my rowing double partners recognize about our home water: Where the river is likely to be deep or fast, vs. slow or shallow, etc.
I've never done WW rafting. Not sure I'd enjoy it, to be truthful. I like neither speed, nor getting wet (on water good, in water bad, in my world
). Should probably give it a go, sometime, though (guided, of course! ). 2 -
The majority of the fun of white water rafting is in the hands of the guide. They talk up the risks etc but very carefully avoid any part of the river which is actually dangerous. Yes, you'll get splashed and thrown around a bit but nothing dangerous... So if you've a mind to do so, go for it!!I've never done WW rafting. Not sure I'd enjoy it, to be truthful. I like neither speed, nor getting wet (on water good, in water bad, in my world ). Should probably give it a go, sometime, though (guided, of course! ).2 -
When I row, I try to keep my passenger dry unless they WANT a wet ride. I think some commercial guides might talk about the rapids as being "bigger" than they really are to beef up the customer's excitement and, ideally, beef up their tips.... I haven't been on a commercial trip since 1994, and that was a fluke. I was up visiting a friend who had gone to Jackson Hole for a wedding. We did a float during a thunderstorm. I don't remember the guide talking anything up other than asking me not to paddle so much/hard. Before that was twice back as a teenager in the southeast US. My boat isn't set up to paddle, but I can take four passengers on a day trip or one or two on a multi day trip. I'm going on a five day trip on the Owyhee pretty soon....
Whitewater rafting rule number one: Stay in the effing boat. Rule number two: STAY IN THE EFFING BOAT. If you need to know rule three, it's GET BACK IN THE BOAT. I've been thrown around in the boat, but so far nobody has been ejected from my boat. This is last July at Upper Black Bar Falls on the Rogue....
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A buddy and I went out for a four hour 23 mile paddle on the river at high water. I was disappointed with the performance of the camera, but it was a dark and rainy day. I'll see what I can do with any images.
We planned to go about 19 miles, but we couldn't get to the river where we planned to launch. The roads were closed because they were underwater. We made a backup plan and headed across the river for a shorter paddle, like ten miles, but first to go check out a possible access across from where we wanted to launch. Normally there's a 20 sheer cut bank there, but today? The river was to the bank. Boiling water, though. We found a sort of calm place to get in.
The water was big. Gradient isn't much, but there was a lot of water. We saw things we usually don't see since the river was bank full. It had been maybe five feet higher a few days before. We paddled into fields.
We had giant boils form right in front or us. We had one place where the current was running into the flooded forest. It was a death trap that we were easily able to avoid in the boats and the skills we had. I think if I were in my canoe, I might have been in trouble. It was a row of cottonwoods that had become inundated. The main current was going right through them. I saw later there was also a fence. Yikes! Mostly easy paddling, but huge consequences if you screw up. There was no shore. The river was extremely wide at places, and it was either flowing into fields, where maybe you could get out, or through brush and forest. A swim would be a disaster.
I was going to stretch my legs at Norwood, but it was totally inundated.
We did get out at a boat ramp. Sort of. It was underwater, but we landed on the approach to stretch our legs.
We couldn't stop at River Jetty.
We got back to town and explored the East Channel. We paddled a mile or so up, then across the gravel pit to the highway.
We paddled through a flooded park and bike path, and then headed to the take out to go run shuttle and enjoy recounting the day over a couple pints.
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