State of Emergency (with pictures)!
For those not in the know, which is probably most of my friendslist, most of Northern BC, Prince George included, is flooded, and continuing to flood. We had a record winter for snowfall, and it's all melting, and people have been evacuated from their homes, and it's pretty crazy. This is supposed to be the biggest flood in decades--either since the seventies or the forties, depending on who you listen to. I haven't mentioned it, mainly because I'm well out of harm's way, and honestly, even most of the people who live right on the river are just waiting it out, because really, what else can you do?
I thought, naturally enough, that I might bike down to the Nechako river and take a few pictures. Now, Prince George is built at the confluence of the Nechako and Fraser rivers. The Fraser is the larger and rougher one, the one that keeps the name when they meet and keeps on going down to Vancouver, but the Nechako's a pretty decent river on its own. Despite the fact that it's the Fraser that's doing most of the flooding, I decided to snap a few pictures of the Nechako, mainly because I can bike there in about fifteen minutes.
Here is a news story, and a better, if smaller, picture of the extent of the flooding, making my entire purpose completely irrelevant. The flood's stopped rising, anyway.
I asked if I could borrow Mom's camera. She expressed her worry for the camera, and asked how I would keep it safe if I was biking, because what if I fell and smashed it? So I put the camera in its padded case, and wrapped it in an old sweater I never wear because it's ugly, and put it in my old canvas backpack, and set out. The weather was sunny, with a few clouds, so I wore just a t-shirt and some black denim capris.
This is where the fun begins.
I headed down to a certain bridge over the Nechako. This spot is actually a favourite of mine. I used to head down there to be... uh, alone and sulky, or something... in high school. It's a pretty spot, despite the traffic.
It became quickly evident that this wasn't the best spot to show the flood, anyway, since the shore's sort of steep. I can look at these pictures and go, whoa, the river's high, but unless you know what it normally looks like, you can't see that.
Still, we do have a number of drowned trees that grew a little too close to the usual spring floods. And some grass which has adopted an aquatic existence.
The water is definitely not usually this high up the bridge supports, but again, that's just something I know. Hey, where did my sunshine go?
See, after I'd taken a few pictures, it began to rain. Heavily. I crawled up under the bridge and tried to wait it out. Now, the underside of this bridge, on the shore, is just covered with graffiti. That's probably not unusual. Every five or six years someone will come with some grey paint and attempt to cover it up, but since you can't see it from the road, no one really gives a shit and it just builds up.
Most of it is crude drawings of genetalia and naked women, along with the word "SIRUS" written approximately seventy times. I used to think "Sirus" was someone's name or nickname or something, but since I've been seeing "SIRUS" tags since I was twelve or so and continue to see new ones, Sirus is either an immortal teenage delinquent, or the word has some significance I am not aware of.
There is, however, some interesting graffiti under there.
Here, someone warns that you get what you pay for, underneath someone's artfully rendered frustration: "Drat!"
And this is... I dunno. Vampiric Mirror-Universe Spock or something.
The rain began to let up. I packed up and got on my bike, and about thirty seconds into my escape, the rain picked up again. I opted to bike through the woods, taking the resevoir access roads, instead of up Foothills Boulevard, the way I'd come. Foothills is a busy, busy road, speed limit 70 km/h, and while it's not so bad to come down it, it's not very fun going the other way. So, heavy rain, muddy unpaved road, much fun.
It began to let up again. I figured, hey, why not grab a shot or two more? This path, here, goes around to this marshy creek that feeds the Nechako, and sometimes there's herons back there, although I've also seen cougar tracks, so while it's very muddy, the rain's stopping, so I should be good. So I thought.
The creek was more swollen than I'd ever seen it, for the record, and not a heron in sight. Too bad. However...
Baby ducks! Or at least, some sort of waterfowl. I'm sorry this is such a shitty picture, but I couldn't get any closer--they were seriously spooked when I came around the corner. This is zoomed in as far as I could get. And it was raining, which didn't help the clarity of the picture any, I am sure. Also, no momma duck in sight. :(
Getting rather muddy, I headed back the way I'd come, and continued on through a gravel pit, at which point it began to rain hard again, and then to hail. And there are not pictures of this part, because it was HAILING and I was damn well not getting the camera out in the hail. Thank goodness for my bike helmet, anyway, but I did have bare arms. Very painful.
So, out of the gravel pit, onto the access road, and before I crossed the railway and head out onto real roads again, I saw a small path going down to a view of the river, where it was a bit narrower, and the flood was a little more evident, and the rain was letting up again.
Drowned trees!
I looked down the path, and I thought that hey, this is that path that follows the river right down to Cottonwood Park, and that's probably a great place for pictures right now, and then I came to my senses and reminded myself that I was cold and wet and muddy and I really had to get home, and while the rain was stopping, it might not stay stopped.
Just to emphasize how much rain there was, I'd like to offer one more picture.
That is one hell of a puddle, considering the rainstorm lasted less than an hour. A puddle with a whirlpool in the middle, no less. I guess that's where the drain was. I sort of wished I had a little paper boat. It only occurred to me afterwards to wonder if the people whose lawn I was next to were home, and if they saw me taking pictures of their sidewalk.
So there you go. I hope it was entertaining and informative, even if only in that you laughed at me and learned how silly I am.
I thought, naturally enough, that I might bike down to the Nechako river and take a few pictures. Now, Prince George is built at the confluence of the Nechako and Fraser rivers. The Fraser is the larger and rougher one, the one that keeps the name when they meet and keeps on going down to Vancouver, but the Nechako's a pretty decent river on its own. Despite the fact that it's the Fraser that's doing most of the flooding, I decided to snap a few pictures of the Nechako, mainly because I can bike there in about fifteen minutes.
Here is a news story, and a better, if smaller, picture of the extent of the flooding, making my entire purpose completely irrelevant. The flood's stopped rising, anyway.
I asked if I could borrow Mom's camera. She expressed her worry for the camera, and asked how I would keep it safe if I was biking, because what if I fell and smashed it? So I put the camera in its padded case, and wrapped it in an old sweater I never wear because it's ugly, and put it in my old canvas backpack, and set out. The weather was sunny, with a few clouds, so I wore just a t-shirt and some black denim capris.
This is where the fun begins.
I headed down to a certain bridge over the Nechako. This spot is actually a favourite of mine. I used to head down there to be... uh, alone and sulky, or something... in high school. It's a pretty spot, despite the traffic.
It became quickly evident that this wasn't the best spot to show the flood, anyway, since the shore's sort of steep. I can look at these pictures and go, whoa, the river's high, but unless you know what it normally looks like, you can't see that.
Still, we do have a number of drowned trees that grew a little too close to the usual spring floods. And some grass which has adopted an aquatic existence.
The water is definitely not usually this high up the bridge supports, but again, that's just something I know. Hey, where did my sunshine go?
See, after I'd taken a few pictures, it began to rain. Heavily. I crawled up under the bridge and tried to wait it out. Now, the underside of this bridge, on the shore, is just covered with graffiti. That's probably not unusual. Every five or six years someone will come with some grey paint and attempt to cover it up, but since you can't see it from the road, no one really gives a shit and it just builds up.
Most of it is crude drawings of genetalia and naked women, along with the word "SIRUS" written approximately seventy times. I used to think "Sirus" was someone's name or nickname or something, but since I've been seeing "SIRUS" tags since I was twelve or so and continue to see new ones, Sirus is either an immortal teenage delinquent, or the word has some significance I am not aware of.
There is, however, some interesting graffiti under there.
Here, someone warns that you get what you pay for, underneath someone's artfully rendered frustration: "Drat!"
And this is... I dunno. Vampiric Mirror-Universe Spock or something.
The rain began to let up. I packed up and got on my bike, and about thirty seconds into my escape, the rain picked up again. I opted to bike through the woods, taking the resevoir access roads, instead of up Foothills Boulevard, the way I'd come. Foothills is a busy, busy road, speed limit 70 km/h, and while it's not so bad to come down it, it's not very fun going the other way. So, heavy rain, muddy unpaved road, much fun.
It began to let up again. I figured, hey, why not grab a shot or two more? This path, here, goes around to this marshy creek that feeds the Nechako, and sometimes there's herons back there, although I've also seen cougar tracks, so while it's very muddy, the rain's stopping, so I should be good. So I thought.
The creek was more swollen than I'd ever seen it, for the record, and not a heron in sight. Too bad. However...
Baby ducks! Or at least, some sort of waterfowl. I'm sorry this is such a shitty picture, but I couldn't get any closer--they were seriously spooked when I came around the corner. This is zoomed in as far as I could get. And it was raining, which didn't help the clarity of the picture any, I am sure. Also, no momma duck in sight. :(
Getting rather muddy, I headed back the way I'd come, and continued on through a gravel pit, at which point it began to rain hard again, and then to hail. And there are not pictures of this part, because it was HAILING and I was damn well not getting the camera out in the hail. Thank goodness for my bike helmet, anyway, but I did have bare arms. Very painful.
So, out of the gravel pit, onto the access road, and before I crossed the railway and head out onto real roads again, I saw a small path going down to a view of the river, where it was a bit narrower, and the flood was a little more evident, and the rain was letting up again.
Drowned trees!
I looked down the path, and I thought that hey, this is that path that follows the river right down to Cottonwood Park, and that's probably a great place for pictures right now, and then I came to my senses and reminded myself that I was cold and wet and muddy and I really had to get home, and while the rain was stopping, it might not stay stopped.
Just to emphasize how much rain there was, I'd like to offer one more picture.
That is one hell of a puddle, considering the rainstorm lasted less than an hour. A puddle with a whirlpool in the middle, no less. I guess that's where the drain was. I sort of wished I had a little paper boat. It only occurred to me afterwards to wonder if the people whose lawn I was next to were home, and if they saw me taking pictures of their sidewalk.
So there you go. I hope it was entertaining and informative, even if only in that you laughed at me and learned how silly I am.