The Observation Deck

Check out over 100 photos of the ice from Winter Storm Harper here: http://lakewoodobserver.com/photoblogs/ ... -dump-2019

Just before dark I walked down into the Emerald Canyon checking for flooding.



With the warmer temperatures, and the rain, we know it causes flooding. Most of the residents of Lakewood scoff at the idea of a flood. Maybe from sewers, downspouts, broken pipe. Lakewood sits on top of a tall cliff surrounded by a river and a lake hundreds of feet below. Flooding, no way. However there is about 35 homes in Lakewood and maybe as many in Rocky River that worry every time the river floods. With the steep cliffs of a canyon, the water rises quickly and sometimes without warning.



The first thing you might notice is how thin the ice is. Only 3-4" not the typical 8" or the 22" thickness we photographed when Settler's Landing was wiped clean in the flood about a decade ago.



Water is finding away around and through the ice pack. This is a good thing. No problems until it starts to dam. This comes from and ice build up. The mouth of Rocky River is the widest part of the river, but it is shallow. Ice damns quickly at the first bend, the docks, the train bridge, and the mouth of the river. Many years there are multiple damns. If you look at this ice, it carries a lot of rock and stones. This makes it extra destructive.



Now here is the potential nightmare. The temperature drops and freezes the river before this ice damn breaks up. If it rains and freezes as it is supposed to do, this ice dam will turn into one massive chunk of ice, and the buildup could be massive.


You can see another ice damn under the train bridge way down river.


Tonight the flood will happen if the ice damn holds. Temps fall around midnight.


Waterfalls all along the cliffs. Hmmmmmmm

[/img]
You can see it building quickly at the first bend.


Up river ice keeps coming.

Back to our ZEN moment for the day...









Check out over 100 photos of the ice from Winter Storm Harper here: http://lakewoodobserver.com/photoblogs/ ... -dump-2019

.

Jim O'Bryan wrote:

Nice shot! Reminds me of this.

Jim, nice photographs. I don't know if you know this but the mouth of Rocky River is very deep. However, there is a underwater shale ledge that extends 30 feet into the river below the cliff. We know because many a sailboat has put her keel on it. I think this is why in part the ice damns normally occur at the mouth of the river.

Rocky River is considered navigable water and Corps of Engineers periodically use to dredge the channel down to a depth of 12 feet. However, when the big flood occurred years back it flushed all the silt that was built up over the decades into the lake eliminating the need to dredge the channel in recent years.

What makes the channel appear narrow below the railroad bridge are the docks that extend out into the river. I was informed that clubs docks are not suppose to be over 8 feet long so they don't restrict the channel navigation and the Core of Engineers use to require the club to shorten them but haven't in recent years.

Richard Baker wrote:Jim, nice photographs. I don't know if you know this but the mouth of Rocky River is very deep. However, there is a underwater shale ledge that extends 30 feet into the river below the cliff. We know because many a sailboat has put her keel on it. I think this is why in part the ice damns normally occur at the mouth of the river.

Rocky River is considered navigable water and Corps of Engineers periodically use to dredge the channel down to a depth of 12 feet. However, when the big flood occurred years back it flushed all the silt that was built up over the decades into the lake eliminating the need to dredge the channel in recent years.

What makes the channel appear narrow below the railroad bridge are the docks that extend out into the river. I was informed that clubs docks are not suppose to be over 8 feet long so they don't restrict the channel navigation and the Core of Engineers use to require the club to shorten them but haven't in recent years.

Richard, I know the actual mouth, and as far as the docks is dredged and deepened each year. But, a person can walk across the river in the summer, just south of the docks. This is why it is so important where the ice damns form. At the mouth, past the train bridge, water can pass under the ice. South of that, it gets harder and harder. People should walk down and check it out. At one end of the ice damn you see all sorts of stuff, ice blocks, trees, etc flow to the edge of the damn, then under it.

Thanks for the infor, and the river cleared nothing to see, normal river rise.

I didn't want to hijack this thread with non-Lakewood pictures but I bet you've never seen this before. I know I haven't and I've lived on the lake all my life. Ice balls. Apparently they are a known, albeit quite rare phenomenon, formed by a combination of just the right wind, water and temperature.



My cousin took a bunch of pictures at the beach at my other house out on the other side of Vermilion. By the time I got there, they were dirty balls and not nearly so photogenic. Enjoy....