christopher575

Our neighborhood is carved out of a hilly area in a forest. It's great living here, and the trees really shield us from the worst of the weather sometimes. It rained really hard all day yesterday, but that never concerns me since the house is on a hill and the street also has quite a bit of a slope. I looked down at the street as I closed the blinds last night and there was quite a stream raging past the bottom of the driveway. My only thought at the time was, if I walk in the morning, it should be somewhere paved.



My left shoulder was a little stiff for the second morning in a row, probably from sleeping wrong. Swimming didn't sound very fun, so I headed out for a walk at Spencer Island/Langus Riverfront Park. I regretted that decision almost as soon as I pulled out of the neighborhood, because it was extremely windy. Was it windy the whole morning and I just didn't notice because of all the trees? Or did it happen to pick up as I pulled out? I have no idea. But I didn't feel like turning back, taking off all my gear, and getting dressed again in regular clothes.

There are signs on the roads leading into the park warning that the roads may flood, but I'd never seen that happen until today. I didn't see the situation with the river right away because I decided to park in the lot I recently found on the access road. When I arrived, I saw that it was higher than I'd ever seen. It occurred to me that the path might be flooded and inaccessible, and I was right.




So, I turned back and walked past my car toward the island. It was pretty disturbing to see the water all the way up to the bottom of the bridge that I've seen people pass under in boats before.



This area is usually a marsh with a trail leading pretty far out to some bird watching spots. Today, it's a lake.



With all the wind and rain, I figured it'd be a good day to follow the trail that heads North that people hunt from, since it wouldn't be a great day for hunting. I could tell in a few spots that the water had come all the way up to that level before receding.



Looks like nobody will be using the benches for a while.




The trail that leads to the boardwalk and more bird watching spots was flooded, and those spots were almost completely submerged.




I wanted to follow that land bridge in the photo above, but couldn't get too far.



The water treatment plant was pretty stinky today, but at least there was a nice rainbow above it.




3.9 miles in 1:15, 8,390 steps

I'm glad I was able to get almost four miles in even though I had to keep turning back. And it turns out that our neighborhood isn't completely safe from the wind, either. I had to turn back when I tried to leave to get some lunch because a cherry tree at the end of the street had fallen and was blocking the way. That was a bummer, because I needed to pick up some forms from our financial adviser, and was really craving some banh hoi. On my third attempt to leave, enough of the (former) top of the tree had been taken off to allow people to drive around, and when I eventually had finished lunch at the errand, it was cleared completely. Here's the banh hoi I eventually got.



And just because it's looking so great, here's a picture of our air plant. I love it and I'm somewhat tempted to buy four or five more.