“If Joan of Arc could turn the tide of an entire war before her 18th birthday, you can get out of bed.”
~ E. Jean Carroll
Cave Run Lake is experiencing the largest flood it has ever held. Last Monday it was 31 feet above the summer pool and rising. I don’t know what the final level was, but by today, it had receded by a foot or less. Still, it was so close to highway 801 that it was startling to see. None of us have ever seen the lake this high, and may not again, at least in my lifetime.
The dam has backed up the waters of Licking River past West Liberty. The water has stopped flowing for so long that it’s no longer muddy, but green, like the lake. It’s actually rather pretty in places, but there is still something disconcerting about Cave Run Lake at the bottom of my parent’s hilltop home. Just to give you some perspective, that’s easily ten miles or more as the crow flies from the headwaters of the lake.
The fishermen were out in droves today. The fishing is good in wooded areas that are not usually underwater. For those without boats, parking lots offer drive-thru fishing right now. It certainly doesn’t get more convenient than that, unless the water was to come right up to your door.
Some of the wildlife around the lake are struggling. The fish hatcheries weren’t able to do their routine spring samplings, and the water fowl that nest at The Shallows, which are anything but shallow at the moment, have either lost their nests or become like islands. Letting too much water out of the lake, however, would cause major flooding downstream. Therefore, the flooding stays upstream. But the lake is doing its job, and so is the dam. It was a beautiful day for a drive, and frankly, seeing those ol’ boys fishing from the parking lot made my day.
june 5, 2017 – the outhouse: where art goes
[…] seasons, like the freezing winter in February 2014 and the unusually high flood pool of April 2015. Sometimes the most beautiful view is away from the setting sun like this look at the […]