We drove out to Oakland Mills today for lunch at Joyce's, of course we wanted lunch, but I wanted to see what flooding was occurring in the area from the Skunk River.  The river was raging through the dam area, there was some flooding on Joyce's side (north) but there were still campers on the south side of the river, although they had moved up the hill a little, they were still able to camp.

We walked out on the bridge over the dam and watched the water as it swept swiftly, almost violently, on it's way.  I had never though of white caps on a river, particularly one that is as small as the Skunk usually is, but there they were, white caps on the river where it passed over the dam.  There were guys fishing off the dam, which I thought was probably a wasted effort, but then we saw a number of fish jumping in the water.  They were probably catfish since we saw some channel cat heads on the shore, they must have washed up from the flooded cleaning room.  Not a very pretty sight!

We drove over to the Waterworks side to see what that looked like….oh my, the road was under water, the barrier was down to about 12 inches from the ground with no signage attached.  Not a problem during the daylight hours, but if a camper pulled in at night thinking they could camp where they had for years for Old Thresher Reunion they could be in real trouble.  If they got down the road very far the current would most likely grab them and away they would go.  Not a pleasant thought.  The current is so strong that it would be most difficult, if possible at all, to get out of it once you were caught.

Although it was violent, it was also awesome to see.  Such power, such speed.  Too bad they aren't generating electricity with the dam any longer, they certainly would get a bunch now!

I couldn't help but think of our grandkids.  When they were here this summer their dad took them over the walk bridge to see the river.  Now, they weren't terribly impressed, it was water.  Now I can assure you their opinions would be a little different.  I can hear Jake asking if he could throw something in the river to watch it go!

Forgetting the camera at a time like that is really too bad, perhaps we will go back out later and I can get a shot of our normally docile little river at its peak of fury.