Flooding

 Tuesday is my day to check my streams for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. Today was my fourth visit to my two streams. The Cloquet River was high today. As I drove to my second stream, the Us Kab Wan Ka river, I thought after I checked the water I would go for a hike along the snowmobile trail to get some exercise in. Where I monitor, the river goes through 3 large round concrete tubes. Usually the tubes are half full of water or less. Today I couldn't even see the tubes. Upstream I saw three whirlpools where the water was circling to get into the tubes. The whole area was flooded. Beyond my monitoring place the river was flowing over the road which is something I saw once before a couple of years ago. This water was so fast and so deep I wouldn't dare walk or even drive over so no walk down these snowmobile trails for me today. The water was cold too. As I held my secchi tube upright with one hand and poured water from the bucket with my other hand, cold water spilled over the hand holding the tube. My fingers just ached with cold. My thermometer said the water was 35 degrees. The air temperature was 28 degrees. The water was clear though. I could see the black and white bottom of my tube all the way to the bottom.

Upstream is on the right.

Downstream is on the left.