Foto (Photo) Friday is a show and tell of pics from the last week.  This week I am going to change it up a little and do a recap of the Maumee River ice dams and ice damage.

• March 11-We drove up to the dam in Grand Rapids hoping to catch the ice breaking up over the dam causing the notorious ice dams.  Last year they were by far the worst in Perrysburg.  No such luck, the ice was still solid with very little water running under the ice.

• March 13-We were driving up to Grand Rapids to check out the dam again and pulled into one of the Metropark drives  There were a ton of ice chunks on the shore and in the parking lot.  Last year in this same drive they were much worse.  The ice was three times as thick and there was so much of it piled high that you couldn’t even see the river.  When I saw this I thought, “Oh, my gosh we missed the ice breaking on the dam.”  Since the ice chunks were thinner I thought it wasn’t going to be as good as last year.

• March 11-At the dam in Grand Rapids, the ice had not broke free yet.  It has definitely melted more and we could see more free flowing water.  It was only going to be a matter of time before the ice finally started to break apart.  I was betting it would happen that night or on Saturday.

•  March 13-B came with us to see the dam before he went to work at my Uncle’s.  We surprised S and Grandma came with us (She was also going to my uncle’s.).  When we got up to the dam in Grand Rapids, the ice had broke free and we watched huge chucks of ice go over the dam.  It was actually really fun to watch all the ice move.  We would watch the birds ride on tree branches and try to guess if they would fly off before it went over the dam.  Most birds did, but some of them didn’t.  The water was super muddy which is to be expected.  The overlook that has a wood railing where we have gone each time we came up to check out the dam was gone.  Part of the railing, and a picnic table had been taken out by huge chunks of ice.  (Of course, I didn’t get a picture of any of it, just videos.  They were super long and boring so I thought I would spare you.)

Sidecut Metropark Overview Map

• I wanted to find a map and mark it so for those who are not familiar with Sidecut park could get an idea of where and what I am talking about.

1

• The trees were literally just smooshed over to the ground.  Some of the trees were ripped up with there roots exposed and other trees were mowed over by the ice.  These huge ice chunks on the side of the river look like rocks.  The ice is so muddy and covered in stones that it is hard to remember that those are chunks of ice

2

• In the picture to the left there is a split rail fence along the road to prevent people from crossing it to get to the river in this area.  In the middle picture you can see were the fence was taken down by the ice chunks.  There are rails just laying on the ground and there were a few stumps left from the fence posts.  In the last picture there should be more split rail fence here but it is completely covered by ice chunks, dirt, branches, and trees.

 

3

• This is on the other side of the road opposite of the river.  Now most years the water gets pretty high and has gotten as high as the road.  I remember a few years when the water even covered the road, but it has never crossed the street and gone so far back in the woods.  This year it wasn’t just the water, but look how far back ice chunks actually made it into the woods.  What the heck happen to all the deer who live there?  The picture on the right is the back of the cemetery.  A ton of the headstones in the cemetery were damaged.  Some had headstones that were broken and others that were displaced.  While the front half of the cemetery has had many repairs done to the headstones and some were put back on the graves the back half of the cemetery is still covered in ice chunks and they have no way to see how bad the damage is yet.  They have to wait for the ice chunks to melt before they can see the damage.

4

• We thought to take our mud boots so we could get out and inspect what has been going on.  The pile of ice that B and S are standing in front of is taller than B.  That is just one stack of ice.  It is like that all down the river.  S climbed up on some of the ice chunks.  They are so thick he was climbing them like rocks.  They were more slippery than rocks but just as much fun to climb.

5

• We decided to see how far we could walk down the path.  This is a path we have taken many times and walk down so much farther.  S just kept checking out the ice chunks.  I think he was more in awww of them than anything else.  P was just happy to be outside.  She was just babbling saying “Hi” to everyone we passed.  Yup, I’m pretty sure she says hi.  It sure sounds like it.

6

• S wanted to walk on this.  I am not sure if he realized it was ice or thought it was a smooth rock.  He figured it out pretty fast when he started to slip.  These were ice chunks on the opposite side of the river.  So when we were walking the river was on our right and these ice chunks were on our left.  I cannot believe how high, thick and big the ice chunks were.  We hit the end of the trail about 100 ft. after we started it.   They are making huge strides in cleaning up the park, but it is going to be a slow long process.

7a, & 7b

• These ice chunks made it past the play ground, over the parking lot and into the field.  Some of the grills were on the ground (you know the permanent kind that are cemented into the ground).
• Look we found some misplaced deer.  They were in the front yards of some of the houses.  It is a normal thing to see deer once in a while in the front yards of the houses by the park, but many are saying that it is happening daily  now because of there eating grounds being disturbed or destroyed.