Wodehouse Creek Comparison Shots

Before I leave the story of Wodehouse Creek, I want to share with you some of the comparison shots I've taken over the years.  The easiest place to see the creek of course is where it crosses a road, and these shots are all taken from bridges on 5 different roads upstream of the karst.  It's the dramatic difference in water levels that originally got me interested.

This is your first view of the creek, west of the 9th Line, just downstream of the springs.

In early spring it doesn't look too much different, the channel a little wider, and undoubtedly a little deeper.

Moving downstream, this is a summer view from Sideroad 13, where an old barn foundation stood.  It's since been sold and dismantled and rebuilt someplace!

 But that gentle stream turns into a roaring torrent in the early spring.

If you walk in the unused 10th Sideroad, this is the creek in the summer.

And this is the creek in early spring.  It's these dramatic contrasts that got me interested in figuring out what's going on.

And east of the 7th Line, you can hardly find the creek in mid-summer.

 But a couple of weeks ago it would have looked like this.

Finally, at the last road crossing before the karst, Wodehouse Creek is just a small stream hidden among the tall grasses.

Until early spring, when the temporary lake forms, and the whole valley floods.  This is where we went paddling a couple of weeks ago.

These high water levels puzzled me, since they don't come from a lot of spring runoff; they come directly from the springs.  And they're enough to create this large temporary lake.  The view from this sideroad was what first suggested to me that I should hike in to the karst and see what was going on - though it was not until we paddled in that I really understood it.  One more post tomorrow, on 'The Continuing Mystery of Wodehouse Creek'.