This evening I went out with Ashley to look at the flood waters one more time. We drove a car this time.
A vortex at the entrance to a culvert.
It was a rather large vortex.
Flooding Along the Marys River
Today I went out on the Gangly Giraffe to look at the flooding caused by the Marys River between Philomath and Corvallis. The video above has highlights of the whole trip including fording the various flooded roads. Below are photos of those roads.
At 53rd south of the bridge over the Marys River. The water had gone down significantly since yesterday.
I walked out a ways to see if I could ride through the water. I thought I could but then changed my mind halfway across when it suddenly got much deeper and more swift.
On Belfountain Highway.
Lots of cars going very slow through here. This was flooded out yesterday to the point no one could get through.
Cars taking it slow.
The field turned into a river.
At Llewellyn Road. The water was too deep and swift for even big trucks to get through.
Yesterday the road was overtopped the whole way along.
At 15th and Chapel Drive in Philomath. Yesterday my bike would have been underwater.
No one will be going through here for a few days.
Pretty deep. I decided to go around the water.
Out on Airport Road.
Underneath my summer mesh riding gear I had a full wetsuit to keep warm in the water. I also was wearing heavy rubber diving boots. It worked well to keep me warm even going through deep water. Before my next sojourn through flooded roads, I need to reconfigure the air intake on my bike so that it is not at as much risk of sucking water into the engine. The spray from the front tire above about 7 mph directly hits the air intake area.
Corvallis Slushpocalypse
Yesterday evening, Oregon State University decided to start classes two hours late today in case the forecast snow came to pass. This morning when I woke up at 6:30am, I saw several inches laying atop my car. By the time I got out of the house at 7:30 the snow had turned to slush. This is a snowman some of my residents built outside the Phi Delta Theta fraternity house.
The feared ice-covered roadways turned out to be nothing more than a bunch of slush.
A few people were heading into work this morning in spite of the delay.
Not many cars in the parking lot.
Slushy footsteps.
There were people waiting in front of the library for it to open. They will be surprised when they have to wait until 10am before they can enter.
Snow on a statue.
The MU Quad covered in slush.
Not as much snow as I would have liked. Better luck next storm.