The waterfront where we are staying at Valle de Bravo, Mexico.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Valle de Bravo, Mexico.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Cancun on December 17th!

Monday, April 29, 2013

When the snow melts, it causes erosion!

We had a great weekend, and a lot of snow has disappeared compared to when we arrived here on Friday.

The only problem is that they had a lot of snow here, and when it all melts at once it causes problems!

This area had a hard winter. The first snowfall was on October 11 last fall and it stayed! So winter had been around for almost seven months!

The campground and the road on this side of the lake are built into a sloping hill that leads down to the lake. At the top of that hill are hundreds of acres of farm fields that have melting snow on them. So there are a lot of culverts in place to direct the water runoff to the right place. But this weekend some of those culverts became jammed with ice, or they simply overflowed. This is causing a problem.

Lots of spring runoff.

This is our road leading down to the boat launch and part of the campground. The water isn't supposed to be here! It's supposed to be flowing in a drainage ditch that runs underneath the footbridge you can see on the right.

But a thick layer of ice had redirected the flow onto the road. What we didn't know, was that water was also making it's way underneath the road surface. Even if we did know, it was going to take a backhoe to fix the problem.

Well now, we really need to fix a problem!

Hmmm.

This wasn't the only area with a problem. We went for a 6 km (3.7 mile) walk yesterday afternoon down the road that runs beside the lake and back. 

The water in this ditch is touching the side of the road.

This road doesn't affect our access. It leads up to Prince Albert National Park.

The day before yesterday, the culvert got jammed with ice and the water began flowing over the road.

A big chunk of the bank got washed away.

The temperature went below freezing last night so the water flow had slowed considerably. This morning, apparently they have a backhoe coming to fix our problem here so that it doesn't get worse when things warm up again.


18 comments:

  1. Wow do you guy's have guess coming soon to your camp?

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    1. Campground opens May 1st! Don't think anyone is coming then but it won't be long. Hope this snow melts soon so we can get people on to some of the sites and get the water in the campground running.

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  2. Goodness the clean up after such a hard winter looks worse than the winter itself. Although 7 months with snow on the ground doesn't sound so great. Hope you get everything fixed up without too much hassle. Looks pretty serious from your pictures.

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    1. Yes, the clean up is worst than the long winter. Just waiting for the rest of the snow to melt and for things to dry up a bit and then it won't take long to get the campsites in decent shape, especially with the new little tractor Kevin will have.

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  3. I love the sound of rushing water but not if it is going to endanger any life of any kind.

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    1. No lives in danger with the water but there is quite a bit of damage done to the roads and campground, nothing that a bit of work can't fix though.

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  4. I don't seem to recall you guys ever being bundled up that much. Hope your tans don't fade too much. (like that's important)
    Have fun playing in the water.

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    1. It was actually quite a nice day but the wind was blowing which kept the face pretty chilly. Our tans are starting to fade fast!

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  5. Amazing the damage a little water can do. Thank goodness you have a backhoe coming or you'd be doing a lot of shoveling. :cO

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    1. We said the same thing as we watched the water rushing past.

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  6. A bitterly cold winter of 7 months. Thank goodness I live in a more temperate place. Hope the excess water problem gets sorted!

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    1. We wouldn't be able to handle 7 months of it either, that's why we go to Mexico.

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  7. Get everything cleaned up and put back together soon and have a great summer.

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  8. Hope you have a good heating system in your cabin, must sure be a shock to the system. Looks like you will be very comfy there.

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    1. The heating is great! We have been nice and toasty. The warm/hot weather is arriving starting tomorrow. They say by Sunday we should be starting summer wth 25C temperatures.

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