Wednesday -- August 1, 2018
Water Level at Little Falls: 5.2     Water Temperature: 75

The ferry is closed today, more rain means more high water.

Friday -- August 3, 2018
Water Level at Little Falls: 6.4     Water Temperature: 75

The ferry will be closed until further notice.

Tuesday -- August 7, 2018
Water Level at Little Falls: 5.6     Water Temperature: 75

The ferry is still closed but will most likely open again tomorrow morning.

This is pretty funny, comical actually. The river floods and I have to scurry around moving everything away from the rivers edge. Then the river recedes and I quickly try to get things back to normal. Then, the river flood two days later and I'm scurrying around again like an idiot. This rainy summer, maybe I should just leave all of the tables tied down and all of the floatables on high ground. Sheesh!

This life without the ferry is getting old. Sometimes it's nice to come and go in the canoe everyday and it's not a bad thing to find yourself canoeing first thing on a Monday morning. It's also nice to be able to cut the grass on the back 40 and not have to worry about listening for the bell, the grass actually got cut! But it can be limiting. Although I would like to, I can't contemplate having guests. I can't get my bike to the mainland and it's a hassle moving trash or groceries or a guitar. The threat of rain everyday makes it so I can't just tie the canoe to the railing. I have to pull it up the steps and onto the landing so I can flip it over so it doesn't fill with rain water.

One of the biggest disappointments about all of the rain and high water this summer is that we didn't get to set up "Fish Camp". It was such a nice oasis last year to have the screen tent down there and we were hoping for more improvements this year but sadly the river has been too high. On another sad note, the willow tree that I planted at the bottom of the Island last year was taken by the beaver. I had it well protected with wire but the high water pushed it over and there was just enough trunk exposed for the beaver to snag it, bummer.

I finished painting Stan's new Stanchions and I put up my slack line like I did last year, the kids seem to like it.

I guess I may see some of you at the meeting tomorrow night. Right now, it looks like we can have the meeting on the Island.

Thursday -- August 16, 2018
Water Level at Little Falls: 4.4     Water Temperature: 79

The river water is still a little cloudy but it's a nice cool temperature, especially for August.

We managed to get those huge trees untangled from the swim dock, hooray! Thankfully Geoff and Hayley showed up in time to help me cut the ropes and push the debris away. Hayley was even standing on top of the giant logs trying to undo the cluster of debris. Once the logs were free, I had to race down to the Captain's dock to make sure that they didn't get restuck down there. I used the long bamboo pole to keep those monsters flowing down stream, just like back in the old lumber-jack days. If anyone wants to see the logs that were stuck you can visit one of them that is stuck on something down near the warning buoys.

Wednesday -- August 22, 2018
Water Level at Little Falls: 5.3     Water Temperature: 79

The ferry is closed because of high water.

Friday -- August 24, 2018
Water Level at Little Falls: 5.1     Water Temperature: 79

The ferry is closed today but my crystal ball tells me that the ferry will definitely be open and back to normal service tomorrow, Saturday. Just in time for the weekend!

Friday -- August 30, 2018
Water Level at Little Falls: 4.7     Water Temperature: 79

The first thing I want to say is that the Club owes Mary Kearney, my sweetie and assistant caretaker, a huge debt of gratitude. She was able to fix the problems with the Club website and made it possible for me to post updates on my log. For nearly three weeks I wasn't able to post anything or provide river updates, but Mary stepped up and voluntarily cured the problem that had left everyone else scratching their heads. Thanks Mary! You are a true asset to this Club!

I also wanted to share a funny flood story. So back on May 20th we had a flood and there was a lot of trash and debris cast unto the Island. One of the items that drifted up was a fence post. Now we get a ton of driftwood lumber here every year including 2X4,s, posts and dock parts, but his post was different. It had an address on it. We decided that it would be fun to try to find out where this post had come from and how far it has traveled to get to Sycamore Island.

We had a similar incident when the Calleva dock washed ashore here. It was just cool knowing that it came from the Calleva camp up near Seneca Creek, about twenty miles away, and had survived a trip over Great Falls to get here.

So how do you find out where a random addressed fence post came from? Well we knew that some of the worst rain fell near Frederick and that there was a wash out on the towpath near Point of Rocks and Catoctin Creek. We decided to look for matching street numbers in that area and to my amazement, Mary found an address that seemed to match. It was on Ausherman Road and it was right up against Catoctin Creek

So, I carried the post up the hill and put it in my van and one Saturday last month, Mary and I drove out to Ausherman Road. It was a tiny road and the creek was close on our right as we made the turn. The first driveway we saw was our destination and I quickly turned and climbed the hill away from the creek. Right away we could tell that there had been some serious flooding and flood damage. There was a new address post on the hillside where I guess the old one had been. The new post was surrounded by newly laid, fist-sized gravel that was spread out, all the way up the side of the driveway, to fill in where the soil had all eroded away. We reached the top of the drive and saw the owner standing near a chicken coup. He didn't seem surprised at all to see us drive onto his property and he barely reacted when I jumped out of my van and introduced myself. He politely listened as we told him the story, but he didn't seem to be the slightest bit interested in the Club or where is was, or that his post landed there. We left him the post and he graciously let us take a picture and we left. It's all kind of silly but I think that it's cool to know that that post traveled on the river for over 45 miles to get to Sycamore Island.

We are finally getting a few days in a row when the ferry is open so I'm finally seeing some of my long absent Club members that have been kept out by the flooding. We're actually getting pretty swamped with ferry pulling. I've also been busy cutting the grass, clearing the trails and painting the new stanchions. I had to make some emergency repairs to the ramp to the canoe dock and to the captains float. I also spent a long day loading my van with the flood debris and busted kayaks, and hauled it all off to the dump.