This poor little park took a hard hit during the winter floods. Looks like the river got riled up and roared, “Why go around it when I can go OVER IT?”
At the entrance closest to the Northeast Carnation Farm Road bridge, a sign said part of the “social trail” was closed due to erosion. It wasn’t closed - it was gone. A huge section of riverbank from the eastern side of the park was just whisked away and deposited as a widespread layer of rocks and sand on the northwestern side of it.
The resulting cut off section was much bigger than the small red stretch on the closure map; from previous trip reports, it looks like the signs predate the December floods.
There is a trail that cuts the park in half, southeast to northwest, much closer to the main road than to where the river normally bends. Even that trail has extensive flood debris stacked against trees on both sides of the trail, all the way across the park. Just after I reached the river again and turned right, in the northwest part of the park, I came across the blowdown in the picture. The top is about six feet above the ground where it crosses the trail.
But you know what’s amazing? I heard frogs. Lots of frogs. How is it possible that such a catastrophic flood didn’t wash away all the frogs?
And you know what else made it through? The bathroom! Clean, with a couple rolls of toilet paper and some hand sanitizer. The toilet was missing its lid, though. Not too terrible this time of year, but it’ll get pretty stinky when the weather gets warmer.
Bathroom and frogs for the win, with their unexpected and reassuring displays of resilience.
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