A view from the Salmon Hole parking lot! Notice the islands on far side of the river, which are usually one large island, and notice the new rapids in the center.
The past two weeks have brought many cloudy days and a few days of heavy rain. Yesterday particularly, it rained from morning until night almost nonstop! As I got close to Salmon Hole today, I could hear the roar of the water over the music in my headphones, which I have never noticed before. When the Winooski came into view, I got a good look at how drastically my site had changed! From the roadside parking lot, I could see that the long outcrop of rock that reaches out into the river was now submerged, and the far end of the outcrop was now an island. In the place of the long rocks and what I thought were vernal pools were rapids, and the shore line on both sides of the river had shifted dramatically.
The grass in the center of the image is my center point. Notice how far up the water is!
After taking the trail down to the shore and entering my site, I saw that the focal point of my site was nearly submerged! The center of my site is a patch of tall grass on the sandy shore behind the tall outcropped rocks, and usually it is about ten feet away from the edge of the water, at least. Today, it was right on the waterline!
I took some pictures of the current water levels relative to some landmarks at the site, and will be comparing over the coming weeks.
On my bird’s eye view map, I outlined the changes to the river’s shape and the water’s reach. The red lines outline where there is now water, and what land is now submerged.
New water levels due to flooding.