April 16, 2006:

It was mostly cloudy today; drizzling a bit in the morning. I think we got a pretty good shower overnight. The sun was out for awhile around noon, making it another pleasant day.

We were in Prince Albert on Wednesday, and Tisdale on Thursday. There was still a fair amount of snow in the fields between here and Crooked River, but not much after that. Lots of water piling up on the south side of the highway, creeks and watercourses running like crazy, and the Doghide River was a lake on both sides of the highway. The floor of the gazebo in Tisdale’s Kinsmen Park was well above the water on Wednesday, but well under it on Thursday. We drove down the street that goes past the golf course on the north, but the road was blocked off with a good torrent running over it. The Red Deer River, Copeau Creek and Greenwater Creek were all going like mad. I guess it’s spring.

No water problems here at the Park that I’m aware of. I have been watching Almi Campground but the drainage channels seem to be working properly and none of the trailers are standing in water. Francis had his drainage pretty well figured out. By Saturday afternoon the culvert was barely running.

There was a frost on Thursday night. When I went for my walk Friday morning, there was thin ice right up to the edge of the road east of our place, but the culverts caught up overnight and the ice collapsed. On the road to Uskatik, just south of the ball diamond, there was ice right on the top of the road, and Alex told me it had been flowing over the road on Thursday. There is only one culvert along there and it has had a few vehicles bounce off it so the end is partly closed. Other than that, we seem to be in pretty good shape.

I walked around there again on Saturday, and the temperature was over 18° yet the water in the big slough east of us was well down. The road was blocked off and I soon found out why - the water had eaten a hole in the pavement to one side, and it looks as if it cut itself a new culvert! Just waiting for an unwitting wheel to drop in.

Greenwater Creek is very impressive, running wide and fast. Many of those docks on the west side of the Marina have floated away, been tipped over, or submerged. There is still some ice by the Tackle Box. Yesterday, the floating dock at the Tackle Box was within one step of the permanent dock except that two of the step units had caught under the deck planking and wouldn’t let the floating dock rise. The result was that the floating dock had a steep tilt to it. By this morning, it had released without causing a lot of damage and the floating dock was just about even with the permanent dock. At the highest point that I have ever seen the lake, the floating dock was about one step above the permanent dock. I think we can safely say the lake level is in the normal range right now, and well on its way to a peak. The creek drains a big forested area south and east of the Park, and will be running for some time.

The water in the creek was pretty murky and we couldn’t see any suckers trying to swim upstream. This morning, though, a couple of young lads were wading in the creek with landing nets. They said they caught some suckers yesterday.