We're Having More Weather

Saturday the 11th was the Arthritis Foundation's Jingle Bell Run.  I volunteered to be a course marshal, and got to stop traffic and wave cars through gaps in the bunch at a minor intersection.  There was a good turn-out of runners and walkers.  I was near the end of the four mile course so I stood out in the cold for about two hours until the last ones passed.

Saturday night it started raining, and raining, and raining, until late Sunday.  Apparently it was worse farther south in Seattle, but we're still pretty soggy here in Bellingham.  Monday morning I looked out my front window and saw a bit of sunshine and blue sky and decided to take advantage, quickly, and hit the road.

In the summer this is a corn field

I rode north on Hannegan Road, heading for Lynden.  I came to a sign saying the road was closed at Polinder Road because of flooding, but I rode through to see how far I could get.  There had been water over the road in a couple of places, but I crossed the bridge over the Nooksack River before I had to turn back, with Lynden in sight.


I rode back to Wiser Lake Road and headed west to Northwest Ave., where I turned south back to Bellingham.  Northwest Avenue was closed for about a month back in September, for improvements to drainage under the road, and clearly the work was well done.  There is one spot where a new asphalt driveway washed out at the base of a utility pole, and one swampy stretch that had a warning sign about water on the road, but it was dry when I passed by.

This was about a forty mile ride.  When I got to Starbuck's on W. Bakerview the sky was turning dark and ominous again.

Flood water was dammed up north of Abbott Road.

On the north side the water was still almost level with the roadway, and was boiling up through the culvert on the south side.











The water was shallower on the south side of Abbot Road , but with a pretty fast current.

This car turned back, and so did I

Washout on Northwest Avenue