Friday was the first rainy day of autumn, after more than eighty days without rain. The Nooksack River is lower than I've ever seen it (not that my experience goes back very far), with sandbars appearing below the bridges in Ferndale. The woodpile I was observing at the beginning of summer was broken up and partly cleared away not long after Memorial Day weekend, but the under-water base is visible now. The pilings in the middle of the picture on the right are the remains of the old Main Street bridge, which was replaced in 1996, about a year after I moved to Bellingham.
I haven't heard any winter-weather predictions I'd trust much, but no doubt the water level will rise quickly now.
As of Monday morning, October 15, the river has risen a bit above the rock banks, and the pilings and sand bars are no longer visible. In case you're wondering what this has to do with bicycling, people in cars can't see much of the river; the view is better on foot or by bicycle. Drivers did get to see an above-the-bumpers pond that formed in the roadway below the railroad overpass, when storm drains backed up at the intersection of Hovander Road and Main Street. The sidewalks were under water and I stayed well back to avoid getting drenched.
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