Nooksack river ride

In Everson, near the bridge

Some mornings I can tell it's sunny because I wake up hearing birds chirping ecstatically in the alley. Other days, it's trees thrashing in the wind and rain splattering on the pavement. Friday and Sunday were partly-sunny days when I got out for rides of 32 and 34 miles.

With all the rain and warmer temperatures in the mountains, the Nooksack River is running very high. I'd been thinking I might take my usual route up to Birch Bay, which I haven't seen since last fall, but instead I decided to head inland to see what the river looked like farther upstream. I rode Pole Road to Everson, about 17 miles from my place. It's a pretty flat ride, but since I haven't been riding often I don't feel up to much hill-climbing yet.

From the Nooksack River bridge in Everson

There's a lot of water in the low spots in pastures, fields and golf courses, but the land mostly looks pretty well drained. When I crossed the river in Everson, it was easy to see where all the logs and tree branches passing through Ferndale are coming from: a big logjam of dead wood piled up just downriver from the Everson bridge was breaking up in the high water.

Back in Ferndale, lots of people were out looking at the river, which is about two feet below spilling over the bank in to VanderYacht Park.

I talked to a woman at the park, who said several years ago the water rose about four feet higher than it is now, causing flooding over a wide area of downtown Ferndale. She said the railroad bridge was closed, and they almost closed the auto bridge, too.

The river in Ferndale

I haven't heard any warnings about possible flooding. The weather forecasts I saw online say more rain early next week, and predict snow on days with a low temperature of forty degrees, and highs in the upper fifties. Which makes no sense, of course, unless maybe it's just that someone is having trouble converting from centigrade to Fahrenheit. Probably best to listen to the birds in the alley in the morning.