Flood Run - Saturday, April 2

No skiers at Welch Village.

Twin Cities temperatures have been way below normal in the last couple of weeks, and the predicted record flooding has not come to pass. And that's a very good thing.

Most rivers and lakes crested last week and we set out to view water levels in the beautiful river towns between St. Paul and Lake City. Our route took us past South St. Paul, where the snow has melted to a brown, tundra-like landscape, and the Mississippi looks overfilled and just barely contained by its banks. I finally tried driving the Traverse and found it similar to my long ago Dodge Grand Caravan. I turned the wheel back to Bob in Hastings, at Lock & Dam #2. The river isn't much higher than it was last weekend, but most of the ducks and geese seem to have left their winter open water -- for nesting sites, maybe?


We took one of our favorite side trips to the Welch Village area. The hills are still patchy with snow, looking more like late winter than early spring, and an undemanding skier could still get a few runs in, though no lifts were in operation.

A usually gentle trout stream rushed merrily toward its destination -- the Cannon River, I suppose. We  drove into Red Wing past the Red Wing Construction company, down the hill past the train station to the river. The park was mostly underwater and closed to traffic. A solitary mallard dived for food right beside me and seemed unaware of my presence.

we turned back home at Lake City. The river was as high as I've ever seen it. Ice hasn't yet melted in the marina area. Most unusual: there were no boats on the water on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. Sailboats are still in dry dock and launches are all underwater. We couldn't resist a stop in Prescott, where fishing boats were positioned under and near the railroad bridge, undeterred by high water.