Rain, mudslides and glasses

I suspect it may be a product of living in sunny Saskatchewan, but I don’t like rainy days. A downpour is fine but a drizzly day starts to affect my mood. Perhaps it’s because I’m not keen on getting wet and I get frustrated looking through water droplets on my glasses. I have never been able to understand how the inside of my glasses is the first place to get wet! Lest you accuse me of getting grumpier as I get older, I can assure you this bias has not changed.

When I go to the mountains, I understand that rain is not only one of the hazards, it’s pretty much a guarantee! However, last fall I discovered that I could still take wildlife photos even though it rained most of the time. A good wildlife shot is the only drug that seems to ease the pain of the rain.

Just as I feared, it rained last week in the mountains. This wasn’t just a drizzle. It was pouring rain for days. The locals told us the combination of rain and higher than usual spring runoff from the mountains produced far more running water than usual.

One morning we noticed the creek near our cabin was noticeably higher and louder. If it’s going to rain, there may as well be so much that it causes some excitement and there was. Highway 1A between Banff and Castle Mountain was closed because of mudslides. Great! We headed off to find some water and we were successful.

The photos below were all taken in the rain (not to worry, I wore my new waterproof hat with a wide brim). Typically water in the mountains has a greenish tinge but it all turned a murky colour as it picked up extra mud and debris in its haste. Despite the rain, I have to admit it was a fun day.

And just for the record, in the week since we have been home, it has rained a lot! And yes, my glasses were affected!

Safety first. I was pleased that they put up this fence so we wouldn’t fall in to the river.

: The pleasant creek we could see behind our cabin suddenly turned into a lot browner and a lot angrier. It was definitely not a happy place to fall in.

: Normally all the trees in the middle of the photo are beside the Bow river, not in the middle of it.

: This was one mud slide that closed Highway 1A. The debris had been pushed aside to allow traffic.

: The day before this entire area was dry. A little more water might create a raft.

The crew above was driving by and noticed this bridge was in trouble. They stopped to remove all the logs that had piled up against the bridge. One of the crew said he didn’t expect the bridge would survive the day but it was still there when we drove by later that afternoon.