High Water on the Hawksbill

Friends began letting us know that there was an exceptional rain storm out in the Valley last Friday.  We were hearing forecasts of as much as five inches, and it was still raining Friday night in the DC Metro area so we held off driving out until Saturday morning.

In Sperryville, we could see that the Thornton River was running up, so we figured we'd see high water still clearing out of Luray and Page Valley when we got there.  Sure enough, the Hawksbill was up, and you could see that it had gotten out of its banks during the thick of things.

On Sunday, Tess and I took a stroll on the Greenway and the creek was still high, but it had settled back into its banks.  I took a photo from the bridge - there was a line of debris along the walk there that marked high water at the level of the bridge ramps.  Usually by now the place where these kids are standing would be dry, almost a beach.

A little further around the bend we got to the trestle where the fish mural is painted.  Last week we watched a little boy playing on the concrete footer that you can see submerged here - it was dry all the way down into the creek then.  Easily a drop of two feet to the water level.  

There's a little cleanup to be done around the Greenway this week.  Sand from upstream swept up onto the path in some areas, and the access road was still closed on Sunday morning.  

The Luray Parks and Recreation team is on it though - I'm sure of that.  They'll have the place looking spiffy soon enough!