Independence Day at
Cottonwood Pond
July 4, 2016
From the southeast
From the west
It had been raining heavily,
tremendously, on this July 4th, as well as the night and
day before. While others were wondering if they could set off their
own fireworks between storm systems, or if their town's parade and
fireworks would really take place, I was grabbing some time to visit
Cottonwood Pond between the rains. I never mind being down there
during rain – I just didn't want to be caught during a storm. At
least it was a little cooler that day, relatively speaking.
The sky was full of large, threatening
clouds all day, so the woods was darker than usual for a summer day.
But, the freshness of rain and the glow of occasional sun peeking
through made the green as deep and vibrant as emeralds.
The slope in front of Cottonwood Pond
The Creek, looking downstream
I expected to find the usual post-rain
results: deeper water in both ponds, mud or water in associated
areas, frogs here and there, fresh crawdad chimneys, more mosquitoes,
etc.
But, what I found was a greater amount
of all of those things.
Everything was soggy. The Creek was
running steadily, singing around curves and sticks, and sparkling
when touched by the occasional sunlight.
The Creek, with a very soggy log
Everything was full again.
The Seep:
The pond corner, where the Seep begins
A faint seam through the greenery, where the Seep travels
The trail of the Seep, seen from the Creek
The main pond corner (from which the
Seep flows) and the Isthmus between the main and “little pond”:
Water near the Isthmus has reached the base of the Two-Trunk White Ash
“Little pond”:
The deepest part of "little pond"
Flooding around "little pond", along the Trunk
Temporary Creek #1 ...
... flowing into the Swampy Spot where the
Monkey Flowers grow ...
... and the trail of water that sometimes
runs (or oozes) from the Swampy Spot toward the main pond:
Toward the Inlet
The Inlet:
Water has gone to the other side of the Very Rotten Log
The Young White Ash, surrounded by pond water - the moss indicates moisture levels on the tree
And, of course, the main pond:
The water was completely brown, silt
suspended throughout the whole width and depth, stirred up from the
bottom and brought into the pond by water pushing in.
I could not see anything through it, as
if I was trying to see through a cup of milky tea. I heard frogs jump
into both the main and “little pond”, but they quickly
disappeared into the murkiness. It was not likely I would see any
frogs trying to blend into the mud, either, since water permeated
almost every spot.
The Cove was completely filled.
Water came so far up the sides of Mud
Piles #1 and #2 that only steep sides were exposed.
Tall Jewelweed plants had been pounded
down by the rains, as if they were laying face down in the pond with
exhaustion.
Other debris had been knocked into the
pond.
The softened earth allowed crawdads to
add mud to their chimneys, making them much larger.
There were also many new, tiny chimneys
dotting the area. It would be interesting to set up a camera, then
speed up the film to watch these many chimneys rising from the mud.
Though not visible through the deep,
murky waters, I knew that there were spots changed by the
re-sculpting done by water. The next time the water would settle and
draw down, maybe I would see what happened.
I went back up the soggy slope,
wondering if the next big bang I heard would be thunder or fireworks.
