The wash never did flood yesterday, and if the forecasters on the radio are right – wouldn’t be wise to plan as if they’re right – the whole “apocalypse every afternoon” thing might back off for a couple of days. If so, I’ll risk a Jeep expedition down the wash to see if I can find my shooting bench. Even if it’s ruined, and I’d be shocked if it’s not ruined, it’s still junk I left in the flood’s path so probably sorta my responsibility not to leave it to rust wherever it ended up. Assuming I can dig it out of the silt.
I’m quite sure I’ll never see the big ammo can that sat for years next to the target stands, containing repair hardware, paint, my stapler and tape. It’s gone like it never was, and since I’m pretty sure the top wasn’t secured I’ve surely lost all that stuff. Even if I find the can I won’t find the top, previously mentioned as unsecured. It was one of those big square cans they used for mortar bombs or something; useful, but the top was heavy enough to stay put and latching it down was a pain. Alas.
The 25-yard range stake did survive the flood, to my surprise. When the water backed off I found it, bent and wreathed in weeds but still there. The 100-yard stake is all that remains of that shooting station, of course. since the flood even swept away my damned iron bench. The 200-yard stake is undamaged but while it used to rise from a picturesque field of incongruously green plants – cottonwood seedlings, I think, which for some reason cattle don’t want to eat – it’s now alone on a plain of silt. All those plants for hundreds of yards around were buried. Makes me sad; it was kinda pretty.
The good news is that my favorite driving lane, which became impassible a couple of years ago due to big rocks I couldn’t move, appears to have been cleared. I can’t tell if the rocks were swept away or just reburied, and I haven’t tried to bring the Jeep in there because there are still plenty of quicksand pits. But in the end I think the flood will leave the wash much more passable. For a while, until the sand gets deep and loose again. Happens most seasons, but not usually quite to this extent.
Your forecast for a break in the weather may be right because it looks like the monsoon has reappeared in our area. Local report
“Woodland Park,
Flash Flood – Watch from 7/26/2017 3:00:00 PM to 7/27/2017 3:00:00 AM”
Good luck finding your stuff.
Those buried cottonwoods may surprise you and grow right up through the silt and sand. They absolutely love silty sand to root in, and the buried parts will send out plenty of roots and shoots in no time, I’m sure, if not buried too deeply anyway. Not sure why the cattle won’t eat them, however. That’s weird. Cattle will even eat prickly pear cactus, manzanita and sagebrush if pushed to it.
I’m not completely certain they’re cottonwood but the leaves and twigs are similar. But yeah, the cattle around here are a plague to anyone trying to garden and there are often far too many for the available grazing, but they walk right past that belly-high field of green plants week after week.