Taken at South Park in Reedsburg, Wisconsin, March 2011.
Having grown up in Reedsburg, I know that South Park can always be counted on for a good flood picture. It was the first place I headed following that epic storm in June 2008, when the Baraboo River jumped its banks and flooded a few neighborhoods in Reedsburg. Back then, two blue herons were basking on the other side of the road, which had just washed out. At the time I remember thinking that was the coolest shot I was going to get. Boy was I wrong.
Anyway, the access road into South Park was covered in a few inches of ice when I headed over there last week, making for a nail-biting and perilous drive into the park. The river was already butting up next to the road and my brain kept saying, "Just one slip. That's all it would take is just one slip." If I was smart, I would have parked by the Ballwegs' and just walked into the park, but another part of my brain kept saying, "I'm only going to be here a minute. I'll make it quick." Like nature cares.
I also don't think I've been back to South Park in at least a year, since I was smart enough to drive on the unplowed access road and got so stuck that my parents had to pull me out. Fantastic.
Anyway, there were no catastrophes on this trip in. I drove as far as I could on that ice slicked road just up to the point where it had washed out, which I was actually surprised to see. I have no idea how deep the water was but I wasn't about to find out. If I had rain boots on, maybe, but I was unprepared. The water had flowed across the road and into the pond across the street, which had also overflowed.
I took a few shots, focusing on the part I found most interesting, which was the water over the fishing pier. Normally there's at least a few feet between the pier and the river level. The road extends from the bottom right corner of the photo and out toward the center of the photo, where it is washed out. The pond was to the left and behind me, and some of the shallower water had frozen over. The water overflowing from the river was pushing against it, which is what created this neat effect.
When I was a kid, we never played here much as it's almost a mile from my parents' house. But whenever we found a critter in the road or backyard (mostly giant turtles), they were always released into the Baraboo River at this point. I'm not sure what originally designated this as our release point, but that's the way I'll always think of it - driving down the access road late one night, lights glowing on the Waste Water Treatment Plant over the hill, backseat filled with some giant turtle we rescued from the middle of the road. The last time this happened, I begged my brother to let him go instead of selling him, and we did. Jimmy had placed him gently on the muddy banks of the Baraboo River just to the side of the pier in the photo, half in and half out of the water. The turtle paused a moment as if to ask if the coast was clear, then propelled himself at a straight diagonal into the brown water, and disappeared.
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