The Power of Water

This story is a bit about our built environment as well as about respect for Mother Nature and all her powers.

Few of us ever have the chance to experience our effect on nature or nature’s effect on us.  A few learn dramatically and with great loss in cataclysmic weather events.  The few lucky ones, like my son and I and the people we were hiking with one day in 2014, have a chance to understand and get through the experience with no long-term issues, just awe, respect, and new-found awareness.

We left on a rainy morning in June to hike another Adirondack high peak, Mount Haystack.  Hiking in the wet is no big deal and the temperature was perfect.  Not too muggy, no black flies, all-in all very nice, though…wet.

As we rounded a corner to hike up to the slight depression before heading up Little Haystack (you have to go over Little Haystack and then down a bit to get up to Mount Haystack) we realized we were hiking up a waterfall.  Seriously, a waterfall.  The trail is usually the lowest part of the mountainside as it is often worn down.  Water migrates, in this case dramatically, down into the trail.  As the trail got steeper, the water ran with more force and the rain added volume.  My son and I and our friend, John, turned back about a mile from the peak.  So close, but it was too much for us to continue. As is said, the mountain will still be there on another day.

Hiking the Haystack trail

Hiking the Haystack “trail”

That is not the story, just the background.  The story is the 5.5 mile hike back to John Brook’s Lodge (JBL) and what we experienced then.  The first stream crossing we came to, after Slant Rock, stunned us.  We had easily crossed with dry feet by hopping rock by rock earlier this same day. All the rain had aggregated into the stream, which seemed now impassable, and we had to cross it.  With much trepidation, John, crossed the too-deep water with a rope and tied it off to bank-side trees so my son and I could use it to stabilize our shorter and smaller bodies in the crossing.  We made it, shaking.

Jodi and Erik sitting on a rock in John's Brook, about 10am.

Jodi and Erik sitting on a rock in John’s Brook, about 10am.

We crossed two other small streams with caution, and then arrived at John’s Brook, which we had to cross to get back to the lodge situated about 1.5 miles downriver on the other side.  No way.  The river was nearly 3 feet deeper than it was a mere 5 hours earlier. That’s a LOT of water. We were forced to bushwack (go through the woods with no trail) for 1.5 miles on the wrong side of the river to reach a trail that would eventually bring us to a high water bridge below JBL.  This took us 3.5 hours.

The same rock, about 4pm.

The same John’s Brook rock, about 3pm.

That is what happens when water flows.  It has speed and power and will make its own paths when needed, and grow and grow in volume as it runs down.

Here’s the built infrastructure message: We don’t treat water in our cities and suburbs with enough respect.  We contain it and we direct it, and it does NOT like it. Putting it into a pipe in the ground and flowing it to a bigger pipe and a bigger one eventually to dump into a treatment plant is a recipe for disaster, and for excessive costs and management.  We have seen this disaster in Upstate NY especially by building tight to seemingly passive streams and rivers only to have roads and buildings torn away by the flow. We have watched as manhole covers erupt up in our asphalt covered cities. Water is fierce. Water is not going to pay any attention to you, you insignificant human (nothing personal).

So, I am re-committing to Green Infrastructure (GI) efforts, efforts that include green roofs, inverted berms, rain gardens, pervious paving and bioswales.

Resource:

Save the Rain website – plenty of successful GI projects with free access to details, specs, drawings etc. of all projects

Green building is not, nor has it ever been, just about energy use reductions.  It is about doing smart, long-lasting things that are durable, flexible, cost-effective, and that create no new problems.  Impervious surfaces leading to pipes underground very often create new problems even in best scenario; problems of storage, treatment, discharge and maintenance.  In the worst scenario: flooding, destruction, danger, and untreated waste.

Let’s engage Mother Nature and work with her to filter the water through her own soils instead of running it into faster, bigger and costly man-made avenues.  Let’s NOT spend money or power pumping and treating unless we have to!  Let’s recharge and renew, revitalize and reconnect the systems that were working perfectly well before we starting interfering with our hard surfaces and restricting pipes.  We may need to invest in some more cleverness, but we will certainly find less expensive and more effective ways to let our mother help us out.

Learn from your experiences, and be greener,

Jodi

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