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2019 floods affect your riding?

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2019 floods affect your riding?

Old 07-23-19, 08:09 AM
  #1  
riverdrifter
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2019 floods affect your riding?

There has been a lot of flooding all over the place this year, and Nebraska has sure had our share. We still have areas under water now. My local lake is higher than it's ever been, and doesn't appear to be going down anytime soon. The MUP along it's edge is under water. It's a nice trail that leads from town to a very nice federal campground, that is also under water now. Has anyone else had to change your routes due to this year's flooding?

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Old 07-23-19, 09:47 AM
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I was in Southern Ontario area earlier in the Summer for work and brought my bike, and the Waterfront Trail was partially under water.

One of our best road loops in my town was also had some roads under water, but only by a couple cm, so we bravely went around the barriers and rode through the flood.
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Old 07-23-19, 09:47 AM
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I'm not saying this is climate change, but it sure does seem like the climate is changing.
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Old 07-23-19, 09:54 AM
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The times I have been in northern Illinois this year, flooding did force a change in routes. Here in south-coastal Delaware it has not.
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Old 07-23-19, 10:40 AM
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Last weekend's road rides had to be completely re-routed due to the flooding especially in Vernon County, Wisconsin (a rural area in western Wisconsin). Several state highways were underwater for the second year in a row, but it looks like most of the bridges have survived and the roads are open again.

One road down that way (that happened to have a favorite Strava hill climb segment) got washed out in 2017 and was never fixed. After a second wash out last year, the land was sold and the road is permanently closed to vehicles and cyclists.

After flooding events, descents can be a bit sketchy due to sand, rough pavement, and missing chunks from the road surfaces. I really feel bad for the folks living and working in these communities.

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Old 07-23-19, 10:54 AM
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Early advice to everyone: no politics. The OP asked if you've had flooding interrupt your riding this year.

On topic, amazingly, as a SoCal resident, I can actually say yes to this one! We had a big, big storm hit the mountains, and the combination of rainfall and snowmelt swelled one of the creeks that's usually a trickle into a proper torrent. That torrent took a hard right turn, and ate about a 50 foot chunk of the road right off-- right at a sharp curve in the road, no less. This part of road happens to be a fairly heavily used route for cyclists (Greenspot Road.) It's also a shortcut for people trying to get to the mountain resorts via Hwy.38, so they actually put the quick work into it, and it was only closed for about 3 weeks.
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Old 07-23-19, 10:56 AM
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No.
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Old 07-23-19, 11:16 AM
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Originally Posted by DrIsotope
Early advice to everyone: no politics. The OP asked if you've had flooding interrupt your riding this year.
Luckily nobody has mentioned anything political.
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Old 07-23-19, 11:24 AM
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Not as bad as it could have been. We regularly ride the Katy Trail into St Charles. If the posted Missouri River level at St Charles is over 36' that means the trail is under water. We only had a couple days of that but there were lots of days when it was close.
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Old 07-23-19, 11:37 AM
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Yes. The flooding is bipolar in how long, how much, for where water is stagnantly standing.
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Old 07-23-19, 11:44 AM
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To make matters worse, we now have a Toxic Algae Bloom in all this water standing around. My 8 year old son says it looks like "avacado stew" (I don't think we've ever had that) . You can see it in the first post.
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Old 07-23-19, 02:32 PM
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need to toss in a bunch of Bristlenose plecos, Hypostomus, & Siamese algae eaters to that standing cesspool called water.
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Old 07-23-19, 10:36 PM
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Yes lots of moisture this year. Water table very high and now every time it rains more than 1/2” the MUP floods for 5-8 days. Then the cleaning up after. Our city does an amazing job of keeping it open and clean when they can but the rain is frustrating this year.

Out weather guy said if we didn’t get another drop of rain for the rest of the year in our city our average rain fall would still be higher by 3.5” for a yearly average. And we have not even hit Snow season yet. Crazy!!!
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Old 07-24-19, 02:18 AM
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It's been a bit rainy in northern Tasmania but not too bad in southern ... and it is winter after all. So it's pretty normal for this time of year.
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Old 07-24-19, 06:52 AM
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Luckily, for me, no floods this year. There have been a few years in the past where all my normal routes were closed down, so I was limited to a single out and back ride for about two weeks. And, dammit, this was prior to Zwifting. Now, of course, indoor riding is *way* better than it used to be, so it's no big deal.
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Old 07-25-19, 09:27 AM
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As the changing weather patterns of the riding season come and go, I can say with a firm, scientifically based fact - I did get rained on twice, and enjoyed the heck out of it.

Other than those two times, 2019s rainy season hasnt affected me any more than previous years.

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Old 07-25-19, 12:51 PM
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The rain that was endlessly falling until fairly recently was the bigger issue. Seemed like for months every time I wanted to/had time to ride it was intermittently pouring.

Last edited by bcpriess; 07-25-19 at 12:57 PM.
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Old 07-25-19, 01:04 PM
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Cancelled my annual Katy Trail trip because of the Missouri River flooding the trail out.
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Old 07-25-19, 03:09 PM
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I haven't been affected by floods. But the incessant rain sure has.
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Old 07-25-19, 03:21 PM
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We had to get a shuttle out of North Jefferson because the KATY trail flooded between us and the car on our planned 5 day trip, it also flooded behind us. The day we shuttled out there was a mandatory evacuation of North Jefferson. The damage to the trail still hasn’t been fully revealed. I’m not planning on my usual fall trip,this year
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Old 08-03-19, 06:35 PM
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Yes. My annual Katy Trail end-to-end ride was cancelled due to flooding.
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Old 08-03-19, 07:30 PM
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Yep, climate change is making Minnesota warmer and wetter (you can see this explicitly in how much longer the mosquito season is now vs. the 1970s).

The Mississippi and Minnesota rivers are super swollen this year and completely wiped out some trails in St. Paul. Another road I like to ride was flooded through early July.

Another area over in Minneapolis is still flooded and probably won't be clear for a while yet.
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Old 08-05-19, 03:48 PM
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Drive your boat right up onto the bike path.
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Old 08-05-19, 03:50 PM
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I live in south-central Iowa. So ya, almost everyone I know has had trails\roads flooded.
I'd post pics if I could but.. can't.
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Old 08-05-19, 04:14 PM
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Central Iowa has had flooded trails for a couple years now.

- A popular singletrack along the Des Moines river is almost totally unrecognizable due to sustained flooding. Its impassable on many parts, even after water levels have dropped enough.

- A very popular part of a paved urban trail that connects downtown with a few locations has been under water for 2 years. 2 years. This is in part due to the Army Corps of Engineers releasing water from a dam in a way that ensures constant flooding downstream(but not flooding to the point of ruining businesses/houses). The flooding has taken out a bunch of recreational activities along the river.

- that dam was so full earlier this year to the point of flooding a different trail.

- a really popular and huge greenspace park in the city has flooded twice this year and totally wrecked the paved and dirt trails. This park connects multiple trails together as a central hub, so that really hurt route options.



It's frustrating, but at the same time these trails are in certain locations for a reason- its land that isn't developable due to potential flooding. We shouldn't be surprised when it floods, as annoying as it may be.
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