Thursday, April 28, 2011

Spring water fun

I'm a bit behind on posting, mainly because my year-old camera got cranky and is in for warranty repair. Among other things, the cargo trike got a new hi-tech lithium battery pack, and I'll post about that as soon as I can take photos.

In the mean time, I have a nice photo spread of the the annual Spring waters here in Ottawa, featuring shots of both Rideau and Hogs Back Falls.

Where the Rideau River meets the Ottawa River there are a pair of falls due to Green Island (site of our former City Hall) sitting right on the escarpment's edge. The western falls aren't that interesting, so it's the eastern one that gets all the attention. And since this river controls the level of the the northern half of the Rideau Waterway, a LOT of water passes through when the Spring melt begins.

For some background on the Rideau waterway and the falls, I recommend this site.

Also, a few years ago I took some video footage of the falls and the blasting that occurs to break up the ice:




The falls in full roar.



This beast is used to lift the square timbers that close the dam.
Not sure where they can even find wood this large anymore.

Some interesting ice formations can occur.



Now up to Hogs Back Falls. This where the canal splits off from the river at Mooney's Bay.
To get there by bike I took the pathway alongside the canal, and it loops over the Falls and back under the roadway. Except that the subway was still filled with ice!

Ah, here we go, the dam is wide open and in full flood.






At this point the camera started to go wonky and the lens would not extend, so that was the end of photos for a while.