All Hell Breaks Loose

Steve and I left Seattle around 9:30 a.m., on November 16th, headed for the cabin to get our washer and dryer delivered and installed.  We stopped at Safeway in Monroe to pick up a pizza for dinner.  We had planned on stopping by Costco in Woodinville, but forgot to take the exit.  We got to Sultan about 10:50 a.m. and decided to stop for breakfast at the Sultan Café. 

As we were driving down Skyko Drive, we noticed that the trailer that was on the edge of the bank was no longer there and as we passed by Trish’s, our neighbor to the East of us, I noticed the deck on their property looked somewhat different, but I did not give it a second thought.  It was raining and we quickly unloaded Steve’s car.  We went to the river to see if we could see the trailer and as we approached the edge, we saw that the tree that had leaned out over the river was no longer there and that Trish’s deck was askew.  The river was up right against our rocks and it was moving quite swiftly.  We walked over to Trish’s property and saw the huge swath of ground that was taken out when the tree fell.  Quite a few times over the past few years we had talked about this happening and had contemplated just going over there and cutting the tree down to prevent it from taking the bank with it when it eventually did fall…so much for those thoughts.  Part of that bank that disappeared was the land that held Trish’s deck.  We continued walking around and discovered that the bank under the abandoned cabin had also washed out under the porch and it was now precariously perched over the edge.  The river had now taken a slightly different course and was not hitting the bank at the same angle.  Hopefully the course the river is now taking will not erode the bank any further.  We did notice that the bank on the property between Trish’s and our property seemed to be holding on.  By the way this was not caused by the flood over the Halloween weekend as I was at the cabin on the 10th of November and everything was pretty normal.  The Skykomish River had obviously flooded again from the time I was there on the 10th and now, less than a week later.

This is definitely the last picture of the tree leaning over the river.

It was taken on the 10th of November.  This is the abandoned

cabin two lots East of us.  If you enlarge the photo, you will

see the deck on the property next to us...it is visible through

the trees on the other side of the porch on the

abandoned cabin.

Looking upriver, you can see the trailer hanging over the edge still.

On the right is the front porch of the abandoned cabin.

A view inside the abandoned cabin. 

Someone had been using it for (?).

Notice the coffee cups next to the mattress.

The Skykomish River can be so peaceful and calming in one

breath and in the next it can be wild and threatening.

This picture was taken on the 16th of November.

The leaning tree is missing as well as much of the bank.

The porch on the abandoned cabin is now starting

to separate from the cabin.

You can see the trailer that was hanging on the edge is no

longer visible.  Did someone move it or did it get swallowed

by the river?

This is near the Eastern edge of the property where

the rock retaining wall made an inward turn.

We came back into the cabin and started doing some work.  Our purpose in coming up this time was due to the delivery of our washer and dryer the following morning.  Steve started clearing out the area where they were going to placed.  We had had a problem with the laundry room circuit breaker tripping and had just left it in the off position.  Steve checked it out and discovered that there was a bare wire in the outlet box that was causing a spark against the back of the outlet box.  He changed the wiring, but thought it would be best to wrap it with electrical tape.  Of course, we could not find any.  I took Steve’s car into Gold Bar to the grocery store to see if they carried it.  They did not, but I was told that the gas stations in town carried a lot of that type of thing and luckily they did.  Steve got the wiring wrapped and put back in the box and it appears to be working fine.  He also put the water heater restraint straps on the water heater.  These straps are a requirement as a safety measure in the event of an earthquake.  While he was doing that, I cleaned the fireplace window.  We are wondering if the propane gas burns dirtier than natural gas as it had gotten quite dirty.  It looked so much better once cleaned.  I then applied the grout to the fireplace.  By the time we both finished these projects, it was time for cocktails.  We decided to put a 500 piece jig saw puzzle together and picked one that featured Ketchikan, AK.  Other than the border, all the pieces were the same shape…rather unusual.  We put the pizza in the oven and we were set for the night.  We finished the puzzle around 9:45 p.m. and stayed up talking until around 10:30 p.m. and it was off to bed. 

I awoke at 5:10 a.m. to noises that indicated it was raining quite hard.  As I was laying there, I thought I heard a noise like rocks moving and decided to get up.  I noticed the light was on in the living room and when I opened the door, there was Steve sitting in his chair.  He too had heard the noises and he could not get back to sleep.  We could not wait until it got light outside so we could see the river.  There were some strong gusts of wind, but according to the radio, the winds were not supposed to pick up until 8:00 a.m. 

Once it started getting light outside, we could see more of what was going on.  It turned into a rather frightening scene.  The trees were swaying in the roaring winds and branches were falling everywhere.  When one would hit the roof of the cabin, it would make both Steve and I jump.  From time to time you would hear a tree fall somewhere in the neighborhood.  The wind was blowing east up the river and  the sheets of rain were blowing perpendicular to the river.  Every once in a while you would see the wind pick up the water from the river  and fling it eastward.    We could do nothing but stay inside and watch.  It was too dangerous to venture outside.  A branch had fallen on the frame of the gazebo and taken most of it down.  Branches had fallen on some of our plants, like Steve’s rhododendron.  It was bent over to the ground.  A smaller maple tree had fallen across the driveway of the neighbor across the road.  You could hear the roar of the wind bursts coming before you would actually see the trees swaying.  Earlier we had noticed more of Trish’s deck had disappeared and at 11:20 a.m., you could no longer see any railing, just the ramp going up to the deck.  Had the river moved in and was it going to continue eroding the bank and get behind our rock wall?  Click on the link below to see the effects of the wind.

Click here to see a video of the strength of the wind

The power had been flickering all morning and finally went out around 10:15 a.m.  Luckily we have the propane fireplace.  Home Depot was the one delivering our washer and dryer and now there was no way to call us a half hour before they arrived, but with the weather conditions the way they were, we figured they would probably not be making the trip anyway.  We also figured there was no chance that we would get electricity restored while we were here either.  It would have been too dangerous to be out there working.  All we could do is wait the storm out.  Definitely too dangerous to be on the road.

As we waited and watched, it just kept getting worse.  We were sitting in the living room when we heard this very loud crush.  Steve was looking out the window in the direction of the abandoned cabin two lots East of us and saw it go in the river.  This was around 12:30 p.m.  We then noticed that a piece of our land that we could once see from the cabin, was no longer there.  We could no longer wait to go to see what was happening and decided to venture out.  When we opened the door, it sounded like a jet plane was flying over us.  With the roar of the river and the howl of the wind, it was very loud and intimidating.  As we were headed out, I looked up at the towering trees above us and it was frightening to see how far they were bending over.  All of a sudden there was a loud snap and about a 15-20 foot branch came within inches of hitting me.  Steve turned right at the last second to see it land.  We hurried to the water’s edge and saw that the river had washed out quite of bit more land, but our rock wall was still holding.

You can see the ramp leading up to the deck on our neighbor's

property is the only thing remaining at the time of this

photo.  The abandoned cabin is no longer there.

Trees were being ripped out of the ground and

floating by on a regular basis.

It was probably a tree similar to this one

that did the damage to our wall.

We returned to the cabin and continued to watch.  We have a waterfall that is visible in early spring across the river from us.  You have to be outside and you really have to look hard to see it.  Not today!  We could see the waterfall even standing in the kitchen of the cabin.  The water was really coming down.  If it was coming down that much there, we knew that all along the river the same thing was happening and the river was just going to keep rising.

Click here to see a video of the waterfall

We decided to hold out a little longer.  We could not believe when we heard a large truck coming down the road and discovered it was Home Depot out of Snohomish and they were there to deliver our washer and dryer.  Now that is dedication.  There is no way I would have risked my life to deliver a washer and dryer.  As they brought the items into the house we asked them what was happening around the area.  They said that there were power lines and trees down all over the place.  This was their last delivery and they were rushing to get out of there.

As soon as they left, Steve and I decided to do the same while we still could.  We did not want to get stuck up there with the roads closed and no power and no food.  We hurriedly got our things together and were out the door.  The road leading to the highway was littered with branches and trees and downed power lines.  I am thankful that Steve was driving.  The wind was still howling and the rain was coming down in buckets.  What a relief it was to get down the highway and out of the area where trees lined the road.  Now all we could do is wait to see what damage was done.

Click here to watch the video of our exit to the highway

I can not remember when I got the phone call from our neighbor to the West of us, whether it was that night or the following morning, but when she called, she said that our rock wall had been damaged.  She thinks a large tree and its root ball got wedged in between some of the rocks and the swiftly moving river just kept moving the tree pulling the rocks out.  Steve and I headed up the next day.  Definitely sad to see what Mother Nature had done.  The base of our rock wall was still there, but a lot of the boulders were now part of the river bed.  We figured we also lost about 5 feet of ground along the whole bank with a few more feet missing East of us.  We do not know what we are going to do.  We have received estimates of $50,000 with no guarantee that it would hold.  We are situated far enough back from the river that we will probably be okay for the remaining years we are alive even if we do nothing.  We will wait to see what the neighbors are willing to do and whether there is really anything that can be done.  Hopefully this is the end of flooding for the year and even more hopefully, the river has changed course once again and there will be no further flooding!

This photo was taken from the neighbor to the West of us

and shows the remnants of our rock wall.

Looking over the edge you can see how far down our wall fell.

And more of the land is waiting to go in.

Another view of the damage to the wall.

Steve walking by what remains of the abandoned cabin.

Notches in the metal roof caused by falling branches.

In early December we had a meeting with our neighbors to discuss what we could do.  There were no definite plans laid out and there were more questions than answers.  More of the land had disappeared into the river, probably caused by the rain washing it out.  The photos below were taken in December.

Where the gazebo once stood.

The disappearing bank and wall

How did that pole survive?  It once was a stack to hold the lights

along the top of the wall.

Not much is left

Steve standing next to the tree that held the rope used to

get down to the river.

Same as last picture but showing more of the devastation.

After all that damage, the view is still beautiful.

Notice all the remnants of trees left lying in the riverbed.

Another view of the wall

What remains of the abandoned cabin

A tree that is leaning near the front of the cabin

needing to be removed.

From Draught to Flooding

As with the rest of the world, summers in Washington state are recording warmer temperatures.  After the last entry on this blog, the Pacific Northwest began drying up.  It was nice for those that like the higher temperatures, but for the rest of us it sucked.  And as with most things, there is the good and the bad.  The good was that with the low water levels we were able to enjoy the river quite often.  Nothing like a fresh dip in the mountain fed river on a hot day.  The bad was that the forests were really dry and ripe for fires, so campfires were not allowed.  We had our last campfire in June and did not have another one until late in September.  We really missed those nightly campfires when we had friends visit.  The drought also affected the plants.  Our wild huckleberry bushes did not produce the proliferation of berries that we are accustomed to.

When the river is low, some of the larger rocks really stick out.

It was amazing how low the river reached this past summer.

The low water levels made it nice to get into the river.

L to R:  Doug, Bob (upright), Steve, Robert (upright)

Relaxing around an imaginary campfire

Robert, Mike with Luke on his lap, and Doug

A fisherman a little downstream from the cabin -

again showing the size of some of the rocks.

Rod with the shadow of his hat giving him a 'veil'

Not the best picture of Donn, but a good one of Teddy

Our biggest gathering was over the weekend of the Index Arts Festival…always held on the first Saturday in August.  There were 12 of us that were together over the course of the weekend.  We walk into town and look at the offerings at the fair and always stop by the Outdoor Adventures establishment for a beer.  I always seem to find something that catches my eye.  And, I always buy some raffle tickets in the hope of winning one of those paintings by Patrick Woods (featured in the post of August 2010).  I won a painting the very first year, but it was not one of Patrick’s   Instead it was the painting below by local artist Jim Roberts entitled “The Last Cowboy”.  At first I was not very enthused with the painting, but its appeal has really grown on me and I am now happy to display it.  Another thing that has become a custom for me at the Festival is participating in the Index Volunteer Fire Department’s dunk tank.  You get three balls for a donation of $5.00.  There is a line you stand behind and then throw the ball at a small round release, that when hit, causes the fireman sitting on a stool above a tank of water to be dropped into the tank.  My time playing softball has paid off as each year I have dunked one of the firemen…the last two years, it has been one of our neighbors.  After our beers we walked back to the cabin and had lunch, followed by some people getting in the river and the rest sitting around our non-existent campfire, drinking, laughing and telling tales…always a fun time.

This is the picture I won as referenced above.

Having a beer at the Arts Festival

Seated L to R:  Bob, Kyle, Doug, Dan, Jim, Rod, Craig, and Scott

Standing:  Steve and Donn

No campfire - just an old propane tank turned into a drum

L to R:  Scott, me, Jim, Donn, Rod (standing), Kyle, Steve (standing), Bob, and Craig

For once, we did not have a gathering over the Labor Day weekend.  I was on the road to attend my 50th Class Reunion in Helena, MT and Steve decided he just wanted a quiet weekend at the cabin by himself.  That is something we both like to do.  As a matter of fact, that is what I am doing right now.  I came up yesterday as I wanted to paint the one wall with sheetrock in my bedroom.  I have been doing odds and ends around the cabin and have taped my wall in preparation for painting in the morning before I head back into Seattle.  We do not have internet up here, but I can write this on my laptop and cut and paste it and add photos when I get back home.

On one of my trips up, I took this picture of the tree that was

leaning over the river.  One of the last times it was

photographed.  As you can see in this photo, the smoke

from the fires in Eastern Washington were

making our air quite polluted.

One thing about the sunsets when the air is polluted with smoke,

is that you get some beautiful colors.

The sunset transformed the color of the forest everywhere.

Steve and I came up a couple of weeks ago and did a lot of miscellaneous work that needed to be done.  On the way here, we stopped at Steve’s daughter’s home and borrowed the family’s tile cutter and also picked up a shelving unit to replace the large roll top desk we had in the living room.  Once we got here we emptied out the roll top desk, then took it apart.  It was an antique desk and was very nice, but it was a little too big for the room.  We brought the shelving unit in from my truck then loaded the roll top desk in the now empty truck bed.  The shelving unit really works out nice.  It holds the stereo system plus provides all the storage that the roll top did and includes some shelves for display…all within a third of the space of the roll top.  We were taking a short break and I mentioned to Steve that we had a tree that seemed to have died this past summer.  He said he had thought about taking it down when he was here over Labor Day, but wanted to check with me before doing so.  It was about a 20 foot hemlock.  There was still some green on it but the majority of the tree was dead, so we decided to cut it down.  So out we go, cutting the tree down and taking all the branches to the campfire area.  Steve cut the trunk into manageable lengths for the campfire.  After that it was back into the cabin to start the projects we had originally planned.  Steve started working on applying the tile to the fireplace and I went into the bathroom and started applying a tile baseboard around the walls.  It was around 4:30 p.m. and I asked Steve what time happy hour was over at La Hacienda in Goldbar…about ten miles down the road.  It stopped at 6:00 p.m., so we got cleaned up as best we could and went to enjoy their Taco Tuesday.  Tacos are $.99 each and margaritas are only $4.00 during the happy hour.  We were trying to match the margaritas to the tacos, but we each settled for 4 tacos and 3 margaritas…a wise decision.  When we got back to the cabin it was time to have a fire…my first one since June…yeah!  The forest fire danger was back to low as we had been having some wet weather.  The pile of branches from the hemlock that we had cut down was quite large but over the course of the evening it all disappeared.  I used my pruning sheers to cut all the side branches off the main branches and that made for a rip roaring fire.  It was a perfect night.  Both Steve and I each had a grocery bag full of paper work that we had brought up to burn instead of wearing out our shredders at home.  Those bags had been in our rooms all summer waiting for this occasion.  There was no wind, so we did not have to worry about pieces of burning paper flying through the air.  This was one of the best fires we have had in a long time.  The following morning we started in on the tiling process again.  Steve said he did not think we had enough adhesive to finish the job, so I headed into Monroe to get some more.  While I was at the Lowe’s store, I noticed a nice backsplash that I had not seen before and thought I would stop by there on our way home and see if it met Steve’s approval.  We had looked at different backsplashes and none of them had so far appealed to us.  I was headed back to the cabin and got to the roundabout at Rice Road just outside of Sultan when I decided I was going to go back and buy the backsplash and if Steve did not like it, we could just return it.  I was just turning into the roundabout when this hit me and I just did a 360 degree turn around it and headed back to Monroe.  When I got back to the cabin I asked Steve if he thought I drove back into Seattle and he said he was beginning to wonder.  Luckily he really liked the backsplash…yeah, again.  So, after he finished the fireplace and I finished the baseboard, we started in on the backsplash.  We both think it looks really good.  And for once something worked out perfect.  The tile was just the right width to fit between the granite countertop and the electrical outlet strip.  That saved a lot of time and with no waste of material.  We did have to cut tiles to fit the space behind the stove and under the window over the sink, but the one box of tile was all that was needed.  It was great to get all of this tile work done at once.  We still have to add the grout to the fireplace and the baseboard, but even without it, we are very happy with the outcome.

The fireplace tiles awaiting the grout.

This is a heavy metal piece from the front of a stove I had found.

Steve was able to get it hung and centered, above our fireplace.

The baseboard tiles awaiting grout in the bathroom.

The backsplash tile we installed in the kitchen

Halloween weekend we had the same friends up to the cabin that were here over the MLK weekend when the tree fell on the cabin.  And guess what…it was another rainy and windy weekend.  As the title of this entry states, “From Draught to Flooding”, this is when it happened.  We knew it was going to be a rainy weekend and there were warnings of flooding, but since we had planned the weekend quite some time ago, we followed through with the plans.  By the time we arrived late Friday afternoon, you knew there was going to be some tense moments for those along the river.  Notice the difference in the pictures from July, earlier in this post.  When the winds started blowing, we were all wondering if this was going to be another MLK weekend.  Luckily the wind was nothing like it was back in January.  The trees were swaying and the leaves were flying, but that was all.  We spent the whole weekend in the cabin with the exception of about a half hour where Steve and Robert were able to be outside for a quick campfire.  Steve, Mike and I took a road trip to see what was happening around the area late Saturday afternoon.  We saw lots of flooded land, but did not see any major damage.  By Sunday morning the river had dropped quite a bit.  When looking up river from us, we could see where more of the bank was washed out where the river makes a turn.  There is another small trailer with one of the wheels now hanging over the bank.  We had just gotten rid of the last trailer chassis that had gotten stuck in the river in front of our property and now we have the possibility of a new one.  Steve called the sheriff, fire department, and other agencies to see if they could come up and move the trailer, but they told him it was not something they handle.  They made it sound like we could call a tow truck and have it towed away from the bank, but we would have to pay for that.  The person that owns the property lives in Georgia, but when I called her, the number was no longer in service…there are fewer and fewer landlines being used any more.  So now we play the waiting game to see if it goes into the river the next time the river rises.  I will write the owner and see if she replies…hopefully she will.

Okay, so I lied, here is another picture of the leaning tree with the rising river.

Looking upriver at the trailer that is now on the edge, ready to be swallowed by the river.

Where we were sitting enjoying the beer at the Arts Festival,

it is now under water in this photo.

The river kept rising.

Steve and I will be up next week as we have ordered a washer and dryer.  It will be nice to be able to wash the towels and bedding without having to take it into town each time.  And when our friends use our cabin, they can now be sure they have clean sheets.