Showing posts with label Yantic Falls. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Yantic Falls. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Saturday, April 24, 2010
A Saturday Short
I went for a quick walk down towards Yantic Falls yesterday to see what I could see and as I walked up the sidewalk towards the lower falls, something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye ...
Good grief - what is that? I know it wasn't here before all the flooding we had! Upon closer viewing I saw that it was a boat ...
Jammed squarely into the rocks in the middle of the waterfall ...
Hmmm, I wonder if the city is going to try to get it out of there? It certainly distracts from the beauty of the falls but extrication looks like it would be pretty tricky - to say the least!
Anyway ... if you lost a boat during the flooding you might want to check at the bottom of the lower Yantic Falls!
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Rushing Water and Stupid People
I guess it's no secret that we here in New England have been experiencing some epic flooding the past few days as a very slow storm system has spun overhead and dumped an awful lot of rain on our heads - rain that has nowhere to go in ground that is already as over-saturated as a sponge that can hold no more. Roads have been closed, schools have been closed, businesses have been closed, fire departments have been worn ragged pumping basements out, sandbags have been filled, the National Guard has been called in ... well, let's just say it's been an interesting couple of days. However, today the rains stopped and the sun tried to come out a little bit ...
... so I decided to put my boots on and take the Nikon out for a look-see at the Yantic River in the area closest to my home.
Just down the road a ways from where I live are the Falls Mills Condos - an apartment complex at the site of a former mill along the Yantic River. The complex is down river from Indian Leap, a place that I've written many times about here in the blog and which regular readers are more than familiar with. The picture below was taken from a spot behind the condos very close to the river and as you can see, the water was a bit high - to say the least!
From there I went back up towards Indian Leap itself - a spot I normally have all to myself but which had become quite the local attraction in the past few days -
These crowds were nothing compared to the hordes of people who were standing around down by the falls yesterday when I took a quick drive by and decided that the smart thing to do was to keep driving. Of course, there's a reason that all of the people were there as the water rushing over the falls was quite the sight to behold -
There was so much water running over the falls that you couldn't see the treacherous rocks that sit at the bottom of the falls but if you were smart, you'd know that getting too close wasn't a good idea as rushing water equals erosion which equals the possibility of land giving away below your feet. Some people, however, are apparently not smart ...
In addition to being incredibly stupid about taking her daughter to go stand close to the edge of the falls here, this brilliant mother later decided that it would be a good idea to take her daughter closer to the water over the bank that was very steep and slippery where they both could have slid to their deaths in the rushing water below -
And trust me, it would have definitely been their deaths down below as there is no way that anyone could survive a fall into the Yantic with the water churning like it is -
People have been known to die at Yantic Falls when the water is nowhere near like it was today but apparently that fool woman didn't seem to understand the concept of "accidents happen" - especially on rain-soaked land that could move beneath your feet at any moment. Not wanting to witness any more stupidity in motion, I decided to walk back up by my favorite railroad trestle and take some pictures there and of the Upper Falls.
Waters of the Yantic River almost reaching the bottom of the railroad trestle
Water rushes towards the railroad trestle spanning the Yantic River between the Upper and Lower Falls
The Upper Falls of the Yantic River
And oh look! Now there were stupid people walking on the railroad trestle, too! Sheesh! What on earth ever happened to common sense? Did it not occur to those guys that perhaps those train tracks they were walking on are part of an active line and if a train approached, they weren't going to have a lot of time to get off of the trestle?
At that point I'd had enough of watching people being idiots so I took one more shot of the water rushing over the lower falls from my nice safe vantage point on the sidewalk before heading home.
I also managed to get a couple short videos using my iPhone just to give you an idea of what it was like listening to all of that water rushing over the falls on its way to the Thames River and eventually the Long Island Sound.
Once we get past today we're supposed to be in for some good weather with sunny skies and warm temperatures so hopefully we'll be able to dry out a bit and the waters will recede some. Hopefully the forecasters are right and April will come in like a lamb as March is most definitely going out like a lion - a big, wet roaring lion at that!
... so I decided to put my boots on and take the Nikon out for a look-see at the Yantic River in the area closest to my home.
Just down the road a ways from where I live are the Falls Mills Condos - an apartment complex at the site of a former mill along the Yantic River. The complex is down river from Indian Leap, a place that I've written many times about here in the blog and which regular readers are more than familiar with. The picture below was taken from a spot behind the condos very close to the river and as you can see, the water was a bit high - to say the least!
From there I went back up towards Indian Leap itself - a spot I normally have all to myself but which had become quite the local attraction in the past few days -
These crowds were nothing compared to the hordes of people who were standing around down by the falls yesterday when I took a quick drive by and decided that the smart thing to do was to keep driving. Of course, there's a reason that all of the people were there as the water rushing over the falls was quite the sight to behold -
There was so much water running over the falls that you couldn't see the treacherous rocks that sit at the bottom of the falls but if you were smart, you'd know that getting too close wasn't a good idea as rushing water equals erosion which equals the possibility of land giving away below your feet. Some people, however, are apparently not smart ...
In addition to being incredibly stupid about taking her daughter to go stand close to the edge of the falls here, this brilliant mother later decided that it would be a good idea to take her daughter closer to the water over the bank that was very steep and slippery where they both could have slid to their deaths in the rushing water below -
And trust me, it would have definitely been their deaths down below as there is no way that anyone could survive a fall into the Yantic with the water churning like it is -
People have been known to die at Yantic Falls when the water is nowhere near like it was today but apparently that fool woman didn't seem to understand the concept of "accidents happen" - especially on rain-soaked land that could move beneath your feet at any moment. Not wanting to witness any more stupidity in motion, I decided to walk back up by my favorite railroad trestle and take some pictures there and of the Upper Falls.
Waters of the Yantic River almost reaching the bottom of the railroad trestle
Water rushes towards the railroad trestle spanning the Yantic River between the Upper and Lower Falls
The Upper Falls of the Yantic River
And oh look! Now there were stupid people walking on the railroad trestle, too! Sheesh! What on earth ever happened to common sense? Did it not occur to those guys that perhaps those train tracks they were walking on are part of an active line and if a train approached, they weren't going to have a lot of time to get off of the trestle?At that point I'd had enough of watching people being idiots so I took one more shot of the water rushing over the lower falls from my nice safe vantage point on the sidewalk before heading home.
I also managed to get a couple short videos using my iPhone just to give you an idea of what it was like listening to all of that water rushing over the falls on its way to the Thames River and eventually the Long Island Sound.Once we get past today we're supposed to be in for some good weather with sunny skies and warm temperatures so hopefully we'll be able to dry out a bit and the waters will recede some. Hopefully the forecasters are right and April will come in like a lamb as March is most definitely going out like a lion - a big, wet roaring lion at that!
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
I've Got Mail!
It will never cease to delight me to get an email from out of the blue from a reader of my blog. (Well, it might if that person is writing to tell me that my blog stinks and I have no business trying to write or take pictures but I've got my fingers crossed that won't happen!) Last week I got not one but two emails from readers who had apparently stumbled upon my blog via web searches.
The first email came from Wayne who wrote to me regarding a post that I had written last June about my then-recent trip to Santa Cruz to visit blogging buddy Katherine and take in some of the California seacoast. In my post, Santa Cruz - Day Two I had made mention that I was curious about the odd-shaped cement breakers that surrounded the Walton Lighthouse as they all seemed to be numbered and yet placed helter-skelter on the breakwater.
An anonymous commenter on that post had left me the information that "The pieces are numbered to assist the engineers in how they wear in the pounding of the surf and if they fail what was the composition and date and shift they were formed". That sounded like a great explanation to me as previously neither I nor Katherine knew why they were numbered like they were and I'd had no luck with an internet search I'd done while trying to find the answer.
In his email, Wayne wrote,
Turns out that there are a total of 900 tetrapods, each weighing 28 tons, that were constructed at the rate of 40 a week. In addition to the time it took to pour the giant cement jacks and for them to set, it then took another 24 to 25 days for the cement to cure before the tetrapods could be placed around the jetty. It took 2-1/2 months to properly place them all and even though they look like they've been laid out pell-mell they were carefully placed to keep the ocean waves at bay. To us it may look like a giant child just got tired of playing with her jacks and tossed them down near the edge of the water but there's definitely a reason for them being the way they are.
Thank you so much, Wayne, for sending me the link to that article; I truly appreciate it! In addition, Wayne also sent me a link to a photo that he had taken of the tetrapods as he, too, found them interesting. You can check his picture out at this link and if you've got a little time and want to see some other lovely photos of California, I urge you to browse through Wayne's photo gallery as he's got some beautiful stuff there! Some of them make me yearn for another trip West to take some pictures of my own - especially those of the ghost-town Bodie, a place I've always wanted to go. Maybe someday ...
Several days after getting Wayne's email, I received another email, this time from Bob who wrote:
Unfortunately, the falls don't exactly look like they do in the picture above right now due to the fact that it's been colder than cold and there is obviously no foliage to be found unless it's of the brown & dead variety but you do have to admit, it still looks pretty in all of its frozen glory -
I like Bob's term of "majestic ice formations" so much better than mine of "very large pieces of frozen cauliflower" when it comes to describing the area around the falls in its winter splendor, don't you?
Thank you, Bob, for taking the time to send me an email and I am beyond delighted that I was able to tell you the story of Chief Uncas of the Mohegans and his leap across the chasm in his pursuit of rival Chief Miantonomo of the Narragansetts. As someone who often finds herself wishing she had chosen to teach history rather than dispatch ambulances for a living, it means a lot to me to know that I told a story that someone wanted to learn. I guess in some small way it sort of makes me a history teacher after all!
An anonymous commenter on that post had left me the information that "The pieces are numbered to assist the engineers in how they wear in the pounding of the surf and if they fail what was the composition and date and shift they were formed". That sounded like a great explanation to me as previously neither I nor Katherine knew why they were numbered like they were and I'd had no luck with an internet search I'd done while trying to find the answer.
"I saw your article about the Santa Cruz Harbor and you were curious about the “odd-shaped cement breakers”. I found this article about how and when they were built and wanted to share it with you. This file is over 18Mb so it could take a while to download, but it is worth it.
You can click on the link, “Building the Santa Cruz Harbor by George N. Wagner, Branch Manager (retired), Granite Construction Company” located at this web site, http://www.santacruzharbor.org/education/."Wayne was right, it did take awhile for it download but the article explained not just about the tetrapods - the official name of those odd-shaped cement pieces - but also just how the Santa Cruz Harbor was constructed. The article was written by Mr. Wagner in response to questions from his grandson, Abe, who asked, "Grandpa, how was this harbor built? Where did the stone come from? Where did the jacks (tetrapods) come from? Did you build them?" In order to answer those questions, Mr. Wagner wrote a 152-page article - complete with pictures - detailing the building of the Santa Cruz Harbor and even though it's pretty technical in places, it's a very interesting read.
Turns out that there are a total of 900 tetrapods, each weighing 28 tons, that were constructed at the rate of 40 a week. In addition to the time it took to pour the giant cement jacks and for them to set, it then took another 24 to 25 days for the cement to cure before the tetrapods could be placed around the jetty. It took 2-1/2 months to properly place them all and even though they look like they've been laid out pell-mell they were carefully placed to keep the ocean waves at bay. To us it may look like a giant child just got tired of playing with her jacks and tossed them down near the edge of the water but there's definitely a reason for them being the way they are.
Thank you so much, Wayne, for sending me the link to that article; I truly appreciate it! In addition, Wayne also sent me a link to a photo that he had taken of the tetrapods as he, too, found them interesting. You can check his picture out at this link and if you've got a little time and want to see some other lovely photos of California, I urge you to browse through Wayne's photo gallery as he's got some beautiful stuff there! Some of them make me yearn for another trip West to take some pictures of my own - especially those of the ghost-town Bodie, a place I've always wanted to go. Maybe someday ...
Several days after getting Wayne's email, I received another email, this time from Bob who wrote:
"I've often visited Yantic Falls throughout the past 30 odd years. I understood a "Leaping" legend existed, but never quite got beyond my slack-jawed trance upon each visit following a particularly significant rainfall. Wishing to get the legend straight in my mind, I happened upon your blog. WOW! What a beautiful webpage! The images of the Falls are magnificent. Now I've got a link to send to my son away at college in VT. He & I visited the Falls over his holiday break this month and were blown away yet again by the sheer force of the water, and majestic ice formations on the adjacent cliff. Thanks again for fleshing out this legend for me."I'm going to guess that Bob was referring to my post The Legend of Chief Uncas and Indian Leap that I wrote in December of 2008 though I have written about and posted many pictures of the Indian Leap Falls area. If you had something that looked like this practically in your backyard, I bet you'd go there a lot, too!
Thank you, Bob, for taking the time to send me an email and I am beyond delighted that I was able to tell you the story of Chief Uncas of the Mohegans and his leap across the chasm in his pursuit of rival Chief Miantonomo of the Narragansetts. As someone who often finds herself wishing she had chosen to teach history rather than dispatch ambulances for a living, it means a lot to me to know that I told a story that someone wanted to learn. I guess in some small way it sort of makes me a history teacher after all!
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Freezing Some Moments in Time (Literally!)
I think there's probably a distinct possibility that I suffer from S.A.D. - Seasonal Affective Disorder aka the Winter Blues or Winter Depression. Some of the symptoms of S.A.D. may consist of: difficulty waking up in the morning (check!), tendency to oversleep as well as to overeat with especially a craving for carbohydrates which leads to weight gain (double chin check!). Other symptoms include a lack of energy (check!), difficulty concentrating on completing tasks (big check!), and withdrawal from friends, family, and social activities (well, little check on this one). Hmm, now that I look at all that, I may suffer from S.A.D. all year round!
Well, okay, maybe I'm not really that bad but I do know that I get pretty depressed when it's cold and overcast all the time and don't want to leave the house unless I absolutely have to (i.e., work and groceries). Not that I'm a great outdoor person either but there's something to be said about being able to grab my camera and head out looking for photo opportunities - something I really haven't had the inclination and/or chance to do in way too long.
With yesterday being bright and sunny and the temperature almost above freezing, I decided around 4 p.m. that I needed to stretch my legs so I bundled up and took the Nikon down to one of my favorite places - Indian Leap Falls and the railroad trestle where I've spent many an hour waiting futilely for a train to come by! I figured the area around the falls should be pretty well frozen and it was with the cliffs across from the lower falls being covered in a frozen mist that made them resemble very large pieces of frozen cauliflower.
Had I really been adventurous I would have tried hiking over to the area across from the falls just near the top of that picture and gotten a shot facing the falls but I figured with my luck it would be too slippery and I'd slide to my frozen death in the cold waters of the Yantic River below. Chances are good I'd have been a Popsicle floating down the Thames before Amanda realized I hadn't come home to make her dinner and sounded the alarm! See? Sometimes common sense does prevail in my head!
I ended up spending close to an hour walking around the area while hoping that maybe the Train Gods would have pity on me and send a New England Central Railway train trundling down the tracks but alas, no such luck and finally my fingers - even encased in warm gloves - told me it was time to go home so that I could sneak up behind Amanda and place those rather frozen fingers on her nice warm face! Bwahahaha!
It was nice to get out of the house into the sunshine and fresh air for a little while and take a few pictures which I have put into a collage for you below. Everything is of the frozen variety starting with the frozen Yantic River below the trestle in the left hand corner (which looks a lot like the picture I used on my Christmas cards this year!), the frozen embankment along the railroad tracks, the frozen water of the Lower Yantic Falls, a frozen view down into the falls, a frozen tree, more frozen cauliflower-likeness as a result of the frozen mist, a view to the frozen railroad trestle, a frozen flock of birds flying above, and in the middle - the frozen photographer! I believe if you click on the collage you can view it in a bigger version should you desire over on my Flickr page.
It's supposed to get up near 40 or 45 later in the week so perhaps I'll have the chance to go out and take some more pictures somewhere which I'm sure will help to make me happy and less S.A.D.!
Well, okay, maybe I'm not really that bad but I do know that I get pretty depressed when it's cold and overcast all the time and don't want to leave the house unless I absolutely have to (i.e., work and groceries). Not that I'm a great outdoor person either but there's something to be said about being able to grab my camera and head out looking for photo opportunities - something I really haven't had the inclination and/or chance to do in way too long.
With yesterday being bright and sunny and the temperature almost above freezing, I decided around 4 p.m. that I needed to stretch my legs so I bundled up and took the Nikon down to one of my favorite places - Indian Leap Falls and the railroad trestle where I've spent many an hour waiting futilely for a train to come by! I figured the area around the falls should be pretty well frozen and it was with the cliffs across from the lower falls being covered in a frozen mist that made them resemble very large pieces of frozen cauliflower.
I ended up spending close to an hour walking around the area while hoping that maybe the Train Gods would have pity on me and send a New England Central Railway train trundling down the tracks but alas, no such luck and finally my fingers - even encased in warm gloves - told me it was time to go home so that I could sneak up behind Amanda and place those rather frozen fingers on her nice warm face! Bwahahaha!
It was nice to get out of the house into the sunshine and fresh air for a little while and take a few pictures which I have put into a collage for you below. Everything is of the frozen variety starting with the frozen Yantic River below the trestle in the left hand corner (which looks a lot like the picture I used on my Christmas cards this year!), the frozen embankment along the railroad tracks, the frozen water of the Lower Yantic Falls, a frozen view down into the falls, a frozen tree, more frozen cauliflower-likeness as a result of the frozen mist, a view to the frozen railroad trestle, a frozen flock of birds flying above, and in the middle - the frozen photographer! I believe if you click on the collage you can view it in a bigger version should you desire over on my Flickr page.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Sunday Scenery
This week for Lee's Sunday Scenery meme, I am posting more pictures of the Yantic Falls from my archives as I thought they might be nice to have something to compare to in a couple of weeks when Spring has finally popped here in my part of Connecticut and leaves once again hide the bare branches and birdsong fills the air. For now, Spring seems like it's just a name as it's been darned chilly the past few days no matter what the calendar says. Ah well, I just need to learn some patience!
Give me a few weeks and I'll go back and see if I can take these same shots. I bet you notice a major difference!
Everyone have a great Sunday and may all of your scenery be beautiful!
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Sunday Scenery
Today's Sunday Scenery choices were easy as I was inspired to use a couple of pictures from my trip to Yantic Falls the other day based on some comments in my post from yesterday. The very last picture I posted was a black & white shot of the falls and several people commented that they thought they might like it better in color. I had converted the picture to black & white as it had been a pretty colorless day (i.e., a lot more clouds than sun) and I thought they were kind of drab but in going back over them I think I may have been wrong.So, for those of you who thought the waterfall picture would be better in color, I give you several views of the Upper Yantic Falls located on the Yantic River in Norwich, Connecticut. What's really nice about these falls now is that they are in walking distance of my house so expect even more pictures in the future!
This picture shows the falls in their entirety if you are standing near the railroad trestle that I had pictures of yesterday. See the side of the old dam to the right in the picture? That's where I was standing when I took the last shot in this series of pictures. I've not decided yet whether I was being incredibly brave or incredibly stupid!
As you can see from this shot, on the far side of the falls, the water goes around and tumbles down a face of rocks. There's a memorial cross just to the left of where this shot ends which I think was put there for the last drowning victim. The area is posted with no swimming signs but apparently some people think that doesn't apply to them. Trust me, it does.
This is the picture that I originally posted in black & white yesterday. I think I may have to agree with everyone that color adds more definition to the picture and the more I look at it in this version, the more I like it!
I hope you've enjoyed my version of Sunday Scenery this week. Don't forget to swing by Lee's Tarheel Ramblings and see who else participated in his great Sunday Scenery meme! Also, if I haven't been around to visit your blog lately, I will get there soon - honest! It's been a busy couple of days and I spent most of yesterday finally getting my living room to look like a living room and not just a storage area. Thanks to my mom and the help of a friend's husband and son I finally have a sofa and loveseat again! Now if I could just figure out what I'm doing with the rest of the junk in the dining room ...
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