Bracebridge Flooding Making Unfortunate History

"I arrived in Bracebridge early this morning before the roads were closed to get some good photographs of the amount of water that was flowing.   River Road, (on the way to Bass Rock) was completely flooded and a C.B.C. was getting set up to file and do a story.  The end of Beaumont Drive was impassible, but people continued to drive through the water.

Bracebridge was filled with curiosity seekers by the time I left at 11:00 a.m.   The traffic was getting heavy with people just driving around to have a look at the falls." - Photos and quote by Fred Schulz

BRACEBRIDGE FLOODING MAKING HISTORY - AN UNFORTUNATE MILESTONE FOR MANY RESIDENTS

WE GREW UP RESPECTING THE RIVER - ALWAYS

     IT WAS LIKE A NEWS TEAM FROM THE OLD DAYS, THIS WEEK, WHEN RETIRED NEWS HOUND, TED CURRIE, RELIVING HIS DAYS AS EDITOR OF THE FORMER HERALD-GAZETTE, AND ACE PHOTOGRAPHER, FRED SCHULZ, OF GRAVENHURST, A LEGEND OF THE LOCAL MEDIA, WOUND UP BACK ON THE NEWS BEAT; THIS TIME TO COVER THE FLOODING OF THE MUSKOKA RIVER, IN BRACEBRIDGE. FRED HAS TAKEN A NUMBER OF OUTSTANDING PHOTOGRAPHS, PROFILING SOME OF THE MAJOR FLOODING ALONG THE RIVER COURSE, AND YOU CAN ALSO FIND ADDITIONAL PHOTOS, PUBLISHED ON MY "MIUSKOKA AS WALDEN" BLOG-SITE. SEE THE LINK AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS COLUMN.

     SUZANNE AND I TRAVELLED AROUND THE FALLS, AND DOWN FROM THE HILLSIDE LOOKOUT, (PARKING LOT), ABOVE THE RAPIDS, AT THE OLD BIRD'S WOOLLEN MILL. I WAS STUNNED TO SEE THE WATER FLOODING OVER THE LUMBER COMPANY'S ELBOW OF LAND, ACROSS FROM THE PROPERTY OF WOODCHESTER VILLA, AND MUSEUM, WHERE I WAS ONCE SITE MANAGER. I WATCHED MANY SERIOUS FLOODS FROM THE WOODCHESTER HILLSIDE, AND EVEN FROM THE WIDOW'S WALK, OF THE BIRD HOUSE (MUSEUM), BUT NOTHING QUITE AS FRIGHTENING AS THIS DISPLAY OF UNCLENCHED NATURAL POWER.

    I WONDERED WHAT THE POSSIBILITY WAS, OF A WRAPPED LUMBER LOAD, STACKED-UP ON THE FLOODED LAND, BEING PUSHED OFF THE ELBOW BY THE RISING CURRENT, AND THRUST DOWN THE RAPIDS, TO HIT THE DAM……WHICH TO ME WOULD SEEM CATASTROPHIC, CONSIDERING THE WEIGHT OF THE BOUND LUMBER. IT WOULD BE LIKE A SMALL BUS CAREENING DOWN A HILLSIDE TOWARD A CONCRETE WALL. WE GOT A RARE CHANCE TO SEE, CLOSE-UP, ABOVE THE RAPIDS, JUST HOW INCREDIBLY POWERFUL THAT RIVER IS, AT THE DECLINE OF LAND, AT THIS TIME; AND JUST HOW MUCH DAMAGE IT COULD CAUSE AT ITS PRESENT VOLUME…..AS HAS BEEN WITNESSED BETWEEN WILSON'S FALLS AND BRACEBRIDGE FALLS, ALONG RIVER ROAD; AND THEN DOWNSTREAM WHERE APPARENTLY, THE WORSE IS ON ITS WAY. FRED HAS CAPTURED THIS UNLEASHING POWER, OF WATER AGAINST LAND, AT A NUMBER OF LOCATIONS ALONG THE RIVER. BUT I'LL TELL YOU, IT IS A REMINDER TO ME, WHY MY MOTHER CONTINUED TO WARN ME ABOUT "GOING DOWN TO THE RIVER," WITH A SIMPLE, STERM REMINDER. "DON'T."

     MANY OF THE KIDS FROM MY VINTAGE, GROWING UP IN THE 1960'S AND 70'S, HEARD "STAY AWAY FROM THE RIVER," QUITE A LOT, AS OUR MOTHERS SUSPECTED THAT'S PROBABLY WHERE WE WERE HEADED. THERE WAS A FASCINATION WITH THAT BLACK, SNAKING BODY OF THE MUSKOKA RIVER, AS IT WOUND ITS WAY THROUGH BRACEBRIDGE. MAYBE THE FISHING GEAR GAVE US UP, OR THE SWIMMING TRUNKS AND FLIPPERS…..THE BEACH TOWEL AROUND OUR NECK. EVEN THOUGH WE ASSURED OUR PARENTS, WE WERE GOING TO KIRBY'S OR BOWYER'S BEACH, WE'D MORE THAN LIKELY FIND OUR WAY TO EITHER BASS ROCK, OR TO WHAT WAS KNOWN ONCE, AS THE OLD MOTOR PARK. THIS FLOODED ZONE ALONG BRACEBRIDGE BAY, (BELOW THE FALLS) IS NOW KNOWN AS KELVIN GROVE PARK.

     THE DEATHS DUE TO DROWNING, IN THE MUSKOKA RIVER, WERE FAR MORE SUBSTANTIAL,WHEN TALLIED THROUGH THE TOWN'S HISTORY, THAN IN THE LOCAL LAKES. SO MOST OF OUR PARENTS FIGURED IF WE COULD SURVIVE THE LENGTHY BIKE RIDE TO EITHER BEACH, WE'D BE TOO TIRED TO GET UP TO ANY NONSENSE WITH WATER SPORT. GOING TO THE RIVER WAS A SHORT-CUT TO RECREATION, BUT IT DID HAVE SIGNIFICANT DANGER ATTACHED. WE ACTED BADLY. WE PUT OURSELVES IN DANGER CONSTANTLY, AND BY NEW AND CREATIVE WAYS, EACH TIME WE USED IT FOR A RECREATIONAL HIATUS. JUMPING FROM HIGH UP ON THE ROCKS. SOMETIMES IN GROUPS. SOMETIMES HOLDING HANDS. MANY TIMES JUST CLEARING THE ROCKS ON THE WAY DOWN. A FEW TIMES, HAVING THE BRUISES AND SCRAPES TO SHOW JUST HOW CLOSE WE CAME TO DISASTER. THEN THERE WAS THE UNDERTOW, IF THE WATER FLOW CHANGED FROM MORNING TO NIGHT. POSSIBLY A HEAVY THUNDERSHOWER EARLY IN THE DAY, WOULD IMPACT THE FLOW, AT THIS NARROWING PART OF THE RIVER, BY SUNSET WHEN WE ARRIVED FOR A LATE DAY COOL-DOWN.

    MOST OF US, IN THESE YEARS, HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO WATCH THEM DRAG BRACEBRIDGE BAY, FOR THOSE SWIMMERS WHO GOT CAUGHT IN THE UNDERTOW. I SPENT TWO DAYS THERE ONE SUMMER, KEENLY WATCHING AS DIVERS PULLED UP ALL KINDS OF INTERESTING LOGGING ARTIFACTS, SOME DATING BACK AS FAR AS THE LATE 1800'S. THEN ONE MORNING, SOMEONE WALKING OVER THE SILVER BRIDGE, SPOTTED THE BODY OF THE YOUNG MAN, FLOATING IN THE SPARKLING BAY. THIS WASN'T AN ISOLATED CASE, AND IT WAS MISADVENTURES LIKE THIS, THAT MOTIVATED OUR MOTHERS, ESPECIALLY, TO BEG US NOT TO SWIM THERE AT ANY TIME. IF MY MOTHER HAD KNOWN I WAS SWIMMING NIGHTLY AT BASS ROCK, FURTHER UP THE MUSKOKA RIVER, FROM THE TOWN FALLS, I WOULD HAVE BEEN TETHERED TO A TREE IN THE YARD THEREAFTER. I NEVER TOLD HER I NEARLY DROWNED THERE EITHER, AND IT TRULY WAS, BY THE GRACE OF GOD, THAT I FOUND THE STRENGTH TO MAKE IT TO SHORE, AFTER I'D GOT PULLED DOWNSTREAM TOWARD THE FALLS, BY A MORE POWERFUL CURRENT THAN I'D EXPERIENCED BEFORE. IN DEFENSE OF OUR MOTHERS…..THEY WERE RIGHT TO BE SO CONCERNED. THE MUSKOKA RIVER'S CURRENTS TRULY RAN DEEP…..AND ITS STORIES WERE MANY.

WHEN HISTORY MAKES ITS MARK, FOLKS CAN SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES

     As a former reporter, I covered quite a few high water occasions, in my hometown. This, today, is certainly one of the most dangerous situations, I've seen on the river, in many years, and certainly worse than anything I remember in my youth, and then, when I covered the news beat for Muskoka Publications, from 1979 to 1989. But this doesn't mean to say there hasn't been some spring seasons, when the danger for much more expansive flooding was potential, but in most of the cases I recall, the weather co-operated at the most critical time of the water flow crisis. In this case, the torrential rains came after the flood water had already become an issue, so the situation was worsened by the prevailing weather this time around.

     As I mentioned in a previous blog, my parents used to reside at the Bass Rock apartments, and each spring, we'd worry about the run-off, and if it was going to rise over the road, and flood the apartment parking lot. My father, Ed, was confident that one day, it was going to happen. So they would bring in extra provisions in early April, just in case there was, without warning, a surge of water in the length of river between the two falls. My mother would even make sure she had all her prescriptions filled, fearing that they would be trapped by high water. What a strange situation it was, for me, then, as an adult, to offer my mother the same advice she gave me as a child….."Stay away from the river."

     If you haven't joined me previously, on this blog, you can read a column I wrote several days ago, about my recreational swimming (against my mother's sage advice) at Bass Rock, posted on my "Muskoka as Walden" site. The narrowing of the river, at Bass Rock (the landform, not the apartment) where we used to dive from, into the deep, black water, on humid summer nights, was also a spot that could turn quickly, into a fast water situation, if the water flow suddenly changed……which it could do quickly, and without showing any outward change. It looked tranquil, but beneath the reflections of the towering pines, was a wicked twisting current that didn't raise even a ripple on the surface. There was no warning, unless, by experience, you knew where to look to see, along the shore rocks, if the water was higher than the day before. Even a small increase of water flow would create an undertow, that one day did catch me by surprise, and nearly ended my writing career before it began. So in the spring of the year, it was okay to visit this picturesque place, but from high on the rocks.

     The Muskoka River was an integral part of my childhood. It was the ever-romantic backdrop of my teenage years, as I used to walk along its sparkling water-course, hand-in-hand, with my girlfriend Linda, (and significant others over the years). I'd often come home late, having accompanied her home, and while walking along the silver rails of the CNR, I could look down on the sparkling town lights, twinkling off the water, as it wavered black as midnight, flowing beneath the Hunt's Hill bridge. In the winter months, it would be the steam off the water, caught in the street lamps of what was then Toronto Street. It was always such a remarkable scene, coming along from Anne Street, back home to Alice Street, and having the black ribbon of Muskoka River on my left, the train tracks in front, and the light from the illuminated clock tower, of the old federal building, on Manitoba Street, beckoning in the distance…..over the four seasons…..keeping me on time. But it was the river that always inspired me, as a young writer, because it evoked so much natural intrigue, and romanticism about love found and lost…..youth of once, and all other fleeting moments for fledgling poets, trying to make sense of it all……but failing. The Muskoka River answered to no mortal. Its freedom was inherently natural. I was its tethered observer…..interpreter. It is still as pervasive in my writing today, as it was when Linda and I, strolling by, listened to its gurgling along the shore, and the distant, hollow echo of the train horn, from far up the tracks, and then, as if instinctively to determine if it was on schedule, looked up, to the clock tower, that always to me, seemed my parallel of the "Eyes of Eckleburg," from the F. Scott Ftizgeral novel, "The Great Gatsby." There was a lot of symbolism for me, in my hometown then, abounding from my intimate interactions with the river, the train and those "Eyes of Eckleburg."

    It was a storied river. It was the river than the legendary Johnny Moon, a Barnardo Boy, used to paddle his leaky boat. We a child friend of his perished in the fast water. He lived in a small shack north of Bass Rock. His journal was found in the shanty some time after his death, and has been preserved for the town archives.

     I am sorry for all the misfortune, property damage and inconvenience this flood has caused, to the good folks of Bracebridge and area. We all hope and pray that the levels will subside in the next few days…..as it has many times, on the brink of much more disastrous potential. It is a river I was raised to fear. It was a river I knew, could take my life, in a heartbeat. I respected the river, and it spared me…..because I spent a lot of time back then, up to my neck in its beautiful water. To see it today, it is difficult to imagine, those sunny, calm, invigorating days, basking on the shore of Bass Rock……thinking, "there could be no finer solitude anywhere on earth…..than this Muskoka paradise." When Bracebridge was first settled on the embankment of the cataract, then known as "North Falls," it was known well……the Muskoka River would etch upon all the lives, of homesteaders, then and now, along its picturesque banks.

     Thank you for joining this special edition of my blog, today, profiling this unfortunate circumstance unfolding for those living along the Muskoka River.

Please visit my other blog at http://muskokaaswaldenpond.blogspot.ca/