More Flooding at Lewisville Lake

Rain, rain, please go away.  When we woke up this morning, the rain gauge indicated we had had 3 inches of rain overnight.  That could not be good.

It was only after we turned on the tv that we discovered we had gotten off lightly.  Many other areas in the metroplex had gotten over 6 inches of rain.  The news reported that freeways were flooded and high water rescues were in progress.   The new rainfall total for the month at DFW is now 16.07", an all time record for the month of May...or at least for the 117 years they have been keeping records.


What about problems in our immediate area?  The exit ramp to Garden Ridge from southbound I-35E is closed due to high water and is expected to be closed for at least several days.  Highland Village Road near the interstate is closed due to flooding. The exit ramp to FM 407 from southbound I-35E was closed for much of the day due to flooding.

Highland Village Road (5-29-15) looking east through the construction site towards the service drive and I-35E, courtesy of City of Highland Village

Those closings near the interstate will certainly add to the fun on I-35E this weekend, since the FM 407 bridge is scheduled to close permanently tonight.  Access across the interstate will not be restored until summer of 2016.

But back to the water issues.  Lewisville Lake is now (6:30 pm, 5-29-15) at 535.85 feet.  That is 13.85 feet over the conservation level (522') and 3.85 feet over the spillway (532').  Perhaps most importantly, it is only about a foot below the flow easement of 537', which is where real property damage would likely begin to occur.  It is above the flow easement where people can build permanent structures on their property.  How much will be impacted?  I don't know, but the county currently has an interesting map showing where the lake would be if it got to 538'.

With water at historical levels, we had to go check it out for ourselves.  We first of all went to see the Lake Lewisville spillway, which is on the east end of the dam near The Colony.  Unfortunately we could not get to a good location to see much.  It was obvious from the cars pickup trucks parked along the road that some had decided to hike along the top of the dam past the "authorized persons only" sign to see the spillway up close.  We decided against that, but did see that the water was almost up to the level of Business 121 where the spillway water runs into the Trinity River.

With little to see there, we revisited the sites we discussed in the previous post.  The water was only about 1.5' higher this afternoon than on Tuesday, but oh what a difference!

1.  Lake Park Road at Lake Park Golf Course. 

Tuesday, May 26

Friday, May 29

Tuesday, May 26

Friday, May 29

 2.  Lake Park at the fee station. There did not seem to be as much difference here until we looked in detail at the level of the signs sticking out of the water.

Tuesday, May 26

Friday, May 29

Tuesday, May 26

Friday, May 29

We talked briefly to the park ranger, who was putting up more barriers.  He told us that after the flood of 2007, which was less severe than this year, the park did not reopen until Labor Day.  He thinks it will be at least Labor Day this year before the park can reopen. 

3.  First hole of Lake Park Disc Golf Course.  The wire cage on the first hole is now just barely sticking above the water.

Tuesday, May 26

Friday, May 29

4.  North Mill Street  This was coned off.  We could not even get close enough to see the water. 

5.  Copperas Branch Park East.  The road that goes past the trail head was barricaded, but we parked and walked to the barricade.  The new parking lot at the trail head where we had parked on Tuesday is now completely under water.

Friday, May 29

Will Lewisville Lake continue to rise?  Will it get to 537'?  Probably.  Runoff continues to go into the lake and more rain is predicted for tonight.  If that were not enough, Lake Ray Roberts, which is currently at 644.19', is expected to go over its spillway (645.5') for the first time ever sometime before the end of the weekend.  That means uncontrolled release of more water into Lewisville Lake.

In case inquiring minds want to know and since the Frog asked...I know we are well above 537', but how much further?  The only topo map I have of our neighborhood puts us somewhere between 558' and 591'.   GPS's are notoriously poor at determining elevation, but my gps fluctuates between 560' and 570' when lying here on the den floor.   That would seem to put us at least 20' and probably more like 30' above the flow easement of the lake. 

Update:   Lewisville Lake continues to creep higher.  As of the 8:30 pm report, it is now at 535.93'.  It will be interesting to see what it does in the next few days.  Elevation of Lewisville Lake is at this site.  The summary of all of the lake levels is at this site.

Flooding at Lewisville Lake

It just keeps raining and raining and raining.  It has rained 11.88" so far this month (19 out of the past 25 days) and 19.97" this spring (56 out of 86 days).  This is only the 8th wettest spring (wettest on record was 29.01" in 1957), but already the 4th wettest May.  The wettest May on record was 13.66" in 1982, our first May in Texas.  That record certainly seems in jeopardy since rain is predicted every day for the remainder of the month.  Stay tuned.

In the meantime we slosh through water, which is everywhere.  We are fortunate that there have not been any catastrophic problems in the immediate area, but Lewisville Lake is definitely flooded.   According to this site from the Army Corps of Engineers,  Lewisville Lake was approximately 534 feet at noon today, which is 12 feet above the conservation level (522 ft) and 2 feet over the spillway (532 ft).  These numbers are interesting, but we wanted to have some feel for what that level of flooding actually meant so we decided to check it out in person this morning.  The approximate locations of the sites  referred to in this blog are shown on the following map (blue push pins).  (Here also is a link to an interactive Google map, but I did not know how to attach pins to that map.)

1.  Lake Park Road at Lewisville Lake Golf Course.  First up was a trip to the end of Lake Park Road, essentially the eastern extension of FM 407.  The golf course is closed due to the water, although we saw multiple herons feeding in the ditch along the road and 5-6 Canadian geese camped out on the soccer field.

The flooding is clearly evident from the turn around at the end of the road. 

View from the turn-around at the end of Lake Park Road (extension of FM 407) in front of Lake Park Golf Course, looking north towards the day use area.  There is a road that runs perpendicular to this shot just beyond the large solitary tree to the left of center.  The road is totally submerged, but can be seen in the street view on Google maps

View from the turn around at the end of Lake Park Road (extension of FM 407) in front of the Lake Park Golf Course, looking to the east.  This is the practice range to the east of the golf course.  The tees are in the foreground and the target flags are now out in the water.

It is a bit hard to put these pics into perspective until you compare them to a "before" shot.  Check out the street view on Google maps.  If you look carefully you can see the lake in the distance.  Note the park road which is currently submerged in our pictures.

2.  Lake Park We looped around to the entrance to Lake Park, which is in front of the disc golf course.  It is now definitely a "Lake Park".

Next to the fee station at Lake Park

Looking along the road into Lake Park from the fee station

3.  Lake Park Disc Golf Course  All of the lower portions of the disc golf course near the lake are under water.  One good example of that is the first hole.  You tee off from an elevated tee, aiming for an elevated "green" in the distance.  In between is a very deep depression.  The "hole" is visible from the tee in the picture below.  The bottom of the "hole" or wire cage is about 2.5 feet off the ground of the green, which is at least 4-5 feet above the lowest part of the first fairway, so some of the water in the foreground must be at least 7-8 feet deep!  That's not such a big deal until you realize they had a professional disc golf tournament there on Friday, when the water was only about 2 feet lower.  At least we think they had a tournament.  We stumbled upon their displays when we were gawking at the water last week.  Seven feet of water in the fairway takes golf's "casual water" to a whole new level.

First hole of disc golf course from the tee

4.  North Mill Street.  We next drove north on Mill Street.  Mill Street ends when it turns left (west) and becomes Tennie Drive.  You can see the the turn to Tennie Drive (guardrail and large arrow pointing left) in the distance in the following pictures. 

Looking north along Mill Street. 

5.  Copperas Branch Park East.  I had reported in an earlier blog about the new park, Copperas Branch Park East, that is not yet officially open but is being developed as part of the renovation of Interstate 35E.  We decided to check that out on our way home.  We had seen on previous occasions that access to the boat houses near the trail head was under water, but we were shocked upon our arrival to see that even a corner of the new parking lot is now under water.

The trail along the railroad that leads out to the park is also partly under water in at least one place, so we did not even try to make our way out to the park.  I doubt much of it is above water anyway.

I don't know what to expect about the water level.  The Corps is still dumping water into the Trinity upstream out of Lake Ray Roberts, but they are not letting as much water out of Lewisville Lake because of flooding downstream near Dallas.

Backyard Baby Birds

This is just a quick update on the status of new baby birds in our yard.

Bluejays  I had reported earlier about sighting a bluejay nest early in the spring.  Several weeks ago we saw three blue jays together in the trees.  Two of them were making quite a racket, hence the reason for noticing them at all.  The third was bouncing up and down on a branch like someone at the end of a diving board.  He finally took off and flew just fine, but landed only a few feet away on another branch.  Although I would not have been able to tell from his size or appearance, I am sure he was a new blue jay learning to fly.

White-winged doves  We had been watching the white winged dove on the nest above my car for many weeks, but had not seen any evidence of baby birds.  Then suddenly about 10 days ago we saw the two adults on the ground looking for food.  It was not obvious there was anything in the nest.  Our first thought was that something had happened and no birds had hatched.  However, several days later we saw two smaller doves huddled together in the tree.  They then progressed to flying short distances in the bushes or flying between branches above the patio roof.  Again, they looked exactly like mature white-winged doves, although they were smaller than the adults when we saw them together.  Apparently they had been in the nest but we could not see them from our vantage point below.

Downy woodpeckers  We have frequently had Downy woodpeckers, both male and female, on the feeder this spring.  One day several weeks ago I saw two of them on the feeder at the same time, but one of them was acting strangely.  I then realized he was a bit unsure of how to hang on and was not actually get the nuts out of the feeder, he was next to the other bird with his mouth open.  Yep, he had to be a baby Downy woodpecker.  

Wrens  At about the same time as all of these other sightings we saw at least three wrens on the ground in the backyard.  They all looked the same size, but at least one was doing the "open mouth, I want food" routine so was obviously a little one.  However, these were not "our" wrens from our birdhouse.

There was very little activity in and out of the birdhouse for sometime and we weren't sure what was going on.  Then suddenly we saw the adults carrying food into the house.  If we put meal worms into the feeder, the adults were there within minutes and kept going back and forth carrying worms until they emptied the feeder.

I got a few pictures of the birds going into and out of the house by putting the GoPro on the fence, but the birds had become very fast ducking into and out of the house.  I never could quite figure out the right compromise between high resolution (so I could zoom in to see the small birds) or higher frames per second (so I could see them as they came and went).  I will go through that footage and try to find something useable even if it is only a couple of still shots, but that will be another day. 

GoPro on the fence.  The top of the bird house is just barely visible beyond the camera.

At first we were putting out worms once a day and the original container of meal worms lasted for some time.  However, once the parents started feeding the little ones, it became obvious they wanted more  We then began putting out food three times a day, but we quickly ran out of worms.  After going through the second container of 500 worms, we asked about a larger container.  There are only two sizes of meal worms that Wild Birds Unlimited sells, 500 worms and 10,000 worms.  Ok, 10,000 worms it is.

I did not think to get a picture of the worms in their original packaging.  The 10,000 worms were in a large (16" long by 8" diameter) mesh bag, although very little of that volume was worms.  Most of the bag retained its shape due to large amounts of wadded paper.  The worms were contained within the folds or wads of paper.  I got the worms on Tuesday afternoon and transferred all of them into a plastic shoebox on Wednesday morning.  They filled the box to a depth of about an inch.  Smooth plastic is important so they cannot climb out, although they are in the refrigerator and therefore are dormant.  The Frog drilled holes in the lid for air.

10,000 meal worms in a plastic shoe box

The parents were still ferrying worms to the house on Wednesday, but were barely sticking their heads into the house.  The little birds must have been coming to the opening to get the food.  We could hear their cheeping, but we could not see them.  By the time I got home from school late on Thursday, the adults were still ferrying worms, but not to the house.  Sometime on Thursday the babies had apparently left the nest.

My first thought was "Oh great.  Now that we have a shoebox full of meal worms, the wrens will no longer need them."  Not to worry.  On Friday morning I saw at least three and possibly four little ones huddled together in the yaupon holly in the front of the house.  The adults were continuing to carry the meal worms to the little ones from the feeder in the backyard. In addition, the "other family" of wrens, including the little ones, all visit the meal worm feeder.  Finally, there is at least one female cardinal eating them as well.  We are putting out worms three times a day (maybe a 1/4 cup at a time) and there are lots of birds taking advantage of them.  Often the wrens are on the feeder before we can get back into the house.  I don't know how long this will last, but things are going well so far, despite the daily thunderstorms.

Hitting the Trails

I have been on a quest since the first of the year to become more active.  I have been looking for a physical activity that would

1. be low cost
2. fit into my time constraints of primarily M/W/F mornings
3. be within my physical ability 
4. most importantly...be something fun that I would look forward to doing

It seems like that should be pretty straight forward, but of course it was not.  Even though I always enjoyed it, golf was out...it costs too much and requires too large a block of time.  My knees would not tolerate running/jogging and I was not convinced that would be fun anyway.  Biking is good, but it was too much trouble to get my bike out and then put away without help (it hangs in the garage).  I tried disc golf, what most people would call "Frisbee golf".  We have several nice public disc golf courses close by and I enjoyed walking the courses, but to my total surprise and disbelief I seem to have totally lost my ability to throw a Frisbee.  It was going to take way too much effort to progress to even the beginner stage.  I was also fearful it would re-aggravate my torn rotator cuff  (or maybe the torn rotator cuff was keeping me from correctly throwing the Frisbee).

Fortunately the attempt at disc golf was not a total bust.  It was obvious from that feeble attempt that I really liked walking outdoors.  Maybe it is just a passing fad that will go away when the summer heat returns, but I have really gotten into walking.  So far that has mostly been on concrete paths. That may morph back into hiking as the weather dries out and walking on unpaved trails does not mean wading through mud.

Electronic Toys.  Please note that the requirements above did not include "low tech".  I carry more electronics on my walks than the astronauts used to get to the moon.  Of course, that is in part what helps all of this meet criterion number 4; it makes it fun.  I have my mapping gps, iPhone, and now a new Fitbit.

My Fitbit Charge HR.  I received a Fitbit Charge HR for my birthday in February.  I have been using it for just over two months and it is awesome.  The Frog has had a Fitbit for years.  Like the Frog's Fitbit, the Charge HR monitors steps.  However, unlike the Frog's Fitbit, the Charge HR is a wristband monitor.  With its built-in watch, it is now the only watch I wear.

Charge HR showing my step count for the day

There are some other significant differences as well.  It keeps track of altitude change by measuring changes in pressure.   It counts every ten feet of altitude gain as a flight of stairs.  That is interesting, but not terribly useful for me.  The really important part is the "HR".  "HR" stands for heart rate, which it tracks continually.  By plugging the heart rate into its equation with other parameters such as weight and gender, it calculates calories burned throughout the day during all types of activities.  I can also sync the Fitbit with my iPhone while walking.  The Fitbit records all of its various data (steps walked, heart rate, calories burned, etc.) as a function of location along the walk by using the gps on the iPhone. The result is lots of data when I get home.

But there is more.  I also take advantage of Fitbit's system for tracking calorie intake.  That is made easier since so many foods, including foods at restaurants, are included in their database.  Prior to this I had very little idea about the calorie content of most foods, let alone how many calories I was burning.  Now I have a continual running total of calories in vs calories out. 

The biggest knock against the Charge HR among online reviewers is its inability to track more active types of workouts or to correctly handle cycling.  It is best for walking or running.  That is probably why I like it so much, because it fits in so well with my walking/hiking activities. 

So where do I walk?

Wichita Forest.  I started out in February walking a lot in Wichita Forest, a heavily treed park in Highland Village with single track unpaved trails.  Although relatively short, these unpaved hiking trails had lots of up and down and were a real "back to nature" type place even though in town.  I really enjoyed the many birds that called Wichita Forest home and even saw an armadillo.

Armadillo spotted n Wichita Forest in February

Unfortunately Wichita Forest is closed for at least a few months due to nearby road construction and other improvements in the immediate area.

Equestrian Trail  Next up was the Elm Fork Equestrian Trail.  This is a six mile long unpaved trail on Corps of Engineer land near Lewisville Lake that runs between Old Alton Bridge and Sycamore Bend Park.  I enjoyed that a lot, at least the small portion of the trail I have hiked so far, but that trail is not practical after rain due to lots of low spots and a low water creek crossing.  We have had lots of rain this spring.  In fact, April has been our wettest month in many years.  I therefore had to move to walking on pavement.  I hope to get back to that trail as soon as the trail dries out a bit.

City Trail.  Fortunately Highland Village has an extensive system of paved walking/running/biking trails as well as additional unpaved trails along the lake.  I especially like the main trail, known as City Trail, which is a concrete walkway through a very wide green space.  This used to dead end at FM 2499.  As of this winter, the tunnel under the highway is now open and the path extends on to the west.  Starting at the HV Police Station, it is over three miles to the western end of the trail, with several significant hills (at least by Texas standards) and several strategically placed drinking fountains.  They have made an effort to promote Texas wildflowers along the trail, which makes it nice while they are in bloom this spring.  During multiple walks over the past few weeks I have seen many birds (including even a road runner), turtles in the creeks, and some rabbits.

Walk through Highland Village on City Trail and back on pipeline trail as recorded on my Fitbit app

New trails.  Apparently I am not the only person who wants more places to walk.  Lewisville is adding many new trails and Highland Village is working on two new parks.

Copperas Branch Park East.  Nearing completion is a new park on the east side of the interstate known as Copperas Branch Park East.  It is being developed as part of the I-35E highway expansion project.  The park is a bit plain right now since they have removed all invasive and non-native plants (which appears to have been almost everything there), but it does have a mile long paved pathway that loops the park so it is another alternative for walking.  The parking lot at the trail head had been marked with no trespassing signs, but those were gone a few weeks ago so we checked it out.  The first part of the trail is along the DCTA train track and will be part of the DCTA rail trail that starts in downtown Denton and will run across Lewisville Lake to southern Lewisville .  The trail in Denton is already complete and the trail in Lewisville is under construction.  Last to be completed will be the connection between the two, including the trail over the lake.

New Copperas Branch East park

In addition to the  new hike/bike trail along the DCTA railroad line, Lewisville will also be adding a new Garden Ridge Trail that will go from the Highland Village train station down Garden Ridge to Civic Center Drive.  Not only will this add significantly to the trails available, but there will also be a link between Lewisville and Highland Village through Highlands Park, the park that crosses Aspen (finally!!).  A map of the two trails through Lewisville is shown below.  Detailed plans of the Garden Ridge Trail are also online.

Map of new trails coming to Lewisville from the Lewisville Texan Journal

Lewisville is also planning on significant improvements and expansion of the trails in Lewisville Lake Park, but that work will not start until fall.

New Parks in Highland Village.  Highland Village is also adding considerably to its park and trail inventory.  Lakeside Community Park is a new park on the north side of Highland Village Road along the lake at the end of Sellmeyer Drive.  It was scheduled to open last month but was apparently delayed by weather.  I am expecting to see that available any time now.  The trail is only 0.25 miles long, but it will eventually be within walking distance of home or City Trail.  I say "eventually" since Sellmeyer is currently closed to straighten out the infamous "S-curve".  Along with the new alignment of Sellmeyer will be a new paved trail that will connect City Trail to this new park. 

Lakeside Community Park from Highland Village Parks and Recreation site

Highland Village is also working on a massive remodeling and expansion of Double Tree Ranch Park on the far east side of town, south of Highland Village Road.  A lot of that park will be athletic fields, but it will supposedly also have trails connecting through to the Garden Ridge Trail in Lewisville to the south.  There already is a nice trail along Highland Village Road that connects Double Tree Ranch Park to Wichita Forest and the new Lakeside Community Park.

Highland Village trails from http://www.highlandvillage.org/index.aspx?NID=312

One of the most enjoyable things is to explore different locations and see how they are changing, whether that is change due to the seasons or change due to improvements.  It looks like we will have much to explore over the coming months, whether that is walking, hiking, or biking.