Waitin’ for the Baby to Drop

I am currently doing my best to be patient, but it sure would be nice to get this show on the road!

The Yellowstone is the longest un-dammed river inNorth America, so the only person in control of our river flow is Mother Nature and her many moods. So far this year, she has been “warm” for five days. They haven’t been consecutive, so what that means is that the (more than) 250% snow content that is just sitting in the park upstream of us has not yet melted off.

Just like a bunch of friends waiting for the arrival of a new baby, we have created a pool. $10.00 to guess the highest CFS and the date of the peak water this year. There are a lot of predictions going around… that it could all melt off in one huge go and then our river will peak ridiculously high for a short period of time, only to come back down. Or, it could melt slowly (but hopefully not this slow…) and give us a lower-high water that will keep up for a longer period of time.

CFS means Cubic Feet per Second, and it is the way we measure the flow of the river. A cubic foot is about the size of a basketball, so to imagine CFS, picture said number of basketballs crossing a line in the river every second. Today it is at about 17,000. Last year’s high water got up to 25,600 cfs or so, and this year, some predict it will get up to 33,000 or more. Quite frankly, that is a lot.

At high water, the river is moving really fast, there is a lot of debris floating with us (full size trees, for example) and the river turns a dark brown. At certain levels the waves that we enjoy getting splashes from get washed out, but there can also be big roller waves that make it a rodeo of a good time. Also, we have to be more careful about the customer that goes down the river (taking into account age, strength etc.). Falling out in such fast water can be a dangerous thing, depending. But, as we all know, we don’t generally have swimmers so it is still safe for most everyone but the rare case.

I simply cannot wait for the weather to warm up and to find out what is going to happen with the level this year. For weeks, we have been buzzing with anticipation, and having a similar conversation almost every night about the crazy amount of snow up in the park (and this entire region) and about how high the water could get. We’ve had to have special safety meetings to discuss our plans for the potential of an accident on the river with either a private boater or another company. I am just excited to see what happens, and I guess I just have to remain patient and let Mother N do her thing.

The betting (on the cfs/date) is mostly secret, but I know that my bet was 31,500 cfs and the date (separate things) is June 18^th… or 19^th… I don’t remember what I wrote down. But, with this weather forecast (rain and storms until Wednesday); I probably will not be getting the date right. Way too soon. However, I still have some hopes for the CFS, though the longer Mother N waits to warm up, the more convinced I am that it is going to be one huge hot flash with the highest water possible!