Trail Conditions and Access During Floods and High Water
The McGilvray Road trail is located in the Black River bottoms and is intermittently surrounded by water. As a result, water levels can and do exceed trail height at times when the Black River water level is high. This occurs more frequently in the Spring. The trail varies in elevation and, as a result, access to various parts of the trail are limited depending upon water height.
We have recently started a project to determine the relationship between the flood gauge readings on the Black River at Galesville and the conditions of various sections of the trail. So far we have this:
Link to Galesville River Gauge
It has been determined that, if the gauge at Galesville is 4 feet or below, the trail should be accessible with dry feet!
Black River at Galesville River Gauge Reading = 5.75 at the time of these observations (by Pattrick Caffrey).
General
It appears that the trail is passable to just beyond Bridge 4 if the Galesville gauge reading is below 6 feet. There IS, however water on some of the parts.
Details
The first dip in the trail past (west of) Bridge #3 was dry.
The dip in the trail further past Bridge #3 had about 10” water depth on the trail, but it was pretty easy to cross the dip with dry feet by using rip-rap just north of the trail as stepping stones. There was no current in the water over the trail.
The dip approximately 200 yards past Bridge #4 had a maximum water depth of 17” in the trail. This water was contiguous with flowing water north of the trail, but there was no current across the trail. I note the contiguity because that assures the water level does represent the river level, and is not an isolated pond that could be left higher than the river as the water level drops. There was a dry bypass around the dip about 100 feet south of the trail. The water in the channel north of the trail was flowing to the west. This dip is at the east end of the section of trail scheduled to be lowered in 2014. (Section between Bridge#4 and Bridge #5)
The water was about 16” deep over the trail in the dip in the middle of the section of trail between #4 and #5. The water over the trail was contiguous with the flowing water north of the trail. There was a dry bypass to the south and no current over the trail, but just a couple inches higher water level would allow flow to continue to the south.
The water was 18” deep over the trail in the dip on the west end of the section between #4 and #5.. This is about 300 yards east of Bridge #5. There was flow across the trail, from north to south. There was no dry bypass. I was able to cross (barely) with 15” rubber boots using rip rap and brush clumps just north of the trail.
Black River water gauge at 11 ft. High water just after Br. 2
River gauge at 6.25 Water over trail between bridges 3 and 4