San Pedro River after the flood

The only productive thing I did today was meet Susan at 11:45am to walk the dogs by the river.  This was my first walk along the river since coming back from Texas.  I was curious to see how the mud from last Sunday has dried up.  The walk turned out to be a discovery of erosion and natural change in a river's flow.

I got to the parking lot first and walked the dog out and back along the "hidden trail" while waiting on Susan.  This gives the dogs a chance to poop and pee away from the official trail near the B&B where visitors tend to walk.

There are some changes now to the river.  While the water still flows from south to north (starting in Sonora ten miles into Mexico), the smaller nuances are obvious.  The snake curves all took serious  damage, knocking down several mature cottonwoods from their roots.  Lots of downed snags now dot the path.  But most noticeably was the erosion along the trail, with several collapsed bluffs that are now part of the river's banks.  Parts of the bluffs have survived, but now contain cracks in the soil.  Further flooding will collapse them.  We had to call the dogs back from the bluffs to prevent them from causing the bluffs to collapse with them on them, tumbling down into the river with sand and soil on top of them.

Water that collected in the depression on the banks has dried up, but the area around those depressions remains soft mud.

The grass that was bent from the force of the water 100 yards away is now drying up, but still remains bent.  The path is still muddy, but more viscous as it was a week ago.  The area will need perhaps another week to dry up.

The dogs were all oblivious to this.  They ran in and out of the water and romped around with each other.  Minnie especially was happy to jump in and move around.  The rain from two weeks ago has refilled the deeper parts of the river, allowing her to swim a bit.

The walk today was just under two miles and took us 90 minutes.  Walks with Susan are therapeutic for me because she and I talk about life while the dogs run around.  These walks are not power walks, but more like relaxing strolls.  When I got home at 1pm, I went back to bed to stay warm under the blankets while I did my daily news readings. Weather was nice enough for a hike up a peak, but I had no motivation for that.  The mountains will still be there tomorrow.