After writing about the areas of flooding I visited last week, I felt inspired to visit the Lake Monroe dam area to see the situation there. So, I planned a bicycle ride to the dam, and took a “scenic route” home. I wanted to see the dam and the damage to Valley Mission Road. Here’s a map of my ride.

I took a direct route to Fairfax State Recreation Area, then to the dam. Every time I ride in that area, I think it seems hillier than I remember.  There aren’t any big hills until you are near the lake, but the hills are rather constant all the way there.

Here is Baker’s Junction, the creepy “Haunted Train Museum”

Soon I was at Fairfax SRA, on Lake Monroe. I was greeted by ducks.

If you’re not familiar with the place, this might not look too weird. But, there’s a large parking lot at the bottom of the hill. It’s just underwater in these shots.

This basketball hoop might give a little more perspective.

Or this shelter …

or these partially-submerged trees …

Here’s another illustration of how high the water was. There’s a cul-de-sac that’s completely submerged right now, past where the road dips into the water.

Notice the street sign just barely sticking up.

I headed back, stopping to top off water bottles.

I headed toward the dam. On my way there I saw more high water, coming right up to the side of the road. There were people fishing from the side of the road. I wish I had gotten a photo of them.

Soon, I reached the dam. The water made a crazy sound as it was sucked down to be expelled by the floodgates. The water rushing out made quite a racket, too. I made a few videos to capture the scene, and I edited them together here. What you can’t tell from the sound in the video is that there was also a low-pitched rumbling sound that you could both hear and feel. Pretty wild.

I took some still photos, too. There were several other people there to check out the scene.

 

Next I wanted to see Valley Mission Road. I had heard the road was washed out.

I’d say those reports were accurate.

Some people had spotted a catfish down in the water below here and were trying to figure out a way to get it out.

The rock pictured below was placed on the road to try to stop it from washing away. It’s hard to say how effective that was; I guess we’ll find out when the rocks come off.

I probably could have continued past this point, but I would have had to climb a big hill and it might just be more flooding on the other side. I decided to turn back.

On my way back, I spotted some dead fish along the side of the road. It was a bit surreal.

I headed out. Soon I crossed State Road 37. I wasn’t sure exactly how the roads interconnected and actually ended up on an on-ramp or feeder road briefly. There was NO traffic at all.

I stopped in Harrodsburg to refuel.

Then headed back, a rather indirect route. My return trip was quite hilly.

 

 

 

Some ominous clouds rolled in, but no more than a few drops ever fell.

 

I passed a quarry or two on my way home.

This was a great ride — it was nice to have a mission of sorts (seeing and documenting the flooding and the dam), but the riding was a lot of fun, too — 36 hilly miles.

 

 

 

As I’ve mentioned before, we’ve had a lot of rain this spring. So much so now that some areas are experiencing flooding. In particular, Lake Monroe reached nearly 20 feet above normal pool level, setting a new all-time record. Normal pool is 538 feet; the lake level went as high as 557.28 feet. Despite widening the floodgates, the lake overflowed the emergency dam and flooded Valley Mission Road (among others), which is a common cycling road. According to the local newspaper, Valley Mission Road is being washed away by the flooding.

I headed out late last week for a ride and decided to check out the flooding, though not in the area described above. I thought I’d check a couple of other spots.

On my way there, I saw a pond that is normally fairly small. It’s noticeably bigger than usual.

A closer look showed quite a few turtles sunning themselves on logs, including a couple of rather large snapping turtles (though I was not able to get a good shot of them).

After a while, I was at Moore’s Creek State Recreation Area, on Lake Monroe. Below you can see a lamp post that’s partially under water.

This little road normally goes through to a picnic shelter and a popular fishing area.

Here’s the picnic shelter.

This sign gives you a good idea of how much higher the water is than usual. The sign reads “Road ends in water” 300-700 feet, but yet the water is just a few feet behind the sign. This is at a boat ramp.

This next shot is not relevant to the flooding, but I was inspired by Alfred Stieglitz’s “Equivalents” series, which we studied in my photography class.

I rode a bit more …

And eventually made my way over to Moore’s Creek Road, where I expected to see some more flooding.

I thought I would be able to make my way over to Swartz Ridge road and climb up that way, but I hit flooding sooner than I expected. I couldn’t even make it to Swartz Ridge.

I thought about trying to cross the water, but it looked like it was at least knee deep, probably deeper than that. I decided to turn back.

 

I’ve seen this barn several times but never got a satisfactory photo of it before.

The trees and grass look so lush and green.

For the most part, the creeks didn’t seem overly deep. I guess most of the water had already rushed down to the lake by this time.

Sometime after my visit, the lake levels began to get lower. Hopefully the flooding will subside soon. I’ve read about a number of other roads being underwater. I haven’t heard about much or any damage to homes yet, but newspaper coverage has been a bit spotty. I do know that many local cycling routes are affected.

 

Finals are over now. One  by one, my grades are rolling in. So far, it looks like my hard work is paying off. I’ll post an update about that when I get all my grades.

For now, here are the 10 images I turned in for my third photography project. I actually took these shots in early April, but I haven’t really had time to write about them. Note: Some of these are from the burlesque set I posted before, so once again, they might not be safe for work.

The assignment had five categories: directional force, texture, repetition, color, and symmetry.

Directional Force

The effect of having lines or shapes that draw the viewer’s eyes along a particular path is known as “directional force.”

The following image was inspired in part by Henri Cartier-Bresson’s amazing (and famous) cyclist photo (though of course I can’t compete with his shot).

Texture

I chose two contrasting shots for this topic.

Repetition

I don’t think this next shot is one of my stronger ones, but it does communicate the theme.

This one I like a bit better. They’re just flowers, but it’s a little different angle than you usually see, and the B&W definitely works for me.

Color

I really like the bold blue against the softer flesh tones in this photo.

This one is nothing special — just more flowers — but the colors are nice.

Symmetry

I took some liberties with this one. The first shot really has diagonal symmetry. I don’t think it came across as obvious symmetry, but I like the stark shot and the sparse composition … and the subtle symmetry.

I was really lucky the ladies were seated as they were, in the next photo. Perfect for my assignment.

I’m happy with most of these shots, but I am trying to push myself further and some of these don’t really stand out. In particular, the flowering tree and the large building I used for repetition are nice photos, but not as interesting as they could be. Also, I feel like I’m still trying to discover my own, distinctive style. I am taking more photography classes, so I look forward to further developing my style and technique.