Last week’s “Photo of the Week” was the Gooseberry River. I apologize for using the same subject again this week but we had over 4 inches of rain in two days and twice that in the upper Gooseberry watershed. That amount of water on top of what we received in the previous weeks put the North Shore rivers into flood stage. The Gooseberry was higher than I have seen in the 25 years that I have been at Gooseberry. We had to close the hiking trails along the lower part of the river for about 24 hours as the water was out of the banks and turned the steps into miniature waterfalls themselves.

Thursday night I hiked the lower trails looking for damage and high water. I couldn’t follow the trails but had to cut through the woods on higher ground to continue the Falls View Loop.

Standing on the bridge almost made me dizzy with all of that water surging below. The ground seemed to vibrate from the force of water. Trees were floating by at about 30 miles per hour. I don’t think any salmon were migrating up the river this week.

The next evening I made the loop again to get some more pictures. The water had receded enough to open the trails. Thousands of park visitors took the opportunity to watch the raging river as millions of gallons of water passed by each second.

I was looking for a unique picture when I noticed the bright red Bush Honeysuckle leaves below the lower bridge. I had to crawl under the bridge on the ledge rock. There was only three feet of room under the bridge but it wasn’t dangerous.

As I was crouched down photographing the falls several groups of people walked over the bridge. No one saw me except one little girl that was walking behind the rest of her family. She took one glance at me and started walking faster. I can imagine the conversation when she caught up to her family, “Did you see the troll under the bridge.” The picture was worth the effort it took to get it.