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Madison River
Gorge 2007
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The river is solidly gorged looking upriver from the
town bridge. This happens when the water freezes solid in the channel after it remains exceedingly cold for a few days. On January 13 in this picture, it is 7 degrees below zero.
When the water is below freezing temperatures it stays liquid when it is
moving but becomes more and more slushy as the extreme cold continues.
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The slush eventually jams briefly going through the
channels leading into the shallow lake below town. The second it does
that, presto, the river there turns into a solid chunk of ice because it
no longer is moving. More slush jams into that and repeats the process.
Over a few days the gorge can move several miles up the river. On the left
you are looking downriver from the town bridge. The black blob in the
middle is the top of the old bridge abutment. The ice is not
skating rink material, as you can see, rising nearly to the bottom of
the bridge. In the right photo the gorge is actively occurring. The
solid white is the frozen river and the steam is rising where it is
moving into the jam.
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The water that does not freeze solid is still trying to
find a way downhill, even though the regular channel is solidly blocked.
So the river starts running around on the flats, cutting new channels,
perhaps gorging some more. It makes an awful mess of the town campground
and boat launch. The road is already gone at the entrance because part
of the
river is running through it at the moment and just cut it away.
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The view on the left is from Burnt Tree on January 13. The same view in
the middle photo is on January 14 after the gorge occurred overnight.
The view on the right is about ten days later showing the river cutting
a channel back through the ice after it warmed up. |
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The left photo shows another view of Burnt Tree and the depth of the ice
as the channel cuts through it. The middle photo shows the boat launch
itself to the right of the picnic table where the drive drops
sharply to the river. The pile of ice shows this launch is out of
commission for months. In the right photo the normal river channel is in
front of the row of willow trees. The foreground shows the snow has
melted, so all the white beyond the willow trees is ice left from the
river wandering around on the flats.
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The left photo shows Burnt Tree February 10. It is amazing what a few days
at 50 degrees will do. The middle photo shows the Eight Mile boat
launch. Someone plowed through so a boat trailer can be used, if one
backs it accurately. The slot for the trailer is narrow but workable.
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