Good News - Gauge on Middle Fork Illinois Bayou!

[Cowper]

Becky and Dale Burris were hiking on the Middle Fork of the Illinois Bayou (aka, the Snow Creek run), and noticed a new installation about 0.45 miles upstream of the Hwy 27 bridge. (ADDITION/CORRECTION: Apparently this was first mentioned by Tim and T back in the March/April timeframe.)

A little investigation, and we tied this to some e-mail exchanges Debbie had with the USGS folks over a year ago. They were consulting with the Club to find out how high a cable needed to be over the river to NOT be a hazard to navigation.

This new gage is funded by Southwestern Energy, so it has a whole lot to do with the Fayetteville Shale activity.

So, we now have a real-time USGS gage on the popular Snow Creek run! It will take a few floats before we get it fully "calibrated", but I'll stick my neck out and say that I think decent floating will begin around 12.0 feet on this new gage. Today's level was 11.5, and the report was that it "might" have been possible to bump down the creek even at that level, but we need a "probe" to be sure. So I think I'll hold out for 12 or better until someone actually floats it lower...

Enjoy!

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/ar/nwis/uv?site_no=07257460" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Roger]

http://forums.arkansascanoeclub.com/sea ... d%5B0%5D=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Scroll down to get to T's posts.

[SteveGabbard]

T has said he thinks between 12 and 14 feet would be good levels on the new gage.

[Roger]

Ran it Monday before xmas with the Scottsville gauge reading just above 8.0' and the 27 bridge marker was showing 8.75'. Tried to read the new gauge from my boat but couldn't get up to it since it faces the road on the lower portion of it. On the new gauge, it was just above 12.0' on the day run guestimating from the readout.

Eddies to be caught, moves through the rapids, a few boulders peaking up with one having a boof in the middle of the river in the next to last rapid, some wood to negotiate and plenty of water for laps that day. It was just above freezing but sunny.

The wood (some stuff has been in there before but I think this is new, correct me if I'm wrong) is at the top of the first rapid that turns left away from the river and then cuts right.

This little creek sure has changed since I first paddled it.

[Cowper]

Thanks Roger! That discussion apparently occurred in the March/April time frame while I was working down in NOLA, so I just plain missed it. Yes, they do have internet down there, but the commute was seriously eating into my internet time... Edits applied to give due credit to those who mentioned it first!

So, you seem to be confirming that 12.0 is a good level. Do you think you could or would do it lower?

[Roger]

Yeah, probably no lower than 11.5 though. I've done it when the bridge marker was at 8.0 and maybe even 7.5 (hard to remember at my age ) before the new gauge was installed.

[dogpatch]

What would be optimum range in the AM for a possible float on Nogo?

[Roger]

Dogpatch, right now you need to go off of the Scottsville gauge for now gauging Nogo. If you got 10' on that one, you got water. Maybe a bit lower as it depends on where the rain falls since you've got the East Fork feeding in between the run and the gauge.

Looking at the two gauges for the 22nd and 23rd of December has the Scottsville gauge at 10' with the new gauge showing 13' or so. Rough approximation.

[Tylers swimming again]

We paddled it a few times and recently noticed they put the gauge in. Anyone know if it's going to be put into the Ozarks creek summary page?

[Roger]

Tyler who swims, just bookmark this site if you plan on using it. The OWP is somewhat static due to its creator's (Fish) progression in life. And that's okay. The site is still the go-to for this stuff!!

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/ar/nwis/uv?site_no=07257460" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Maybe the creative-digital types within the club could figure a way to "buy, transfer, etc." the website to the club so that it could be updated as needed by the appropriate club official. I could see compensating the developer of the site for its time and effort in creating such a database. As long as it fits within the club guidelines.

But hey, who's to say?

[Cowper]

That's totally up to the OWP webmaster's availability of time, and our ability to suggest to him what the "trigger points" for the new readings should be. Since he has moved out of state, we should figure out the best trigger points for him because he won't be able to get down here often enough to check it out personally.

The current "trigger points" for the IB gage at Scottsville are 6, 7, and 8 feet. By looking at what the new gage was on those same days, I would propose the trigger points for the new gage would be 11.5 feet (bottom end or "low but floatable"), 12.0 feet would be the start of "optimum", and 13' would be the beginning of "blue" territory.

But we really should get someone to run the creek at or near these levels to confirm these are the right numbers, before we ask Fish to update the page with the new info.