There is something about the primal beat of Japanese taiko drums that gets one blood flowing!
Almost better then coffee!
I said “Almost”!
– Andrew
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It has been 10 days since I’ve been out shooting any of the new shorelines along Marsh Creek Lake, so in my planning I wanted to explore an area that I kind of already knew.
Being a Google Maps junkie, I pulled up Marsh Creek State Park from my Favorites, and then the “The Photographer’s Ephemeris (TPE)” application to check the lighting, to help me to decide where to go on this day.
Within minutes, I had decided on taking a look at the point where the main facilities for Marsh Creek are located on Park Road. I had walked some of these trails earlier in the summer with both kids, and remembered seeing some viewpoints that I wanted to revisit.
When one first enters the park and looks out over the lake, one cannot be but astonished by all the missing water and new shorelines.
The parking lot that extends out the point, was blocked off, and I was forced to park in the main lot, which is self, was halfway closed.
No matter, I was expecting to do some walking today anyways, so I packed up my gear and headed into the parking lot towards the eastern trails.
When I got to the end of what appeared to be the Park, I noticed a trail heading down the hill, and I decided to follow it.
After a few feet, it became apparent that during hurricane Sandy, this trail had become a rushing stream.
At the bottom of the hill, I continued along some animal trails, and eventually made it to the shoreline.
I walked along the northern shore heading West, and as I walked, I was greeted with many items of visual interest.
The shoreline itself was a darker mixture of sentiment, and depending how far in you went toward the water, it became easier to sink. the shoreline around the dam consisted more of real sand, then this thick molasses of lake mud.
While walking and looking, I made the observation that there seemed to be more human trash, than what I had seen in my walks around the dam. I saw a lot of plastic bottles of various sizes, along with a couple of shoes, a folding chair, and even a deteriorated orange safety cone base.
As I continued, the clouds began to coalesce into a show of formations that I had never seen before, and I had a hard time capturing the magnificent shapes within the evolving jet stream.
At one point, there was this thin series of streams, that cut through the rest of the formation, and looks like a gigantic series of cloth folds, stretching from one horizon to the other. It was definitely one of those times when I wish I had a smaller wide-angle lens.
The shoreline steepen as I headed West, and I had to scamper up to the existing trail to the tip of the point. Eventually, I emerged to see a very rocky new shoreline, which I explored for trinkets and a shot or two.
I returned to the trail, and headed north searching for a new place to start another shoreline exploration.
The shoreline in this area was much wider than areas I have been in before, and is easily accessible because of the sand rock mixture. I also noticed many more tree stumps, which made for some interesting compositions.
it is very difficult to relay to anyone that has never been to these places, what a major change has occurred with this eight-foot drawdown.
Once familiar places, now looks so surreal and primitive.
As I stood on the deck of the restaurant, I took a series of panoramic shots, that I still need to process, in hopes to further illustrate this tremendous change.
Looking at my watch, I started back up the hill towards the parking lot and my car.
At the maintenance gate for the pool complex, I stopped to capture the final image of the day.
Winter has come…
Questions
- Are there any local efforts to clean up the trash and debris while so much of it is easily accessible?
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Earlier in the morning, after getting the kids off to school, and checking in with the digital world, I looked out the window to see if I should make the trip back to the dam at Marsh Creek Lake.
I was not too convinced that it be a good day, but I did eventually made it up to the dam, where I had only been two days before, but this time with my tripod.
My goal was to start at the spillway gate, and head north along the shoreline as far as I could go, and maybe even get onto the concrete of the main emergency spillway.
Walking across the rugged rocks, I wondered to myself several times, if I should not head straight up the hill to the vehicle road, but decided against it, and was greeted with this view when I looked back at the spillway gate.
Continuing down the shoreline, I was heading towards the pilings that I had seen from the opposite shore two days before, and was one of my real quests for today.
When I got there, surprised to see that what looked like a dock or morning from a distance, seem to be pilings randomly placed poles into the shoreline.
I walked around the point, and onto a dry area which would have normally been covered in several feet of water, and continued looking for a way, to further explore down in the spillway.
It was difficult walking in the dried swamp grass and cat o’nine tails, but I could see animal tracks heading the direction I wanted to go.
Tt was very apparent that the creatures knew how to maneuver the terrain better than I could.
Eventually time was getting the best of me, and I had to head back to my car before my kids got home from school.
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Earlier in the week, I had seen a posting on Facebook that mentioned the Chester County Water Resources Authority, and how they were going to be lowering the water level of Marsh Creek Lake by 8 feet, so I was more than a little interested in seeing what the effects would be, especially having seen the heavy water flow after hurricane Sandy just two weeks before.
My niece, Katelyn, had spent the night on a sleep-over, and wanted to joined us on our family walk, especially since she had never been to the dam before.
We parked at the maintenance entrance along Dorlan Mill road, and walked down the long hill, and then onto the trails on the right, heading toward the main emergency spillway to the north.
It was fun watching the kids as they galloped along the trail, and it was easy to see that both Logan and Madison had been down this trail before, while Katelyn was being a little bit more cautious as we moved along the trails.
At the top of the clearing, near the concrete barrier, we got our first glimpses of the drawdown looking into the once marshy area.
The full impact of the water loss did not hit us until we were walking across the maintenance road on top of the dam, looking down at 20-40+ feet of a new ‘shoreline’.
We walked down the bank alone side the spillway gate, and at the water’s edge, were very amused to see the safety signs above our heads.
As we walked along the western shoreline, the kids delighted in throwing rocks, and launching weather worn planks into the lake, only to have them come back ashore further down our walk.
During our walk, I ran into a gentlemen and his son, and as we talked, he mentioned that he had heard that at lake had covered up a whole township. I was very surprised to hear this, and having never heard this before, I knew I needed to look this up later.
I caught up with my kids again, and as we walking along the ‘beach’, we saw old worn wood docks and cinder blocks thrown all around.
With a careful eye, I also spotted fishing lures, old bottles, cans, hats, while the ‘rock-hound’ in me, also spotted many beautiful examples of layered sedimentary rocks, along with many of examples of quartz with a deep dull blue color.
The kids being kids, wanted to bring everything home, but we had to limit it to what you could carry home on your own…
I was very surprised, but we now have several new door stoppers in two homes!
[Update – History]
Question – Was there a township covered by Marsh Creek Lake?
Yes.
There are records dating back to the 1880s of a community known as Millford Mills, a farming village in the Marsh Creek Valley, which provided food, paper and other products to the Chester County area.
During the mid-1950s, the Chester County commissioners commissioned a survey on the Marsh Creek Valley and devised a plan to create a new reservoir to benefit the Uwchlan and surrounding area townships.
Between 1964-1978, the State of Pennsylvania acquired the land and relocated the residents of those remaining in Milford Mills.
Construction began in 1970, with the clearing of structures, trees and other obstacles.
By 1973, the Dam was completed, and then took another three years for the lake to fill.
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Hurricane Sandy passed through our area early last week, and since then, I have gone out several times to take advantage of the photographic challenges that such a storm presents.
The following is a triptych created out of three images from
- January 8, 2011 – Snow
- May 31, 2011 – Spring
- October 29, 2012 – Fall (pre Hurricane Sandy)
on a small little back road of Downingtown, Chester County PA.
To get the FULL image, you may need to Zoom-In, 2-times, by Double-Clicking (1000×588).
More of my Hurricane Sandy adventures can be found in my blog.
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