By John Francis
Just in case you’re wondering what’s going on out there while you’re stuck at home…
Northern Bruce Peninsula is a study in contrasts as we head into the second month of spring and the second month of lockdown.
A lot of people are staying at home, diligently practicing distancing. A noticeable number of cottagers are coming up every weekend, inviting the grandkids to come visit, all in flagrant violation of Public Health guidelines. But those are just guidelines. Apparently it is not illegal to travel back and forth from city to cottage.
Some parts of our economy are shut down — tourism first and foremost — and others are frantically busy (Public Works, for example — desperately trying to keep our roads from washing away).
Several municipal roads have been nearly washed out by storms and record high water levels. The lack of winter ice actually minimized storm damage; if a lot of ice had piled up, things could have been dramatically worse.
Pedwell Point Drive and Widgeon Cove Road both got several inches of new gravel in the week of April 24. Government Dock Road in Stokes Bay awaits repair.
The Dyers Bay Government Dock has waves washing over it every time the wind shifts to the east.
The accompanying photos were taken with water levels approximately 1.25 metres above Chart Datum, roughly the same as the records set in 1985 and 1986. But Georgian Bay and Lake Huron have been about 6 inches higher than this, twice in the last two weeks and water levels normally rise in May and June.
