Wednesday, June 5, 2019

Visiting Raccoon In Wichita River Flooded Lucy Park

This morning I thought it to be a good idea to take a walk in Lucy Park on my way to my final destination by Sheppard Air Force Base.

I thought I had read that the recently flooded Lucy Park was back open, but when I arrived at the main entry I found the gate closed, blocking access, with water across the road a short distance away, but not nearly as much water as the previous flooded visit to Lucy Park.

A local television crew was working on a news segment at the closed entry. I did not stop to give an interview, but continued on to another access point to Lucy Park, that being the way in by the Duck Pond.

From the Duck Pond the road was dry all the way to my regular parking location by the Lucy Park log cabin and pool.


As you can see others also made their way past the flooded zone to Lucy Park locations, like the public pool.

I forgot to mention that flooded photo at the top. This was a short distance from the pool, near the suspension bridge which crosses the Wichita River. As I stood there looking at the flood, suddenly a critter came into view.

A raccoon.

The raccoon was swimming from the fallen tree towards the river. When the raccoon reached the tree you see sticking out of the water it disappeared.

This was my first raccoon encounter this century. The last time I had a raccoon encounter was in Yosemite, at Curry Village, on the night the Cheers TV show finale aired. I don't remember what year that was. 1992 or 1993 seems about right.

The next photo shows more of the entire raccoon scene. The aforementioned fallen tree is on the left, The flooded suspension bridge entry is in the middle.


Continuing on the Circle Trail to the west side of Lucy Park I walked until the trail went under water.


The above scene looks peaceful.

Green, wet and peaceful.

I do not remember the foliage at Lucy Park looking so lushly jungle-like on any previous visit. This must be due to all the vegetation being well hydrated by the copious amounts of rain.

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