I was planning on refilling my bottles at 7-Minute Spring, so parked across the street from Manitou Springs Memorial Park.

I had seen lots of heavy equipment working at that park when I headed off to my meeting, and wondered what they were doing.

While I filled my bottles, I watched the equipment, which made me very curious about what they were doing and what condition the park was actually in. So I hiked over there to check it out.

The piles of branches and debris were huge.

And the park was really dry and had deep ruts in areas that there should not have been vehicles.

Ss it was still sunny and warm, I decided to walk around the park and check out the creek to see how much debris was there.

Fountain Creek had a whole different look to it. Curves and different shore line.

The pair of mating ducks I had often seen here were enjoying a ride on the current. They stopped for a moment to inspect a branch that resembled a very skinny duck. Since it wasn’t another duck, they continued on and floated out of my view.

The creek was really much more shallow than I remembered it. So much gravel had raised the creek bed much higher than it had been for all the years in my memory. This makes it easier for it to flood in the future.

I walked over to the other stone bridge and saw how badly Manitou Springs City Hall had been undermined by the flood waters.

For many months any events scheduled in the large hall at the back of City Hall had to be relocated. But with the scaffolding and the work done to support it, events can once again take place there. Still, there is much work to be done to make it totally safe and prepared to handle another flood, if one should happen in the near future.

I saw that the FEMA meeting was breaking up and thought about trying to catch the people I was to have met with at The Fields Park, but decided against that. They were all still talking and looking at the Emergency Signal or into the creek.

So I headed back to the car and home.