Freedom — August 7, 2009 — Last week was almost rain free until Friday when we had an all-day rain. Not good for everyone who was preparing for the Freedom OHW parade on Saturday. Saturday turned out dry and warm so we had a great parade followed by Family Fun events at the Ball Field.

At 6 p.m. last Friday, during the rain, the remaining stop logs were removed from the north side dam and water flow jumped from 1,400 to 1,800 cfs. The lake level did not start to go up until Saturday and did reach a foot over summer level. Level is now on the way down.

As for those on the downstream side of the dam, you are now experiencing full flow volume that only gets larger when lake level is at a higher flood level.

This week has been mostly dry, with the water level at plan on the big lake and Broad Bay as of last night. A phased closing of the north side flood gates in the last few days resulted in a soft landing at the plan level. If the rain predicted for Sunday is light, some of the stop logs on the north side will be put in place next week.

Water temperature was down to 75 yesterday morning, but up to 79 at 8 p.m. last night.

As for the OHW kayak regatta on Wednesday, we had 19 participants. They went all the way from Broad Bay to north of the Danforths, past the beaver dam. Our friend from the condos on Berry Bay pedaled his twin pontoon kayak all the way to and from the south side of the beaver dam.

Light rain held off until late afternoon (we always have rain on Kayak Day).