My backyard overlooks the Blanche river in Gatineau. Every day I sit on my verandah and admire the beauty before me. Yesterday I noticed the weeds were more visible than usual but I just presumed the water was low.

This morning, however, I noticed the river looked odd. The river bank on the other side looked… well it was bigger than normal. I grabbed my camera and headed down to check things out. Oh my! What a surprise it was to see the bottom of the river and little to no water!!!

I tried to walk out but the clay is still very wet and kind of like quicksand where it sucks your feet in. I walked along the edge of the river and took many photos of what my brain was having a hard time accepting.

I should point out here that there is a dam on this section of the river and it controls the water levels. It’s not uncommon to see the water level drop a little. It is very uncommon to see it drop this much. I have never – in my 40 plus years living here – seen the water this low. It is so low you can see the original river bed prior to the dam being constructed.

I was saddened to see garbage on the river bed: water bottles, beer cans, tires, plastic wrap… I picked up what I could but a lot of the stuff is too far out in the thick clay.

I’m hoping this is a temporary situation (dam repairs) and the river will be back to normal soon.

(Edit: I should note here that even though the majority of the river was dry, the original river bed (prior to the dam’s installation) was still there and water was flowing the entire time.)

Here are some of the shots I took today. Enjoy!

So that’s where it went! An old golf ball.

A dry dock?

This must be the original river bed. There are three tiny rapids in this section. The sound of running water is incredibly serene.

Is this a crayfish? Didn’t realize we had them here.

I wondered where that pallet got too… clever beaver.

The beaver’s hot water tank? The things you find in the river…