Spooner Dam lost some flash boards

On Christmas Eve, we all noticed that the flow from Dead Horse was significantly higher than normal.  At the put in, it seemed as if we would be paddling a nice 1' flow.  By the time we crossed Dead Horse and went over The Flume, it felt like the level was above 1 1/2.  I've seen ice at the main dam push some water over towards Dead Horse, and assumed that was happening this time.  But, after a week of the same thing, I walked to the Spooner Dam (dam upstream from Dead Horse) and noticed that the flash boards had broken in at least three places, allow a lot of water to spill.

The bad news:  There is some debris at the base of the dam that will work its way down stream.  And it looks like at least two new trees are ready to eventually take the place of the old ones that washed away from under the bridge.  And, the painted boater gauge is not going to be reliable until the dam is fixed.

The good news:  The dam system cannot hold back as much water, so we are going to get some random low flow runs until they fix the flash boards.