Schodack Island State Park: Before Hurricane Irene

Hurricane Irene has left its damage throughout the Capital Region in Upstate New York. This morning the school closing list is very, very sad.  Many of the schools listed are closed through September because they are destroyed by Irene.  People have lost their homes, there businesses and sadly a number their lives. One of the news casters this morning said people are walking around dazed trying to clean up what is left of the damage from Irene.

Schodack Island State Park suffered damage from Irene as well. The boat launch deck is gone, the trails were overloaded with flooding and debris, but the staff and volunteers jumped into action and cleared the trails for walking and hiking. Most of them are open now.  Only the land side of the boat launch can be used at this time.

A barge such as the one in the photo above broke loose on the Mohawk and almost hit the major Northway Twin Bridges, that is a main thoroughfare for commuters.  It was stopped before it hit the bridges.

Before I got ill this past winter Bill and I walked here several times a week, and we often sat along the Hudson enjoying the breeze and watching both birds, boats and barges.  Fishermen, ducks, geese, egrets, eagles.  We took the photos above on one of those walks last year. This is a remarkable place. And thanks to the remarkable staff and volunteers it is open again. 

With all the rain this month, week, and currently a major downpour, I was thinking of the line from The Rime of Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.  "Water water everywhere!"  But then as I looked for the quote, I was pulled into the very long poem and read it through.  The following lines struck me as more important than the above often quoted line:

"'He prayeth well, who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.

He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.'

The Mariner, whose eye is bright,
Whose beard with age is hoar,
Is gone; and now the Wedding-Guest
Turned from the bridegroom's door.

He went like one that hath been stunned,
And is of sense forlorn:
A sadder and a wiser man
He rose the morrow morn."