Pictures of the Salem Level
After the drenching yesterday I thought I was prepared for my commute today, especially since it was only drizzling, ha drizzle come on give me a challenge. Most of the way to the train station was atypical until I was halfway down Bridge Street. I decided to forgo the park because it was a prime time for leashless dogs. As I made my way over the first hill I saw the biggest challenge I have ever faced, about 100 meters of flooded roadway. I walked closer hoping there might be some way through the deluge, but all I found was water in every direction. In the middle of the water there were several cars, some parked from the prior night and others were left in the middle of the road after an apparently unsuccessful attempt at floating it across the flood zone. I glanced over towards the train tracks on the left and they were also flooded, which eliminated one of my most viable options. I determined there were two possible ways around this, either turn around and go back up through my typical snow route or to scale the seven foot fence and go through the park. Being the adventurous type I chose the latter and began trying to find a dry way down to the fence. I back tracked a little bit and found a couple dry spots on the other side of the train tracks, however I had to skip from rail to rail just to get to the ground near the fence. Once at the bottom of the fence I pulled myself up and made it over with ease, which was a surprise given my klutzy tendencies. I quickly glanced around and fortunately the dogs were now all on the other side of the park. I figured I was in the clear, well at least I thought so until I noticed the walkway under the overpass was completely flooded and looked more like a river bed than a rail bed. As I approached the overpass I came to the realization that I once again had few options. I knew I couldn’t cross the water so I climbed up the steep hill to the top of the overpass. My new options then became clear, take the long road around and possibly miss my train or cross the four lanes of oncoming traffic and take my chances with the sea wall. Once again adventure got the best of me and I crossed the roadway. The sea wall was about five inches wide and given the windy conditions it was very difficult to balance. My first obstacle on the wall was a small tree which caused some trouble, but I quickly climbed around it. The scariest part came next, six feet below me on the left was the harbor and three feet below me to the right was a giant puddle. The wind blew, but couldn’t knock me off and before I knew it I was on dry land again with a clear path to the train station platform. It was quite an adventure to say the least I only hope the trip home will be a bit less eventful.