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Pics for the day
Spent the day touring around Portland with a friend. We'd lost touch for a couple of years, but a serious knee injury had left her with time and motivation to look up an old friend or two. We'd gotten reacquainted just in time for me to plan a detour out so we could get together in person. It was a little funny getting used to touring around with her. I'm used to being the slow one, fragile one, but she'd only recently graduated to being able to walk on crutches. Every time we stopped (and I'm sorry to say it slipped my mind at least once), I had to get my cane out, hobble around the back of the car, get her crutches out, and come to help her. We were "gimp and gimpier."
She guided me along the highway down the Columbia River gorge, which was just beautiful. We stopped at Multonomah Falls, which was awe-inspiringly beautiful. There was a sign at the bottom of the falls warning visitors to beware of a beaver which had been sighted in the area and might maybe possibly be rabid. I took a picture. It's not often you see a "beware of beaver" sign.
From there, we drove over the Bridge of the Gods (I managed not to call the tolltaker "Heimdall." Barely.) to the Washington side, and from there to the Bonneville Dam. The dam was put in by the Army Corps of Engineers, and it was pretty cool. They had a whole museum set up with the history of the dam, its impact on the coastline (they had to move a whole town several miles downriver, since building the dam flooded the original settlement), the impact of western overfishing on the native tribes, and all sorts of stuff. There's even a view into the fish ladder. I took a video of that (included in the day's pictures). The fish were swimming at a good clip, but the current of the river was so strong that they weren't getting anywhere. It was like an aquatic treadmill. Or, more aptly, as my friend put it, like one of those "endless" wave pools.
At the beginning of the fish ladder, the passageway was deliberately narrowed so that they could make an official count of the fish that swam through, keeping a track of the different species, when they came through, etc.
There was also a sign pointing out a lighted passageway through the dam. A narrow channel of water that went as far as the eye could see, with regularly spaced electric lights above it. Seems that the fish won't swim through in the darkness. That was pretty interesting to learn, I thought, and to see the lengths they went to in order to accommodate the fish. With the fish ladder, the lighted tunnel, and other measures, something like 98% of fish survive passage through the dam (which, BTW, only blocks about 1/3 of the river). Including the minority that end up going through the turbines. Very impressive.
Oh... should mention the dam's elevator, also designed by the Army Corps of Engineers. There are three floors in the visitor's center. The middle one is where you come in, and has a small display area with some exhibits. The upper one connects to a pedestrian bridge that takes you to the dam itself, where you can see the turbines and part of the museum. The lower one takes you one floor down, where you can walk outside to visit the fish ladder and the area of the museum dedicated to the native tribes of the area. The buttons on the elevator are not labeled 1, 2, and 3. They are not labeled "Ground," "Lower Level," and "Bridge." They are not labeled with anything you're likely to expect. Instead, they are labeled 75, 90, and 115. Because they decided to label them by the number of feet above sea level.
Spent the day touring around Portland with a friend. We'd lost touch for a couple of years, but a serious knee injury had left her with time and motivation to look up an old friend or two. We'd gotten reacquainted just in time for me to plan a detour out so we could get together in person. It was a little funny getting used to touring around with her. I'm used to being the slow one, fragile one, but she'd only recently graduated to being able to walk on crutches. Every time we stopped (and I'm sorry to say it slipped my mind at least once), I had to get my cane out, hobble around the back of the car, get her crutches out, and come to help her. We were "gimp and gimpier."
She guided me along the highway down the Columbia River gorge, which was just beautiful. We stopped at Multonomah Falls, which was awe-inspiringly beautiful. There was a sign at the bottom of the falls warning visitors to beware of a beaver which had been sighted in the area and might maybe possibly be rabid. I took a picture. It's not often you see a "beware of beaver" sign.
From there, we drove over the Bridge of the Gods (I managed not to call the tolltaker "Heimdall." Barely.) to the Washington side, and from there to the Bonneville Dam. The dam was put in by the Army Corps of Engineers, and it was pretty cool. They had a whole museum set up with the history of the dam, its impact on the coastline (they had to move a whole town several miles downriver, since building the dam flooded the original settlement), the impact of western overfishing on the native tribes, and all sorts of stuff. There's even a view into the fish ladder. I took a video of that (included in the day's pictures). The fish were swimming at a good clip, but the current of the river was so strong that they weren't getting anywhere. It was like an aquatic treadmill. Or, more aptly, as my friend put it, like one of those "endless" wave pools.
At the beginning of the fish ladder, the passageway was deliberately narrowed so that they could make an official count of the fish that swam through, keeping a track of the different species, when they came through, etc.
There was also a sign pointing out a lighted passageway through the dam. A narrow channel of water that went as far as the eye could see, with regularly spaced electric lights above it. Seems that the fish won't swim through in the darkness. That was pretty interesting to learn, I thought, and to see the lengths they went to in order to accommodate the fish. With the fish ladder, the lighted tunnel, and other measures, something like 98% of fish survive passage through the dam (which, BTW, only blocks about 1/3 of the river). Including the minority that end up going through the turbines. Very impressive.
Oh... should mention the dam's elevator, also designed by the Army Corps of Engineers. There are three floors in the visitor's center. The middle one is where you come in, and has a small display area with some exhibits. The upper one connects to a pedestrian bridge that takes you to the dam itself, where you can see the turbines and part of the museum. The lower one takes you one floor down, where you can walk outside to visit the fish ladder and the area of the museum dedicated to the native tribes of the area. The buttons on the elevator are not labeled 1, 2, and 3. They are not labeled "Ground," "Lower Level," and "Bridge." They are not labeled with anything you're likely to expect. Instead, they are labeled 75, 90, and 115. Because they decided to label them by the number of feet above sea level.
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