DAY 1: LEAVING THE MIDWEST, BONNEVILLE DAM, AND MULTNOMAH FALLS
Bright and early on Friday September 26th we met at the Water Street parking lot at 7am to leave for the MSP airport. We made it through security without too many hitches, although the airport security had Miles throw out his oatmeal. A fire at the O’Hare Airport in Chicago led to a chain reaction of delays affecting our flight time, luckily our flight only took off 30 minutes late. Most of us spent the 3 hour flight reading the last chapter of The Organic Machine for our discussion scheduled later that day. It was also Mike’s first time flying which was fun for all of us.
We landed in Portland at around 2:30pm, picked up the rental vans and went straight the the Bonneville Dam. The drive included a sneak peak of Portland, and awesome views of the Columbia River Gorge. For most of us it was our first time in Oregon and the differences between it and Wisconsin quickly became apparent. On our drive to the dam we saw steep cliffs and lush foliage everywhere.
We got to the Bonneville Dam and Ali gave her presentation on the Table Mountain Landslide and Bonneville Dam. There was a little free time before our 3:00pm tour of the Dam so most of us walked around the grounds and checked out the fish ladders that are put in place so salmon can swim upstream past the dam.
The tour began inside the museum with a 20-minute presentation on the history of the area, including the landslide and building of the dam. The landslide occurred around 1445 and engulfed an area of 5.5 square miles. Large rocks 200 feet thick and 800 feet tall created a 400 foot tall land bridge which the Native Americans referred to as the Bridge of Gods. This land dam was in place for about 2 years until water build up spilled over creating the Cascade Rapids. In the 1930s construction of Dams began with the New Deal work plan. After this short presentation, Meg Sleeper, Interpretive Ranger for the Park Service, lead us on a tour. We walked over to the hydropower facility and were able to see how it works first hand. Heading back, we stopped at the fish ladder and went inside where Meg gave us another presentation on the life cycle of salmon. The average salmon lays 5,000 eggs, and only 5 of those 5,000 survive to swim back upstream to where they hatched. When they are hatched they are called Alevin and grow up into Smolts. Smolts head down-stream tail first to get to the ocean. Not much research is known on what salmon do when they are in the ocean. What we do know is that they spend the winter in the ocean and return upstream in the summer. There are hatcheries along the Columbia river and in order to tell the hatchery salmon apart from the wild salmon, a fin on the top is cut off. This helps the fish counters at the dam tell apart the salmon very quickly. Salmon counts have been happening at the dam since its creation. This past July the count peaked at 67,000 fish in one day. After this presentation, we packed up the vans and headed over to the Bonneville Hatchery where we took a self guided tour of the facilities. We saw many large sturgeon and some of the pools for the fish they breed.
After leaving the dam we backtracked to the Vista House, an overlook of the Columbia River Gorge. After reading The Organic Machine and stopping at the Bonneville Dam this overlook was a great place for us to soak in everything we had learned about this dynamic river. Next stop was the Multnomah Falls where we went on a short hike to a bridge crossing down stream of the falls.
Hungry and tired after a whirlwind of a day, we headed to our final destination for the day— Hood River. After learning about salmon, we had a craving for a salmon dinner which made our decision to eat at Solstice Wood Fire Cafe pretty easy. Some people ordered salmon, while others ordered wood fire pizza or burgers. We arrived at the hotel located on the beautiful banks of the Columbia River at 10:30pm. After such a busy day of traveling, it was decided our discussion on The Organic Machine would have to be put off until the next day.
Bright and early on Friday September 26th we met at the Water Street parking lot at 7am to leave for the MSP airport. We made it through security without too many hitches, although the airport security had Miles throw out his oatmeal. A fire at the O’Hare Airport in Chicago led to a chain reaction of delays affecting our flight time, luckily our flight only took off 30 minutes late. Most of us spent the 3 hour flight reading the last chapter of The Organic Machine for our discussion scheduled later that day. It was also Mike’s first time flying which was fun for all of us.
We landed in Portland at around 2:30pm, picked up the rental vans and went straight the the Bonneville Dam. The drive included a sneak peak of Portland, and awesome views of the Columbia River Gorge. For most of us it was our first time in Oregon and the differences between it and Wisconsin quickly became apparent. On our drive to the dam we saw steep cliffs and lush foliage everywhere.
We got to the Bonneville Dam and Ali gave her presentation on the Table Mountain Landslide and Bonneville Dam. There was a little free time before our 3:00pm tour of the Dam so most of us walked around the grounds and checked out the fish ladders that are put in place so salmon can swim upstream past the dam.
The tour began inside the museum with a 20-minute presentation on the history of the area, including the landslide and building of the dam. The landslide occurred around 1445 and engulfed an area of 5.5 square miles. Large rocks 200 feet thick and 800 feet tall created a 400 foot tall land bridge which the Native Americans referred to as the Bridge of Gods. This land dam was in place for about 2 years until water build up spilled over creating the Cascade Rapids. In the 1930s construction of Dams began with the New Deal work plan. After this short presentation, Meg Sleeper, Interpretive Ranger for the Park Service, lead us on a tour. We walked over to the hydropower facility and were able to see how it works first hand. Heading back, we stopped at the fish ladder and went inside where Meg gave us another presentation on the life cycle of salmon. The average salmon lays 5,000 eggs, and only 5 of those 5,000 survive to swim back upstream to where they hatched. When they are hatched they are called Alevin and grow up into Smolts. Smolts head down-stream tail first to get to the ocean. Not much research is known on what salmon do when they are in the ocean. What we do know is that they spend the winter in the ocean and return upstream in the summer. There are hatcheries along the Columbia river and in order to tell the hatchery salmon apart from the wild salmon, a fin on the top is cut off. This helps the fish counters at the dam tell apart the salmon very quickly. Salmon counts have been happening at the dam since its creation. This past July the count peaked at 67,000 fish in one day. After this presentation, we packed up the vans and headed over to the Bonneville Hatchery where we took a self guided tour of the facilities. We saw many large sturgeon and some of the pools for the fish they breed.
After leaving the dam we backtracked to the Vista House, an overlook of the Columbia River Gorge. After reading The Organic Machine and stopping at the Bonneville Dam this overlook was a great place for us to soak in everything we had learned about this dynamic river. Next stop was the Multnomah Falls where we went on a short hike to a bridge crossing down stream of the falls.
Hungry and tired after a whirlwind of a day, we headed to our final destination for the day— Hood River. After learning about salmon, we had a craving for a salmon dinner which made our decision to eat at Solstice Wood Fire Cafe pretty easy. Some people ordered salmon, while others ordered wood fire pizza or burgers. We arrived at the hotel located on the beautiful banks of the Columbia River at 10:30pm. After such a busy day of traveling, it was decided our discussion on The Organic Machine would have to be put off until the next day.