River Cruise Day 6: Stevenson, OR

 Today, we toured the Bonneville Dam.  On our way to the dam, our local guide shared a wonderful story as we drove past the entrance to The Bridge of the Gods. The scientific facts are that the retreating ice age glaciers left a land bridge over this narrow section of the Columbia which in pre-historic times collapsed, forming rapids. The Native American version is the King of the Gods was angry with his two adult sons fighting over who was going to succeed him, so he shot an arrow to the north and told one son to go rule that side of the river. The second arrow flew and the other son was told to rule there. For a while, life was wonderful, THEN both sons fell in love with the same woman and their sibling antagonism became rampant. The King had had it. He turned one son into Mt. Hood and the other son into Mt. Adam and smashed the land bridge. Mora;: Do not tick off your Dad.

The up-river side of Bonneville Dam as we approached the site entrance.  (Excuse the window reflection, the bus driver wouldn't stop to let me peek out the door. Sigh.)  This dam allows limited fishing from the shore line but not from powered river craft.  The only exception is made for the Native American tribes indigenous to the area as they have right to fish the Columbia with no limits as a result of a treaty made in the 1800's when the US government wanted some of their land.

 

At the actual dam, we saw the 8 generators, five had their lightbulbs lit indicating they were on-line.  Turbine tidbit: Bonneville uses a Kaplan adjustable Turbine that looks like a vertical propeller with adjustable pitch blades instead of a paddlewheel. 

Then we toured the series of open flues built into the dam as a “fish passage” in lieu of a fish ladder for the upstream spawning-ground-bound river denizens.  Truthfully, we didn’t tour the flues, we walked along top of them trying to see the fish through the dark water. 

Through the viewing windows we saw Shad (an invasive species that is causing serious problems for the native fish), Lamprey eels, Steelhead, Coho, and Chinook. Bonneville has both a human counting fish and a computer counting fish: the human counts types of fish as the computer tallies numbers. Just look at the 2021 totals for this one dam.

Personal comment: it is extremely difficult to get a really good picture of rapidly moving fish when you're viewing them through several inches of semi-reflective glass. 

As we left the dam site, someone on the bus asked the series of water plumes coming off what looked like a pipeline. Turns out, the plumes are water jetted out over the river to keep the fish-hungry birds away from the fish, especially during spawning season, as they are exhausted after exiting the fish ladder flues of the dam.  How cool! 

On the way back to the ship, Barbara and I "hopped off" the bus to walk around this scenic little town, shopped a bit for sundries and headed back to the dock.

 

On the way I spotted this huge shrub and tall slender cactus (I think?) No idea what they are. Anyone recognize either of them?

Back aboard, we grabbed drinks from the bar and went up to the River Grille patio deck to relax after our “strenuous” (not!) day. I selfied me and the paddlewheel while Barbara was entranced by the sunset over the Gorge.

In our cabin, after getting ready for dinner, we sat on our deck watching the windsurfers and sailboats enjoying the wind hurtling through this narrowest part of the Columbia Gorge. 

Then we heard a noise, looked over our railing and spied Paul, our ship's Watchman starting to climb the rope ladder to the lowest deck while Oppo one of the engineers held the lifeboat steady to the hull.  As we turned to leave, a local day ferry hove into view.   Lots to see on the river.

We are really chilling out,  relaxing on this trip. The slowness of our steaming makes the land just drift by and neither of us worry about time or responsibilities for hours. 

This is much more restful than an ocean cruise. Neither of us remembers a time when we savored a cocktail before dinner every night in no big rush to eat.