Twin Falls Power Plant Tour

17 January 2015

Jeff Speer had offered a tour of the South Fork of the Snoqualmie power plant that he manages. Sunday was a perfect day - rainy and windy - and a dozen folks turned out for a pre-tour breakfast at the North Bend Bar and Grill. Ernie was there along with Chris and Patricia, and C.J.B, also Frank with his wife and two young daughters (plus Jeff and two other folks I didn't know). We caravanned to Exit 38 and turned left under I-90. It was a little over a mile to the dam and powerhouse tunnel entrance through a locked fence and gate.

The dam was fully raised since the water flow was low after the recent high water. [When the water level rises, the dam is tilted outward (lowered) using hydraulic power (with cooking oil as the hydraulic fluid).]

 Next we gathered at the tunnel entrance while Jeff raised the gate.

He explained that it was a half-mile hike down a 18:1 slope on a rough road with some running water. No one backed out even with the daunting prospect of the return climb. The roof and sides of the tunnel had been sprayed with "shock-crete" to keep rockfall to a minimum but that didn't do much to keep the water out. There were lots of drips and many starter-stalactites forming "soda straws". About halfway down we stopped for a minute to shut off all lights and experience the effect of full dark (the tunnel made at least two ninety-degree turns). As we approached the bottom we could see the lights from the powerhouse which is about 400 feet below the surface of the water behind the dam. 

Turbine

Only one of the two 13.5 megawatt turbines was running so it was not as noisy as it might have been. We could see that the valve for the intake on one turbine was closed (gravity close, hydraulic open). The intake pipe entered the turbine from below and exited into a larger outflow above the horizontal axle, then the water continued down the tailrace to surface in the river below Twin Falls in the State Park. The generator was spun directly by the turbine axle - no gears. The power house was well-lighted and much drier than the tunnel, warmer too, probably due to the huge spinning chunks of steel. After looking at all the tools (including LARGE wrenches) and bins of fasteners and checking out the powerhouse office, we headed back up. It was a grind for C.J. and me with everyone passing us and waiting for us at the top. It was still drizzling as we broke up and headed back to our cars and the freeway. C.J. invited as many of our paragliding friends as would fit in our living room over for hot spiced cider and cookies. When we realized how late it was (around 1400) we also put out crackers, cheese and chips and hummus. We all had a visit and caught up on C.J.B.'s time in Mexico and other stuff.

Bike and Fly - Chelan

20-21 September 2014

The bike and fly is traditionally run by the hang gliding USHPA chapter, Cloudbase Country Club. This year Lori Lawson, who has unselfishly done all the organizing for the past many years, could not be there so her husband, Tom Johns, stepped up to the plate and kept it in the family.

C.J. and I were stretched a bit thin with a busy week preceding the fly-in. On Wednesday night we attended the preview night for "In the Heights" at the Issaquah Village theater. The next day Ginny arrived to visit Uncle Harry at his assisted living home down in Puyallup. [And, looking further ahead, we booked our flights and rental car for our trip to New Zealand in February through Cheapoair.] Friday we joined Ginny for a visit to Uncle Harry, then she treated us to dinner at the North Bend Bar and Grill. The weather on Friday had not looked promising for flying at Chelan Butte.

20 Sep, Sat - We waved goodbye to Ginny around 0900 just before we pulled the Aliner out of the driveway. We were surprised to arrive at Beebe Bridge Campground and find a "Camp Area Full" sign at noon. Fortunately there were still three sites that must have just opened up and we settled into site a big enough that Chris and Patricia would have room to pitch a tent if they joined us. Over at the Chelan Falls soccer field park/LZ we signed up and then drove to the top with Derek,  his friend TJ, and Susan Brockway. Conditions were light but the best bet seemed to be Morningside on the ridge below the towers. C.J. flew in the light conditions while I drove down. We hung out in the LZ. Later Susan invited us to pool our food with theirs and eat at her house just S of Orondo. Great meal, even though it was a potluck. We didn't get back before 2200. Chris and Patricia showed up later  - they had been having a good flying day at Saddle and had eaten in E-burg with Meredyth.

21 Sep, Sun - We had Overnight Oatmeal with Chris and Patricia at the camp picnic table before going over to the LZ. We drove up with C and P and Steve Thibault. Conditions were light again but it was coming up Ants and I launched and searched for lift out to 3-Tree Point and on down to the soccer field. Only a few folks found any soarable air. Patricia, whose turn it was to watch the dog, drove our car down. We left in mid-afternoon and stopped for gas in Cle Elum where the price for some reason was $3.299 cash, a few cents more expensive at Safeway where we filled up.

Gas Explosion in North Bend

25 April 2014

The (former) Pizza Place, center, Last Cuts East barber shop, left, and the remains of a small strip mall

C.J. and I were awakened at about 0330 by an enormous blast that shook the whole house. C.J. was thinking "explosion" while I was stuck on "earthquake". A quick walk through the house showed a few teddy bears dislodged from the west-facing window sill and a framed needlepoint fallen off the wall. I was looking toward Mt. Si and trying to see if there had been a landslide. After determining that a tree had not fallen on the house we went back to bed to the accompaniment of distant sirens and, C.J. said, helicopters.

In the morning C.J. found out from our neighbor that what we had heard and felt had been the result of an explosion in the old Pizza Place which had been closed for a few years and was being renovated. It is about  third of a mile from our house. Midmorning we walked over there to see what the area looked like. Almost the whole QFC parking lot was cordoned off with "police line" tape and covered with chunks of insulation and building parts. The main street, North Bend Way, was closed just east of the post office all the way to the new roundabout to provide access for the fire and rescue trucks. [Only two people had injuries as a result of the flying debris, a remarkably minor number of victims for such a huge explosion.] The Pizza Place was totally gone with no sign of fire, but the barber shop, once, long ago, a Triple XXX Root Beer Drive-in, was burned rather than blown up. Part of the strip mall was still standing but leaning away from the obvious blast center. On the opposite side of North Bend Way (south) the apartment buildings showed broken sliding glass doors and the plywood siding blown out in places. We didn't walk down as far as the Red Oak nursing home (where the two injuries occurred) or to Les Schwab tires but later saw photos of the destruction of the big overhead doors at Les Schwab. Around 1500 I returned while on an errand to the post office and also looked at the apartment building where Dan Heath used to live. Almost all of the garage doors facing the blast were taped with red X's or had been replaced by sheets of particle board. Tracked construction machinery was just beginning to dig through the rubble, and the QFC parking lot was open again as a street sweeper cleaned it up.

Same area from a different angle

Closer view of the barber shop

First flights in the NW since October

9 April, Wed - After missing a few days that looked really good for flying, we went to Tiger and caught the 1230 shuttle. Conditions were remarkably good although somewhat turbulent. I had to scratch for a bit until I found a good climb over near the Yaher Wall. That gave me enough height to squeak over to the North Ridge. After searching back and forth for a while, the clouds started working and I was able to cross to the Sammamish Plateau. I rounded the hospital and headed SW over Issaquah and back to the LZ via Squak. Meanwhile, C.J. had reached the ceiling at 5000 ft and considered flying home. But no one else seemed to be going that way so she also returned to the Tiger LZ. Both of us encountered strong sink on our approaches and had to cut our downwind legs short. As we were packing up imagine our surprise to run into Laddie Shaw from Anchorage who was just passing through after picking up a Craigslist RV in Minnesota. We also had a chance to catch up with Mike Schildt who was just heading up the trail for a hike and fly.

11 April, Fri - Laddie and Linda came over for dinner. They leave on the 15th for the Alaska Highway.  and home.

12 April, Sat - Since the weather on Sunday was not looking too good for Dog Mountain,  we just went down for the day. We left around 0900 and stopped at Aaron's to pick up C.J.'s glider so we didn't get there until almost noon. Winds were north and people were deciding to land in the gravel west of the usual grassy LZ which let them avoid some of the rotor. We threw on with Chris and Christine Culler along with Xan and Eric Troili. Conditions on top looked too strong for me and there was some crossing from the east on the north launch. C.J. set up and I hung out until several hangs launched including Chuck Williams who hadn't flown since his serious illness. The next pilot didn't spend any time balancing his wing on his shoulders and launched with his nose high. The glider weathervaned into the east cross and swung right around into the trees to the right of launch. Fortunately the glider stayed in the trees with one wing in a fir and the nose in an alder. Scott climbed up the fir and Stas went up the fir to the left of the alder, both carrying whatever they could cobble together for rope - mostly tiedowns and towstraps. Larry Jorgensen climbed up the fir above Scott. Stas was able to get a line to the pilot and secure the glider from slipping out of the trees and plunging down the very steep north face of the mountain. At about this time I saw that more rope would be needed and drove Chris's truck down to get my climbing rope and 'biners. When I got back up to launch with Tim and Kenny, Larry had gotten a line to the pilot from his tree and they were starting to lower the pilot who had to cut his hang strap to get free of the glider. Stas did not have enough line and my 11.5 mm perlon was useful to lower the uninjured pilot all the way to the ground. The next job was to recover the glider which had at least one broken leading edge. After a couple of tries, we decided that the alder would have to be cut. I put my Sven saw together and we took turns sawing until the 9-in diameter tree was cut through and the glider fell to the slope where it could be taken apart and carried up to the road near the outhouse. By then several hours had passed and the predicted increase in wind velocity had arrived and the direction was still cross. Conditions were marginal for launching but good for soaring as Larry and Lenny proved as they flew to the airport at Packwood. C.J. decided to break her glider down and we drove back to the LZ with Christina who left her glider to be flown by Aaron (who had arrived after all the excitement).  We were too late to get gas at Covington Costco - the warehouse closed at 1830 on Saturdays. We were home around 2000.

13 April, Sun - The wind predictions for Saddle looked good. C.J. sent a post to the CBCC and NWPC email lists that we were going and then we got out by 0900. We had to buy enough gas to get to Ellensburg at the 76 station in North Bend. Along the way we heard from Preacher who was going to Kiona, Mer who was almost to Saddle, and Beth and Ernie who were undecided. C.J. got text messages from B&E and Mer that she was down east of the LZ so we went to pick her up even though Joe Stermitz's wife was driving down to get him after he took off. We all met at the LZ and went up in two cars leaving ours with C.J.'s Falcon in the parking lot. Pilots from the Rainier Paragliding Club were soaring above launch, some pretty high and quite a ways out in front. Randy Sprague was on launch and Steve Messman landed on top to be sure that their vehicle got back to the LZ. I launched and didn't find anything right away but as I flew to the east, I ran into punchy thermals and climbed enough to keep going. Eventually I passed the M/W and reached the lone cabin. I wasn't enjoying the texture of the air -perhaps I was too close to the terrain - and turned back to the west. I noticed Ernie sinking out and C.J. low and heading for the LZ so I squeaked in for a nice toplanding just before Beth launched and went to the LZ. I packed up and drove Ernie's Suburban down. I met Ernie at the LZ just as he was leaving in Meredyth's Toyota, Hank the Tank, to chase her up the river to Vantage. Beth then followed in their car. Meanwhile, C.J. had reached 5200 ft after finding a thermal near the LZ and headed east above the Crab Creek Road. The east wind was pretty strong so her forward speed was in the single digits. C.J. returned and, to avoid the many dust devils in the LZ, she landed in a sandy patch a short walk away. It was still early but we did not feel like flying again (and everyone else had left) so we consulted the Desert Hikes guidebook and decided to go to the Priest Lake Wildlife Area just west of Mattawa. We found it okay but the sloughs were swollen possibly as a result of the unusual runoff from the cracked Wanapum Dam. We should have been able to hike from the parking lot across the dry sloughs to some higher ground along the Colombia but we had to settle for walking on the east side of the sloughs. We got in a couple of hours of exercise then headed home. The view of the much-lowered pool above the Wanapum dam was impressive with large flat sandbars stretching out from the usual high, basalt-cliff river banks. We didn't run into much traffic and the DOT had opened up a second lane for westbound traffic through the construction area along Lake Keechelus. We were home around 2000.

15 Apr, Tue- We went to the NWPC monthly meeting which we've been missing because Tuesday nights are when the KT Squares workshop usually is. We got to Pogacha's early so we could have dinner with Matty and Heather and get his take on what we should do in New Zealand. He agreed with our choice of February but he thought that we should spend only one week on the North Island and three on the South where he grew up (Nelson). He pointed out that the atmosphere is pretty stinky around Rotorua where our North Island WorldMark resort is located. Apparently, Wanaka (WAN ah kah) is a good location for flying and other things - that's where the other WM resort is.. Later, the meeting topic was "cross country" and Brian Franklin gave a very good introduction for pilots new to XC from Tiger. Dave Milroy gave a presentation for more advanced pilots. There was also a slideshow/video about the Oceanside Fly-in by Derek and on Matty Senior's tour operation in Thailand by Shannon and Matt.

New Flooring for the Kitchen, etc.

5-24 September, 2012

The vinyl flooring in our kitchen was replaced when we had the house remodeled in 1985. It's old enough now that when either of us drops something (especially a knife!) a piece chips off. A month or three ago we bought a bunch of laminate flooring when it went on sale at Costco. It took the purchase and imminent delivery of a new refrigerator to provide the impetus to begin the reflooring project.

Flange at the base of the brass pole

5 Sep, Wed - I ran into Issaquah to buy a transition kit at Home Depot. Even though they didn't have the right pattern, I bought one anyway just to see how it worked. I spent the rest of the day building a box to enclose the flange at the base of the brass pole that supports one of the ceiling beams. Meanwhile, I had moved the old fridge into the living room using a hand truck and some plywood sheets, moved everything out of the pantry to the front room, and took the counter and the sliding table out of the kitchen. I also removed all the baseboard/quarter-round trim and cut the bottom half-inch off the door trim.

6 Sep, Thu - After carefully cleaning the old floor, I started laying the new laminate planks in front of the cabinets. I had to make a block to tap the pieces together since the kit I ordered online did not have one. The process went reasonably quickly until I began running into places where the planks needed to be cut to fit. The Shopsmith table saw was a big help and having moved it into the garage I had more room to work.

7 Sep, Fri - The range had to be disconnected and moved into the living room, but making the cutout to fit around the gas pipe and electric box was not as difficult as expected. By the end of the day I had completed the laying of the laminate from wall to wall and around the fireplace hearth. Next would be filling the gaps around the periphery with caulk. But first we had a weekend ahead of us at the Baldy Butte Fly-in. Oh, and the new refrigerator was delivered around 2 p.m. and that took some time since the 29-in. wide fridge would not go through our 30-in. doorway even with the door taken off the hinges. So it had to come in the front door then get past the cabinets and the stove (good thing I hadn't fixed it in place yet). All the time the two delivery guys were moving the refrigerator around the kitchen floor I was waiting for a scratch or crack or something but the laminate held up just fine.

8 Sep, Sat - We did not take our trailer to Baldy since the camping was in a new place at the north end of the field this year. We were there early enough to wander around and talk to people; conditions did not look so good that we felt we had to rush to the top. When Chris and Patricia arrived, we threw in with them and went to the top. Very few people soared and only Pam Nichols went XC as far as The Bowl. I never got my wing out of the car and C.J. never took hers out of the pack. We drove back down with Patricia. The potluck dinner was good and the campfire was comfortable but as things wound down we decided to head home since the next day was looking like rain. Peter and Naomi invited us to spend the night with them and that worked out well. During the evening there was a lot of lightning and we were not surprised the next day to see smoke rising from several fires [which later became the large Table Mountain Complex fire].

9 Sep, Sun - After an omelet made with fresh eggs from Peter and Naomi's "lap chickens", I picked a nearby hike from the guidebook Desert Hikes. Westberg Memorial on Manastash Ridge was only a couple of miles and a couple of thousand feet up but it gave a great view over the Kittitas Valley. Besides the memorial to wrestling coach Westberg there were several other memorials. C.J. and I took a different trail down which had actual switchbacks. We were surprised that Peter and Naomi weren't back at the cars since they were moving much faster down than we were. Apparently they took the old trail down and waited for us until they figured out that we weren't coming down that trail. Finally together back at the trailhead, we took our leave and returned home over Snoqualmie Pass.


10 Sep, Mon - I started caulking around the floor.

11 Sep, Tues - Caulking turned out to be a bigger job than I expected and I went back to Ace Hardware for another three tubes of clear siliconized acrylic caulk. I knocked off early enough so we could go to the first KT Squares plus-dance of the season.

12 Sep, Wed - C.J. and I took the day off to go to the Pacific Science Center for the King Tut exhibit. We also took in an IMAX movie, "Mysteries of Egypt", which was pretty good introduction to ancient Egypt. We had Greek food for lunch at Athena at the base of Queen Anne hill. We returned home in time to rest and prepare dinner before going to the opening night of the Village Theater's production of "Big River", a musical version of Huckleberry Finn.

13 Sep, Thu - C.J. painted the toekick under the cabinets. I started reinstalling the extra countertop and slide-out table after cutting off the thickness of the flooring from the legs of each. I put some of the baseboard/quarter-round back in place. The stove was finally fixed in place and the trim replaced around the rear of it.

14 Sep, Fri - I made a couple of new baseboard pieces to fit the corner north of the refrigerator, stained and varathaned. The transition pieces had arrived from the laminate supplier so I put in a threshold between the kitchen and living room. It really made the installation look much more finished.

15 Sep, Sat - Eric Thorstensen's Benefit Fly-in at Dog

 16 Sep, Sun - Camp at White River CG near Sunrise, Mt. Rainier NP. Hike to a bit beyond Glacier Basin Camp along the White river, about 3.5 mi one-way.

Looking up Emmons Glacier toward Little Tahoma; smoky sky from the fires in E. WA

17 Sep, Mon - We got back from Dog and Mt Rainier early enough that I could refasten the quarter-round in the pantry and in front of the cabinets using the air compressor and brad nailer. I moved all the cabinets and the bookcase back into the pantry and began measuring and cutting quarter-round for the places where there had been no trim before (behind the stove, around the hearth).

Wooden box covering flange at the base of the pole

18 Sep, Tue - Slower pace today as quarter round needs to be stained and varathaned after being cut to size. I did put some moulding around the "brass pole box". It was cut from pieces left over from the transition kit and held in place with Liquid Nails.

19 Sep, Wed - Most of the day was taken up with a dental exam followed by lunch at Costco,  swapping a new but non-operating drill press for a new one at Harbor Freight, and returning some transition floor trim at Home Depot. Later I cut some finicky pieces of quarter-round for short runs.

20 Sep, Thu - C.J. and I drove in to Issaquah to pick up some stuff at Costco and Freddies. I replaced my black ink cartridge and C.J. convinced REI that her 3-yr-old boots were wearing out too fast. REI continues to honor their money-back guarantee and let C.J. pick out a new pair of boots. Back at home I tackled the bathroom threshold by cutting down the door by 1/4 of an inch (in two tries) and installed the transition kit for another really nice-looking doorway. I have one more doorway to do and then some more tiny pieces of quarter-round to fit around door trim. Getting close!

Threshold to front room - after

Threshold to front room - before

 21 Sep, Fri - Today I'm declaring the floor officially finished.Nothing is ever really "done" but I got the last big gap filled in, the threshold to the front room. Later I brought the varnished quarter-round in and used finishing nails to attach it to the "brick" hearth. [The hearth is really a layer of 1/2-inch brick and "mortar" over a 2x4 frame.] I was going to glue (Liquid Nails) the quarter-round to the brick, but the imitation mortar did not crack when I drilled a test hole through it so nailing was a better alternative.

Gap around hearth

Trim applied to hearth

22 Sep, Sat - There are still a few really small and oddly-shaped pieces to construct, stain and place but otherwise I'm finished. I used a piece of the threshold to fill a 4-inch gap next to the hearth today.

Hearth gap filled w/threshold

Gap near hearth - before

Snow Storm

16-21 January 2012

 

Snow started falling on Monday, continued through Tuesday and then started raining and freezing. When the snow and ice slid off the roof it made a louder than usual "Whoomph", crushed some bushes and tore off the end of the rain gutter. North Bend lost electrical power Thursday and we were on our own for wood heat and the Aladdin lamp until 1430 on Saturday.

The CBCC annual party went on as scheduled Saturday evening at Aaron and Kerie's even though their power was still off. Fortunately it came back on shortly after we got there. The roads were not too bad getting there although some were closed due to many downed trees.  Rather than turn around and go the long way around, we drove around one set of barriers and weaseled through between trees and debris south of Auburn.