Tuesday, January 26, 2010

More Water

The Pasadena blogging community was agog--nay, thrilled with a jealous pang--when, on January 19th, Pasadena Adjacent posted this revelatory tour (with her customary, fun-filled video) inside the workings of the Devil's Gate Dam tower. She and Mr. V. braved the rain to get a scoop and a coup. No one we knew had been inside that mysterious tower before.

When I took this photo on the 23rd, the skies were giving us a sunny reprieve and--what? Those dam workers were giving tours to moms, dads and cherubs.

I broke the news to PA. "You mean I’ve lost my V.I.P. status?" she said. "The carbon's off the lily!!!"

But she got there first, with video, photos, and a nice shot of those orange things.
Here you can see the orange things at work. (You may have another word for the orange things, but we like to use the technical term, Orange Things.) They appear to be an aid in corralling debris. "Debris" in this case is everything from uprooted trees to escaped socks.

This is the same pool of water I featured in my post on Sunday. I was standing sort of up on the left side of this picture to take that one. We were told by the dam engineers the water's 57 feet deep at it's deepest point (or it was when I took the pictures.)



I took this shot about a year ago. John is below the dam chatting with Becca, PDP's resident geologist. To give you an idea of the amount of rain we had last week, I cropped the photo below for comparison. On the right of that shot you see the cement slab beneath which John and Becca are standing in the "dry" photo. If you enlarge the "wet" photo you'll also see a cement outcropping jutting out below the dam on the left. I had crawled up next to it to take the "dry" picture above; it's on the right side of that photo.

18 comments:

Shell Sherree said...

Orange things is about my speed for technical terms, Petrea. And though PA and Mr V and the Devil's Gate Dam tower might no longer be exclusive with each other, there's nothing like being the first, as you so wisely point out.

Brenda's Arizona said...

You have me skipping over to Google maps to see just where DGD is - and to see if their aerial view offers up the Orange Things, too! This is a great learning experience, Petra. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

I was poking around there yesterday...

Petrea Burchard said...

Has the water gone down, Hiker? It doesn't look like today's rain is going to be a major storm.

Brenda, hope you found some cool aerial views. I love it when a post sends me searching.

Yes, Shell, I was and am in awe of PA and Mr. V.

pasadenapio said...

There are so many interesting treasures in our neck of the woods.

Pasadena Adjacent said...

Thanks for the credit. After reading your post I now realize I must have asked all the wrong questions....57 feet deep? that is truly amazing!

No, I was asking the dam operator those pertinent questions such as where they eventually found that horse on the lost "signs" and if as a kid, he ever slid down the slime slide underneath the Colorado Street Bridge (we're about the same age).

He did mention some talk of doing a little rerouting so that not all the water flows to the ocean. A possible lake. We'll see

John Sandel said...

just want everybody to notice how good I look in photo #3. That's my favorite Dickie I have on—it's my ancestral plaid.

wv: conghipo!

Bellis said...

Look at that lucky little kid entering Rapunzel's Tower. When I was there in the morning, the dam man (no offence meant) didn't invite me in. Boo hoo.

Petrea Burchard said...

Isn't the truth, Ann? We are blessed.

That's what they told Becca, PA--she asks all the scientist kind of questions. It doesn't look that deep to me but I don't know how to gauge 57 feet visually. I like your question about slime-sliding.

Sweetie, you shouldn't get me started about your plaid dickie.

Bellis, maybe he was waiting for you to ask.

John Sandel said...

Could you at least Capitalize it?

Petrea Burchard said...

Do you mean Monetize it?

Desiree said...

kewl!

Margaret said...

Yes. Very much like the technical mumbo jumbo of "orange things."

Unknown said...

My family is so lame. My ancestral dickie is just sort of flesh colored.

John Sandel said...

OK, that's it. I'm turning this thing off & going to bed.

Petrea Burchard said...

I was going to say something about nipping this conversation in the bud but that's just wrong.

Unknown said...

He started it!

Dina said...

Now I'm laughing so much at the comments that I forgot what I wanted to say about the post. LOL