Shasta Lake Relics Uncovered

Ron61 · #1 (**permalink**) 10-25-2008, 06:45 AM

Shasta Lake is now at it lowest level since 1992 and the only time it was lower was 1977. Below are a couple of pictures of things that are normally abut 85' under water. The first is the old Highway 99 bridge that used to cross the river. The second is the remains of the old Head tower from when they built the dam.

Ron

392cobra · #2 (**permalink**) 10-25-2008, 07:34 AM

Ron,
When I spotted your new thread and read the title,I was expecting a newspaper story or maybe a picture or two of you.

Those are impressive pictures.Just amazing how much water is gone.

wtm442 · #3 (**permalink**) 10-25-2008, 07:39 AM

Great minds think alike Fred. All I could think about when I read the subject was a picture of Ron, half covered by mud.

Silverback51 · #4 (**permalink**) 10-25-2008, 07:48 AM

I remember the 1977 time period. I used to drive a truck with my dad at time and we pretty much made weekly runs from Portland to the LA area.

At that time they said it would take 10 or more years for the lake to fill up again. If I remember right, they had one bad winter (I remember chaining up a lot) and it pretty much filled up the following year. Maybe it took 2 years, but I know it didn't take 10.

mrmustang · #5 (**permalink**) 10-25-2008, 08:38 AM

Is the drought that bad, or are they doing repairs on the dam forcing the drastic lowering of the water level?

Bill S.

Ron61 · #6 (**permalink**) 10-25-2008, 08:52 AM

Bill,

The drought is that bad. We haven't had any rain to amount to anything for 3 years and last Summer they never even had to get out the big plows to open the highway through Lassen Park. They just used dump trucks with the small blades and had it open over a month before they can normally open it. Believe me they are not letting any more water out than they have to. Now they are talking of maybe having to shut down another one of the generators. That is one of the reasons we are having such a bad fire season and almost every day they are having another small fire that burns what the big ones missed.

Fred & Warren,

Bite Me. Sorry Jamo but that just seemed an appropriate expression for Frog & Turtle raising ranchers.

Actually in 1977 I got a Honda buried way out in the middle of what was normally the lake as I was riding it across the mud flats to the river and it broke through. It took two of us to get it out and then the Bridge Bay Resort let me use one of their hoses to wash the mud out of the motor and off the rest of the bike. They thought it was funny but riding home with mud on me up to my waist wasn't all that pleasant.

Ron

4RE KLR · #7 (**permalink**) 10-25-2008, 09:01 AM

Wow,

Ron
From the looks of it the lake is down even more than it was last year. If you get the dry winter you speak of then it may empty the lake.

That is amazing. I guess the folks in LA need to start thinking of other water sources for real now.

Ron61 · #8 (**permalink**) 10-25-2008, 09:09 AM

Steve,

So far there has already been two lawsuits filed up here over water and another is in the process. Two big developments have been abandoned with several houses partially built because they can't get water and of course they are demanding more to keep that darn Delta in it's present swamp like form. Trouble is, no matter who wins the lawsuits, there isn't any water to send big extra amounts to any of these places. I did hear that the developer in Anderson has pulled out and those lots and the 10 partially built houses will be going on the auction block soon.

Ron

J. T. Toad · #9 (**permalink**) 10-25-2008, 10:37 AM

ah, a nice thread, nearly a breath of fresh air.

It isn't as much of a drought issue as much as a consumption and allocation issue.

Jamo · #10 (**permalink**) 10-25-2008, 02:15 PM

California's biggest reservoir is even in bigger trouble. Yes, that's right...Shasta is not the biggest and is merely a puddle compared to this one...

...the Sierra Nevada snowpack (or lack of one). Just got back from Tahoe on 88 last weekend, and I can see the the highest portion of the Sierras from my house. Nuthin...not a damn thing up there. WWII plane crashes are being discovered as glaciers melt, and the "white" we see on the highest peaks is granite, not snow. Even if we get a wet winter, if it's warm, the water will all flow to the Delta and the Bay within a couple of months...makes for great waterfalls in Yosemite during the spring, with barely a trickle the rest of the year. Mutha Nature's system...letting snow slowly melt like a big time release pill to provide water throughout the summer...is totally screwed with the weather patterns.

I'm not claiming global warming is the cause yet...El Nino or just a "few bad years" happen just like the brown stuff. What makes it worse are environmentalists fighting dam building (to help Mutha Nature out a bit), and urging more water releases to protect snail darters in the Delta instead of using the water to grow food for humans (go figure).

Getting a bit worked up...I may just go out and pull the next hippie out of the next Greenpeace bumper-stickered Volvo I see and beat the sh!t out of him.

Silverback51 · #11 (**permalink**) 10-25-2008, 06:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jamo

Getting a bit worked up...I may just go out and pull the next hippie out of the next Greenpeace bumper-stickered Volvo I see and beat the sh!t out of him.

Sounds like a good idea to me.

wtm442 · #12 (**permalink**) 10-25-2008, 08:59 PM

Ron
Its all the fault of the Mt Shasta Goddess. What a hag! She's over the hill. Why don't you have Ernie ship Pele to your area.

Of course, you could always move to the scenic Death Valley for a change of pace.

Ron61 · #13 (**permalink**) 10-26-2008, 02:10 AM

The Mt. Shasta Goddess is importing snow from Alaska to send to you and Tru.

I have wondered if the Yosemite Falls was anything more than a trickle now. Thanks for the report Jamo. I remember working up there and it was really nice and the falls were just roaring. I also remember hiking around Truckee and driving across the pass when the snow was so high on each side of the highway that it seemed as if you were in a tunnel. I also liked hiking off down the canyons around Placerville and visiting the site of Marshall's sawmill where they discovered gold. They used to have a nice small museum there, but I don't know if it is still open. Also walking around the site of the Donner Party camping area and following what is left of the original road where they chopped the trees to get the wagons up the mountain.

No Shasta isn't the largest reservoir, but when it gets low it affects a lot of things far downstream from it including electric power. Also no amount of more inane legislation is going to put more water in any of the reservoirs. Several towns around this are have been out of water for a long time and the wells aren't furnishing much as they have pumped the ground water out.

Ron

Jamo · #14 (**permalink**) 10-26-2008, 02:38 AM

There's a nice little 4wd route that starts near the Marshall site...a cute little path called the Rubicon. Four-wheelers know it as the holy grail. I've dragged more than a few frames up that basturd.

The falls would all be at a trickle at the end of the summer, and snow is gone in Truckee by then in normal years. The point I was making is that the stuff is gone months earlier than it should be. We got warmer storms last spring...rain rather than snow. No natural storage.

Ron61 · #15 (**permalink**) 10-26-2008, 03:09 AM

I know Jamo. Normally Lassen and Shasta would have snow and glaciers on them all year. The last two years they have been bare very early and with no snow pack to speak of, there just isn't any water. Where the normal snow in Lassen should have been from 8 to 15' deep along the highway, last year it barely topped 2'. That was why they got the highway cleared in just a week or so. Normally takes them a month or more. I miss Yosemite and the Kings Canyon Park and just being out among the trees and stuff. Lassen is nice but it is closed now as they are doing controlled burns to get rid of what the big fired didn't.
Is the old statue of Marshall up on the hill pointing down toward the sawmill still there? We have some nice places up here to drive to, but I believe that when I lived down there I enjoyed the closeness of more places that were great to spend a weekend in than around here.

Ron

4RE KLR · #16 (**permalink**) 10-26-2008, 07:55 AM

California needs to build a man made river from the Columbia River down to California.

It is ashamed to see all that fresh water just get washed out into the Ocean. Millions, hell hundreds of millions of gallons just getting salt water contaminated.

Silverback51 · #17 (**permalink**) 10-26-2008, 09:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 4RE KLR

California needs to build a man made river from the Columbia River down to California.

It is ashamed to see all that fresh water just get washed out into the Ocean. Millions, hell hundreds of millions of gallons just getting salt water contaminated.

The tree huggers of the Northwest are now looking for your picture, and when found, will post it at the borders.

wtm442 · #18 (**permalink**) 10-26-2008, 09:42 AM

I'm just waiting for the big one when California slides into the Pacific, and then I can buy some oceanfront property in Nevada at a reasonable price.

Without the existing diverting of river water over the last 100 years, Southern California would be just like central Nevada. It does not take any water to grow dirt.

And now they want more water? Look at all the water you waste now putting out fires.

Its all because of the failed policies of President Bush per the Messiah Obama.

All kidding aside, the lack of adequate water in many parts of the US will become an even bigger problem in the future.

Ron61 · #19 (**permalink**) 10-26-2008, 10:28 AM

Warren,

Only Southern Calif. and some of the Northern coast line will slide into the ocean when the big one comes. Buy your property in the Southern part of Nevada.

As for the water, L.A. gets a lot of its water from Lake Meade and I don't know how much longer they are going to have water there to send through the tunnels and aqueducts for here. I heard the area around Phoenix is slowly starting to sink as they are using the ground water out of the big supply under it faster than it can refill the cavern and that the heavy buildings and such are starting to cause the top to sink. They said something about is a certain amount of years if they don't quit building and using more water, the 2md story windows will be at ground level. I don't know if this is all true or not, I just read it on some report about the water situation in the West. I do know they have cut the amount this little town can have from the lake and they bought the difference from a foundation that the old man left behind. The state and county can't touch it as they traded him the rights to X number of billions of gallons of water in Shasta Lake in return for him draining and removing a dam he had many years ago South of Redding. So he can see any amount of that water to anyone he wants to and they have no say about it. He was a smart old guy, I will give him that. They wanted to pay him to drain his lake and remove the dam and he refused and told them he would take 1/2 again the amount of water his lake had in it when full and they could store it in Shasta Lake.

Ron

Scott S · #20 (**permalink**) 10-26-2008, 10:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 4RE KLR

California needs to build a man made river from the Columbia River down to California.

It is ashamed to see all that fresh water just get washed out into the Ocean. Millions, hell hundreds of millions of gallons just getting salt water contaminated.

It is being studied....(no kidding)

I plan to stand every morning on the bank of the canal and pee into it.

Scott S