Sunday, May 06, 2007

 

We Did Get Out . . . Part Three

So last time, I gave you a shot of the mouth of the Russian River and told you there was something strange about it. The strange thing about it is that the mouth is closed, as it were. Luckily, Jenner has some dental technicians who are prepared for just this sort of eventuality. There they are, making the magic happen:


What are they doing? Well, they're digging a channel from the river to the ocean. Here's a better view of them hard at work:


What the-? What's up with that dude on the right? Is he just lying there? I assure you that even though this is a still frame, these guys are not on a break. That guy is digging that channel. Come to think of it, what ecaxtly is Mr. Yellow-Shirt doing? As you can tell from the angles, after that first picture was taken, Miss Tori drove us around to get a better angle on the channel, and Yellow-Shirt looks like he's barely moved! I mean, sure, he's not laying down, but come on. They must have borrowed these guys from a Cal-Trans crew or something. Which one's the new guy? The one actually operating the shovel. If you're from California, you'll appreciate that one. Especially if you're a new hire at Cal-Trans.
But enough of the half-angles and the side shots. Here's the big picture. The river and the ocean do not meet!

Honestly, it had never crossed my mind that a river running to the ocean could dead end there. So where does that water go? It would seem like, with any other dam, the water would back up in the river, raising levels until it could once again flow over the barrier and into the ocean. Of course, we were only there for a few days. Maybe they do this every week or something. It's just an unusual situation, and I'm still curious about how the whole thing works.
When Miss Tori drove us around to our second vantage point for a good view of the channel, we saw this wise guy bird:


He seems quite used to people, like most gulls, so he stood around while I got a couple of good shots that even impressed myself. We'll see those next time.
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