California Rain Ride

First of all, don't believe "It Never Rains in California." Lately, it does. A lot. Right here, for example, we're over double the average rainfall accumulation for this date--and already well over the average for the full rain season, which runs through June. And it's still raining now. I'm hoping it lets up tomorrow, cuz I'm planning to ride up to Lake Oroville, the second biggest reservoir in the state by volume, with the highest dam in the U.S.

There's a concrete spillway so they can let lots of water out in an emergency, and baby, they've got an emergency right now. A couple days ago, a hole 185 x 250 feet, and 45 feet deep, appeared in the face of the spillway. It's now grown to at least twice that size, and is eroding dirt on the sides of the spillway at a scary pace. They have no choice but to release water--a LOT of water, because the reservoir is within a couple percent of completely full, at which point it will run over the TOP of the spillway, completely unrestrained. They are saying the dam isn't threatened by this, but it still looks awful scary.

So I'll take a ride--about 75 miles--and try to get a look at it. It's definitely a rare sight. I'll take some pics, but here's a link to what it was doing today. BTW, the spillway is 1700' long, so the hole didn't look all THAT big in the first pics that came out, but check the two workers in yellow rain gear way over on the right, below. And of course all that bare dirt is new erosion.

By the way, in the spirit of Old Michael--and whatever happened to him?--I'll check in the morning in case anybody feels like riding up there with me. I don't leave early. Ever. By 10 a.m. or so?

HA! Sicker than shit of all the water coming out of the sky here. I'm going your way (East Sac) tomorrow to house & dog-sit for GF. Bringing my clubs to hit some balls at Haggin Oaks in the (forecast) sun.

Been watching that dam spillway mess since Tuesday and hoping they catch a break with the run off.

Keeping with the spirit of beemerdons...IN!

Looking forward to the report SacMike. Be safe out there, k?

--G

Mike, in the true​ spirit of OM, you only need to give 3 minutes warning for the impending ride.

Last I knew, he went to Ireland and I think they decided to keep him.

Looking forward to the RR as the Oroville is on the news right now. According to them, the spillway has never been used and they are closing a lot of the area schools as a precaution.

Well, where's the pix? Oh wait, Mikee is still sleeping!

Dam I was around Lake Oroville in October and it was looking mighty empty. NOT NOW! Hopefully the hole in the spillway will be fixed soon.

Didja make it Mike? Lots of road closures due to flooding. Damn good thing our state water board is unwilling to call the drought over and keeps emergency water restrictions in place. Fart smellers those boys are downtown.

Hey Mike I also live in California and can ride everyday without getting wet. Your problem is you live on the wrong side of the mountains and too far north.

I'm in Red Bluff and it's dumping, I headed south in the RV hoping to find some sun or an Ark!

Panman said:

I'm in Red Bluff and it's dumping, I headed south in the RV hoping to find some sun or an Ark!

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You are a bit early in the year to be looking for sun in Red Bluff.

Panman said:

I'm in Red Bluff and it's dumping, I headed south in the RV hoping to find some sun or an Ark!

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Keep the Ark moving south Panman, eventually you'll find some sun!
Safe travels and have fun. ;-)

--G

Bugnatr said:

Didja make it Mike? Lots of road closures due to flooding. Damn good thing our state water board is unwilling to call the drought over and keeps emergency water restrictions in place. Fart smellers those boys are downtown.

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Don't be such a sexist, Dougie. Some of 'em are women, I bet. And yes, I made it, sort of. No roads blocked by flooding on the way up there, but I saw lots of flooded fields and overflowing rivers on the way. But when I got to Oroville, they gave me this: The public couldn't get within sight of the dam or busted spillway. So I worked my way around the roadblocks up to a vantage point way up the hill that overlooks the dam. The water was within just a couple feet of the lip of the emergency spillway (which has never been used. And by the numbers in the news today, the lake's still getting lots of runoff from the earlier rain, and it's coming in at more than twice the 55,000 cubic feet per second they're releasing over the broken spillway.) If water gets to the top of the emergency spillway, it will just run down the hillside next to the formerly-concrete "regular" spillway to the Feather River below. Besides the erosion, it would rip up a lot of trees and bushes and dump all that into the river, clogging up a lot of water intakes, fish hatcheries and so on downstream. There was a lot of equipment out there yesterday pulling up trees and hauling them off. Excellent planning, hm?

So I took a few piccies, but they just showed the full reservoir, which was a little nice to see, since for years all the reservoirs in the state have had at least 40 or 50 feet of bare dirt around the whole lake above the waterline. Trouble is, I found Photobucket to be completely unusable now, as has been discussed here lately--won't load, etc. Piece of crap. Well, the pics are just a picture of a lake anyway. If I get around to figuring out a new photo sharing site, maybe I'll post them eventually anyway.

On the plus side, it was a beautiful day for a ride.

OK, update: I just checked for newer videos. The water is now flowing over the emergency spillway. Here's the first 12 seconds of it, apparently (in the lower video you can click on. The upper one shows a typical Oroville resident commenting on it all.) By the way, note the double channel the water carved off to the right of the original spillway yesterday. I'm sure better vids of this from other angles will be online soon.

Michelle and i.flew out of Sac today.and the.elevated bridge over the rice.fields just north of the airport on I.5 were flowing pretty hard. The.water.covered the.entire length.

I haven't been to Cal a lot, last year this time of year didn't see much water. Came down from Red Bluff to Lodi today and water every where, and it's muddy water! North of the city was like Gregory said real wet.

I left the North Wet to leave this behind for a bit

Panman said:

I haven't been to Cal a lot, last year this time of year didn't see much water. Came down from Red Bluff to Lodi today and water every where, and it's muddy water! North of the city was like Gregory said real wet.I left the North Wet to leave this behind for a bit

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You can't always get what you want but if you try sometimes you can get what you need.

Panman said:

I haven't been to Cal a lot, last year this time of year didn't see much water. Came down from Red Bluff to Lodi today and water every where, and it's muddy water! North of the city was like Gregory said real wet.I left the North Wet to leave this behind for a bit

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Hey you are out and about and I hope enjoying yourself, we got sunshine today but I had a bit of surgery a ways back so it will be a bit before out and about stuff.

Mikey, I'm a little disappointed in your report.

Hoping I'd see you on the news, ...riding the spillway.

We were suppose to be staying at Lake Minden for a few days but got a call a two days ago saying don't come as they were evacuating!

We are down by Hollister now, dry for now at least till the next storm. All the rivers we passed looked more like mud than water.

Wow, look who popped up! Hey, Mikey! And hell yes, I'd have done it. Uphill. But they wouldn't let me in, and that woman at the barricade was damn scary looking.

This thing took a big turn towards more drama today. So for the first time since they built the dam in the '60's, water went over the emergency spillway. And after less than a day of that, it started digging or eroding a big hole at the base of that spillway, which seems to be just a wide concrete barrier, that put all the experts into panic mode. Guess if it kept up, they were afraid it would undermine the concrete part and dig a hole right under it so water could come shooting out from underneath the damn thing--like 30 feet below the surface of the reservoir. If that happened (or happens), it will shoot out like a firehose and grow till . . hell, I do't know what, and then drown the shit out of, well, ME, I suppose, and probably some other people too.

They ordered the evacuation--no, not ordered I guess, but somehow "suggested" many thousands of people in low elevations in several towns downstream get the hell out, and lots did. Stories on the news of totally jammed highways, hundreds of cars lined up at gas stations, motels fully booked as far away as Sacramento--75 or 80 miles south of Oroville. Lots and lots of hits on Google if anybody wants to see all that.

Fortunately the rain has stopped since Thursday, and should be dry for a few more days, the flow into the reservoir is lessened, they're letting more water out of the normal--but messed up--spillway, so the water stopped topping the emergency spillway sometime today. They're talking about dropping big rocks into the hole below the emergency spillway from helicopters, so clearly, there's no problem at all anymore. Way too much drama for poor little Oroville.

Sure glad I rode up there Friday, and not today though.