Lake Oswego Oregon, Day 114 of Lake Draw Down

I haven't posted for some time since routine dredging and pipe connection are going on.  In the last several days however, they have been building a road around the perimeter of the lake immediately in front of our house.  The crushed rock road has a rubber barrier under it to help prevent weeds from growing after the lake refills.  We didn't have a weed problem since the water is fairly deep off our dock, but it will really help those down the way from us.  Evidently this road allowed them to get heavy equipment to service several sewer connections down from us.

Lake Oswego Oregon, Day 77 of Lake Draw Down

Day 77 of the Draw Down.  They have torn down quite a bit of the damn. They plan to add gates to it to allow excess water out in a faster and more controlled way.













This photo was taken at day 58 at the Forest Hills easement.  At day 77 nothing has changed. Looks very "High and Dry."

Lake Oswego Oregon, Day 48 of Lake Draw Down

The picture shows Lake Oswego's concept of "the great beach cleanup."  Our beach is the land or "beach" created by the retreating water. The Lake Corp dropped off orange colored bags for lake property owners to collect garbage the somehow ends up on the lake bottom. Last Saturday was the day we were to fill up our bags and leave our bags on the beach.  Volunteers are supposed to come by and pick up the bags this week.  I'm sure that the orange bag idea came from Oregon State grads who are by far more environmentally conscientious than those other colleges (who will remain unnamed).

FYI the bags to the left would be under 15+ ft. of water where they currently are.

Chao
Jeff

Lake Oswego Oregon, Day 32 of Lake Draw Down

Day 32 of Lake Oswego draw down.  The first pic is of Spring Brook.  Normally this area looks like a lake and not a "spring."  With no water in the lake, it now looks like a muddy spring going past the Spring Brook Easement.

The second pic is the end of the new road that they are building in the main lake.  It ends right in the area of wear Spring Brook dumps all it's sediment.  They will be dredging this area and taking many many dump truck loads down this new road.  I'll try to find out where the spoils will be dumped.  Everyone is asking me.  **One fun fact,  that last time they dredged Lake Oswego, they filled in the quarry where now Bridgeport Shopping Center sits.

Lake Oswego Oregon, Day 26 of Lake Draw Down

The first pic is of a large tractor and a large excavating machine that are building a road down the middle of the lake past the lake side of our house.  The road will head over to Spring Brook where they plan to do some serious dredging since the "spring" or small creek has brought in a lot of silt.  They also have to finish some connections on some of the sewer pipes.

The second pic is of a "bubbler." I bet very few people have seen a bubbler of this size.  For those who haven't been been on the lake in the summer, there area many bubblers sprinkled around the lake (submerged of course !) that help improve the oxygen quality and help prevent algae growth.

Chao

Jeff

Lake Oswego Oregon, Day 20 of Lake Draw Down

Day 20 of the Lake Oswego Draw Down.  I really didn't believe we would have as much mud in front of our house/dock as has happened.  My estimate is that the lake is down 20-25 ft. at this point.  The first picture is looking Southwest from our house.  It shows stumps and exposed pipes that used to be under water.














The second pic is looking Southeast from our dock and shows the new "beach" that we have in front of our dock.



Chao

Jeff

Lake Oswego Oregon, Day 17 of Lake Draw Down

The first photo shows the 7 large pumps draining Lake Oswego.  They sound like Multnomah Falls in action.

The second photo is the channel entrance at the Blue Heron easement.

The final photo is the main lake and a runner out on the 36" pipe in the middle of the lake.  It kind makes me want to run out there and balance on the pipe.

Chao

Jeff

Day 16 of Lake Oswego Lake Draw Down

Day 16 of Lake Oswego disappearing.  My first photo shows a heron on a rock that ususally is 15 ft. below the surface in front of my neighbors house.

The second photo shows a boat house across the lake that is hanging in mid air with a boat on its lift. The lake is deeper on the southside of the lake.

The third photo is my dock that is getting more high and dry by the minute (foot ?)

The fourth photo is taken across the lake from my house and show a series of large 36" sewer lines that were formerly underwater.  Soon we will see trucks out on the lake bottom moving 10s of thousands of silt out of the lake.

Chao
Jeff

Lake Oswego Oregon, Day 13 of Lake Draw Down

I started an early AM run around Lake Oswego to take Day 13 photos.  The first shot is on Iron Mt. Rd.  No lake, but it was quite beautiful.  You would have to have been there.

The second photo is over near the Bay Rock apartments. The Lake Corp Marina would be on the left.  Yes the docks are fairly high and dry.

The third photo is the dam.  They have opened up a secondary "drain."

The final photo is from the bridge at West Bay on South Shore Rd.  This little channel is fairly dry also.  The main lake is still full however.  With two drains going, we should see some quick changes in the next few days.

Chao

Jeff

Lake Oswego Oregon, Day 11 of Lake Draw Down

Day 11 and "It's a Small World" AKA Half Moon Bay is dry as seen from the bridge over the channel as it feeds into Lakewood Bay.  No sunken cars, no cell phones, etc. etc.

The bottom image is our sea wall in front of our house.  I think it is about 10-12 ft high.  Melanie has this urge to clean up the lake bottom in front of house.  I have no such urge.

Chao

Jeff

Lake Oswego Oregon, Day 9 of Lake Draw Down

The Lake now appears to be down about 8-10 ft. if I had to guess.  This is our neighbors dock.  If I haven't already said it, it is starting to smell.  Kind of like rotting vegetation. It'll go away in a few weeks when the weather cools (it did at the last draw down many years ago).

The next photo was taken this early AM.  Not to have what we at the office call a tender moment, but it is quite beautiful out on the lake in the early morning.

Chao

Jeff

Day 7 of Lake Oswego Lake Draw Down

Day 7 of the draw down. They stopped draining for a few days while they worked near the dam. They reopened the "drain" today. Sunny day as you can see I am catching rays on my dock after playing golf this AM.

Chao

Jeff

Lake Oswego Oregon, Day 5 of Lake Draw Down

The fifth day and they have closed off the "valve." Those big tubes at the top of the damn are connected to hugh pumps.  Within a day or so,  they should start flowing.  The 2nd picture is Lakewood Bay.  The docks are about 5-6 ft. above the water.

Lake Oswego Oregon, Day 4 of Lake Draw Down

I noticed an article in the Lake Oswego Review newspaper today. Not only did they "pull the plug" on our lake, they also hooked up 4+ large pumps to speed up the draining of our lake. How about that !!!!

I could try to launch my boat, but as you can see, there are only a few inches of water in our boat slip. The 2nd picture is our neighbors dock. It is quite a beautiful Fall day. Yes, I said Fall. It smells and feels like Fall.

The last photo shows our doc fairly suspended. You would be hard pressed to reach our swim ladder which is dangling in mid air now.

Chao

Jeff

Lake Oswego Lake Draw Down Day 2n

Lake House Restaurant Docks reasonable high and dry on Day 2 of our Lake Oswego draw down.  If you could get your boat off your lift, it would be quite a step up to these docks.  The lake appears to be down about 1.5'.  Much to my surprise, Susie and JoAnn came paddling up in front of my dock, checking out the beginning draw down. Once again, these two are now probably the last two boaters on the lake ( I know, I keep saying this).  Tomorrow, launching a kayak from a dock will probably take some form of ladder and acrobatics.

Chao
Jeff

This is Day 1 of the Draw Down of Lake Oswego as seen from my back yard.  Most "Lake Oswegans" are aware that the City of Lake Oswego is updating one of the main sewer lines that runs along and under the lake bottom.  It will be earthquake proof upon completion.  They need to draw down the lake about 25' to finish the project.  The above header shows the spillway or dam starting to dump water.

Notice the lack of boats on the Lake.  The Lake is down about 4" now and I'm sure most of us were afraid we wouldn't have enough water to get back on our lifts.

The people below in the Kayaks are the last boats that I saw on this end of the main lake before Sunset.  Lake Oswego looks pretty peaceful

Chao

Jeff