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| Picture in front of General Sherman |
We woke up from a short nights sleep, taking everything out of the bear boxes and packing it back into the vans. We went on a short hike in Sequoia National Park, checking out General Sherman and some of the other unique trees. Sequoia's grow to be the largest tree species by volume in the whole world. Some of these trees are thousands of years old thanks in part to their resilient bark which resists insects and protects the tree during wildfires. The immense size of the tree and their underlying root systems allows these trees to outcompete all other species, this is why there is very little shrubbery in the area. We were supposed to go on a second hike but due to traffic and a commitment with another speaker we were forced to abandon this pursuit.
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| Sequoia Pine Cone |
The moccasin power plant is situated along the Hetch Hetchy reservoir, just outside of Yosemite National park, and is responsible for supplying San Francisco with most of its water needs. Hetch Hetchy was once part of Yosemite Valley, but after the 1906 Fire that devastated San Francisco, Hetch Hetchy reservoir was deemed necessary to provide enough water to prevent another future disaster such as the 1906 fire.Moccasin power plant is but one of many power plants in the are as Hetch Hetchy reservoir is linked through tunnels to several other reservoirs in the region, all constructed to supply water to San Francisco and to act as back-up's in case the primary reservoirs get too low. Hetch Hetchy, Lake Eleanor, Cherry Lake, and Don Pedro are the names of the reservoirs in the surrounding area, except for Don Pedro all of these reservoirs help to bring water down the mountains into San Francisco. The plans are for Don Pedro Reservoir to act as a water bank where the other reservoirs can put away excess water and keep it stored until times of excess demand or need.
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| Moccasin Power Plant |
The Hetch Hetchy reservoir stores about 360 trillion-acre-feet of water. These sites have vastly improved their conditions of the past decade, radically changing their management programs to include maximizing storage capacities, ensuring reliable water delivery, efficient use of the resources, and mediating any environmental risk associated with these actions. In an effort to help support fish populations down stream, Hetch Hetch has an accessory tunnel running underneath it that blasts water out against the rock face, aerating the water and making it more habitable for fish downstream. Along with the aeration, the dam will send floodwater downstream every few years if there is was available, this helps maintain the ecosystems downstream. In times of drought such as this, the operating conditions for these dams change. Water pumped from the reservoirs to be used for hydro-electric is reduced and made more available for distribution, the lower cherry aqueduct is rehabilitated to keep water flowing to San Fran, and the other reservoirs act as a back up; at this time the Hetch Hetchy reservoir was still full. Our presenter Bill gave us a quick tour of the Moccassin power plant showing us the old generators and technology that was used back when the plant was running and after that we parted ways and headed towards our campsite. Our campsite for the night was situated in a large campground with a lot of people in it, more of a touristy type of campground. Anyway, we helped everyone get their stuff out of the vans and set up and then Tait, Marnie, Katie, Joahanna, Allister, and I all went to do a quick hike at the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. The hike was incredible, it was a short walk over the dam but there was nobody else out there but us. We got to get a good idea of how the dam affects downstream and just how much water the dam holds. It was also interesting to see the painted over scissor mark that was shown in the earlier "Damnation" documentary, I thought it was so cool to literally be feet away from history. It would appear the days surprises were not over yet, just as we were driving out of the park we got an excellent glimpse of a young black bear running across the road no more than ten feet from us, it was too fast for anyone to get a picture but it was one of those things that you just don't forget so I don't think a picture was needed.
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| "Free the River" painted over at Hetch Hetchy |
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| Hetch Hetchy reservoir |
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