This cache is part of the Foundation for Water & Energy Education Hydro Cache Challenge. Enter by going to http://fwee.org/nw-hydro-tours/fwee-hydro-cache-challenge/
Migrating salmon face many challenges: overfishing, irrigation, logging, chemicals, ranching, natural causes, and dams. The Army Corps of Engineers has placed a very high priority on mitigating the effects of dams on fish migration.
At the Bonneville Lock and Dam, a variety of mechanisms have been devised to help with the migration process. Fish ladders assist mature salmon as they return upstream to spawn. The juvenile salmon are helped downstream by water spilled over the dam, modifications to the turbines, trucking and barging young fish around the dam, and by the corner collector and the juvenile bypass system. This multi-cache will follow the route of the bypass system.
The above waypoint takes you to Stage 1, a location where you can observe the start of both the corner collection system and the juvenile bypass. Most obvious is a string of orange buoys that marks a 10-foot deep, 720-foot long steel curtain. This curtain directs many of the young fish toward the left corner of the powerhouse, where 50% - 60% of them enter the corner collector and are delivered through a 500-foot channel to a point below the dam. Juveniles that avoid the curtain continue toward the turbine intakes. As they approach, they encounter rotating screens and follow the upward tilt of the screens toward lights. An orifice sweeps them into a collector channel that connects with a two-mile-long pipe system that takes them downstream to a safe reentry point. Please feel free to sit down and relax for a while in this beautiful place.
Find the waypoint for Stage 2 before leaving this location. HINT: No really take a SEAT! :)
As you leave Stage 1, you will pass the Visitor Orientation Building. A short stop there will allow you to actually see the twin 48-inch pipes that carry the young salmon from the powerhouse (look out the window behind the windsurfing display). A longer visit will allow you to see the powerhouse and the fish ladder viewing windows (here you can see adult salmon returning to spawn).
Soon after passing the entrance to Fort Cascades, you will see a cyclone fence atop a berm that runs parallel to the road. The underground bypass pipes are under this berm. The juveniles take about 40 - 50 minutes to complete their journey through the pipes, probably longer than your total time to find this cache. Off season, the bypass is shut down and can be inspected by an employee riding a custom recumbent tricycle.
For Stage 2, please park in the small parking area at: 45º 38.205 - 121º 58.053 (Look for the trailhead sign), just past the entrance to the Juvenile Fish Bypass and Monitoring Facility.
At Stage 2 you will be able to see where the pipes enter a special facility at which the young fish may be examined and tagged. Ongoing research at this facility targets the maintenance of a healthy salmon population.
Before leaving this location, please find the coordinates for the final stage of this cache. HINT: Check the West side of the fence for a small metal tag bearing the final coords. "X" marks the spot!
From the final stage, look for the sprinklers. They mark the place where the juveniles are reintroduced into the Columbia River. The young fish are spilled into the strong current that makes it difficult for predatory fish to stay in one place waiting to eat the young salmon, and the sprinklers discourage the gulls that also like to feast on these small fish. The swift current assists the juveniles in their journey to the ocean. The ocean will be their home for several years until they return to spawn. Cache should be partially visible, please leave it that way.
For Handicapped ratings please see: http://www.handicaching.com/show.php?waypoint=GC1CQ07