July 1, 2015

If you are following my blog, you know that last week I went to the opening of the new Interstate building. There I met a woman named Catherine Howells, she works at Portland State as an adjunct assistant professor. Catherine teaches about where tap water comes from, and invited me to tag along with her class to visit the Bull Run watershed. Water from rain and snowmelt flows into the Bull Run River, then drains into two reservoirs; all the water is moved through pipes by gravity.

Our Bull Run guide was Lisa Vieno, she works for the PWB as the water resources educator. She taught us everything we needed to know about the Bull Run. On our tour I got to see the different waters of the Sandy River and the Bull Run water. The Sandy River was very brown, and the Bull Run water was the absolute clearest water I had ever seen.

For lunch, we rode up to a gorgeous lake. This lake had three cabins, I took my lunch break along with other students at the third cabin. For lunch, I brought a salmon mango salad; although I forgot salad dressing the mango did the trick. My lunch view was the best part of the whole day, I had the view of the lake, forest trees, and Mt. Hood. It was one of the best lunch breaks I had ever had.

We stopped by a house overlooking the first dam for a rest because Catherine had baked cookies and brownies. Then we got to explore and walk on the dam; we even got to walk down a very steep stair case on the side of the dam. The view was incredible, and the weather was unbelievable! After sweating, and being in the sun all day, our tour lead us to a cooled tunnel. There was water dripping in the tunnel, and the walls of this tunnel had a range of colors (green, red, yellow, orange).

Over all I had a great day exploring the Bull Run. Not to mention it was my first time on Mt. Hood!!! It is really great knowing where tap water comes from, and who works hard to keep water safe for Portlanders. I just wanted to thank the Portland Water Bureau for their hard work. I love Portland tap water, because it tastes delicious!