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12A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL June 3, 2015 Fondo draws an appreciative crowd BY JON STINNETT The Cottage Grove Sentinel A fter besting her com- petitors over a 117- mile bike ride Sunday morn- ing, Misha Fuller had but one request from the organizers of the Oregon Gran Fondo: ChapStick. “At other races, they come around at the starting line and just hand it out,” Fuller said. “It’s something that comes in very handy.” Aside from that one small concession, Fuller said she had zero complaints about the “Fondo,” which translates loosely to “big ride” in Ital- ian. “This was my fi rst year, and it was really fun,” she said. “There were nice, rolling hills complemented by some hard climbs. I just moved to Eu- gene, and there were a lot of roads that were new to me, which was very cool.” Similarly glowing reports were offered by many of the over 400 riders in the Fondo, which left downtown Cottage Grove at 8 a.m. Sunday bound for points very remote in the surrounding countryside. Rid- ers chose from the Gran route at 117 miles, the Medio route at 71 miles or the piccolo, a 15-mile out-and-back route. “We do Cottage Grove as a loop frequently,” said Gal- len Mittermann, who bested all male comers at the Fondo. “It’s a beautiful ride, and this race is a great avenue to show people from Portland and elsewhere how awesome the riding is down here.” Teammate Josh Liberles agreed. “The roads are amazing, and we only saw about a dozen cars,” he said. “It was somewhere between a race and a fun ride, but there were W ILDWOOD Continued from page 1A “I don’t know if Wildwood itself is the issue,” he said. “But that water was very cold and very fast, and it could’ve caused a swimmer problems wherever they hap- pened to be.” Raade said South Lane Fire has in- quired about removing debris from the area around the falls and is awaiting word on whether the Sheriff’s Offi ce wants to undertake such an effort. For her part, Carver said that she be- lieves Wildwood is “just a really danger- ous area.” “The falls create a violent undercurrent that can pin people down, and the air in- jected into the water by the falls actually reduces a person’s buoyancy,” she said. “I feel like we’re sending a dive team out there every year, and it’s just so sad.” photo by Greg Lee Carver said that Nelson reportedly saw Gallen Mittermann was the overall winner in Sunday's Gran Fondo. several other individuals dive from the falls before attempting to do the same. In light of the incident, the Sheriff’s Of- still team tactics.” the 2014 event. Cottage Grove.” This year marks the fi rst “The best thing about this Riplinger said he plans to fi ce sought to remind those who recreate Gran Fondo for Mudslinger race is the sense of adven- cap the Gran Fondo at 500 in and around the area’s “beautiful lakes and rivers that cold spring runoff and Events, whose owner, Mike ture,” Ripley said. “You truly participants next year. Ripley, purchased the event are on your own out there “We want to make sure swift moving water can make a dangerous from dark:30 Sports represen- on the course, and you come this is still a quaint event,” he combination. Everyone should maintain awareness of your surroundings and to tative Steve Cash following back gaining something from said. wear a properly fi tting life jacket.” W ATER Continued from page 1A at the reservoirs are not us- able right now, and many oth- ers will be useful for far shorter than their usual time.” Such should not be the case at Dorena, however. “There is about 10 feet of water over the Harms Park boat ramp,” Clemans said. “That means Dorena should have rec- reation opportunities available far later into the summer than other places might.” Barring signifi cant rainfall in the near future, many local reser- voirs have fi lled to their capacity and are already starting to draw down, Clemans said last week (before a signifi cant rainstorm Sunday evening.) A “teacup diagram” showing the percent- ages of water currently con- tained in each reservoir shows Dorena at 98 percent full, with Cottage Grove Reservoir fi lled to 72 percent of its capacity. But other reservoirs have indeed fared much worse, with Detroit Reservoir – a popular recreation destination — only about 38 percent full. Overall, the Willa- mette River basin is only about half as full as it should be, ac- cording to the diagram, which can be viewed at http://www. nwd-wc.usace.army.mil/nwp/ teacup/willamette/. “Cougar Reservoir is really lagging; it’s only 35 percent full,” Clemans said. The lack of rain could prove especially harmful to the species that call area reservoirs and riv- ers their home, Clemans said. “Cougar is only a third full when it should be completely there,” he said. “And the McK- enzie River is one of the best identifi ed habitats for spring Chinook salmon anywhere in the basin. We’re pretty much not going to be meeting the fl ows that are generally required of us for endangered species anywhere. We’ll be working with (the Oregon Department of) Fish and Wildlife to identify what the most appropriate fl ows are for each tributary based on the water systems at each.” Which means that the Corps may decide to pull water from some reservoirs to help fi ll others, particularly where en- dangered species habitat is concerned. That activity has already occurred at Cottage Grove Reservoir and may hap- pen at Dorena. “To compensate for keeping the other reservoirs supplied, we’ve dialed way back on the minimum fl ow in reservoirs that have very specifi c roles in pro- viding fl ows later in the summer for endangered fi sh. We’d like to hold what water we can on the McKenzie to help the salmon life cycle later in the summer, and we’re compensating for that a little at Dorena and Cottage Grove,” Clemans said. With regard to municipal wa- ter supplies, Clemans said the Corps should have no problem meeting its requirements de- spite the diffi culty fi lling the reservoirs. “We don’t think it’s going to be an issue because Dorena is full,” Cottage Grove Public Works supervisor Jan Wellman said of Cottage Grove’s water supply. “The only thing that could affect us is if they start seriously drawing out of the reservoir to maintain minimum fl ows.” The City requires about four million gallons of water during peak usage in the heat of sum- mer, Wellman said, though 2- 3 million gallons per day is a more normal fi gure. “We’re in better shape than anybody else,” he said. “We’ve got a very good watershed to draw from that’s about 385 square miles in size.” So how did Dorena Reservoir fi ll when so many others have not? “We’ve had these fl ashy lit- tle weather systems, and it all rained right there,” Clemans said. “Many of the other res- ervoirs didn’t respond to those systems at all.” Graduation Celebration June 6th, 10am-5pm Featuring: t#FGPSF(SBEVBUJPO 4USBXCFSSZ1BODBLFTBNQN t"GUFS(SBEVBUJPO 4USBXCFSSZ4IPSUDBLFQNQN t4USBXCFSSZ*UBMJBO4PEBT"MM%BZ t4USBXCFSSZ#MFOEFE-FNPOBEF"MM%BZ "OE'SFTI-PDBM4USBXCFSSJFT $PNF+PJO5IF'VO Shady Oaks Congratulations to all our *UDGXDWHV +Z\6R&* Father’s Day is June 21st! 5 0 + Re c liners in Many Styles, Colors s t & Fabrics to choose from! oc k Find Local Businesses. ,QWURGXFLQJWKHQHZHVWZD\WR´QGWKH Find Local Businesses. businesses that mean the most to you. ,QWURGXFLQJWKHQHZHVWZD\WR´QGWKH businesses that mean the most to you. www.shoppelocal.biz www.shoppelocal.biz Find GREAT MONEY SAVING COUPONS from local businesses Cottage Grove Sentinel Shoppe™ is a trademark of News Media Corp. 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