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.”
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