Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2008/03/17

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Subject: [Leica] IMG: on the Thermalito Afterbay
From: abridge at gmail.com (Adam Bridge)
Date: Mon Mar 17 20:57:22 2008

Sunday was a fabulous day in northern California. A stiff north wind
swept out the valley and visibility was on the order of 100 miles.
14,000 ft (4 260 meters) Mount Shasta was visible rising above the
valley to the north.

We drove up to Chico to look at recumbent three-wheeled bikes but we
had some time to kill so we checked out the Thermalito Afterbay that
sits at the foot of the huge Oroville earthen dam. As I understand it
the purpose of the afterbay is to warm the otherwise frigid water so
it can be used to irrigate the rice fields. So the cold water that
fills the reservoir is allowed to flow into the afterbay where it's
warmed and then discharged. No one wants to put ice water on crops.

The afterbays are, therefore, fairly shallow. With a stiff north wind
blowing they have good recreational uses. We found a group of hardy
souls out doing this:

<http://www.idea-processing.com/Images/L1003426.jpg>

Shot with Leica M8.

Enjoy!

Adam