« No Bias here | Main | Thanksgiving blogging II »

Thanksgiving Blogging

An annual tradition for us here in the Sacramento area is to visit the American River Fish Hatchery during this spawning-shopping-feasting-eating-hottubbing season.

The American River is a magificent example of integrating nature into an urban setting. The American River parkway runs directly through suburban Sacramento from downtown eastward to the outer Folsom Lake area, some 22 miles later. it is bike trails, riparian river environment, oak forests, small river rapids, all within walking distance from your home. The best part is that outside of Sacramento, almost no one knows about it.

This is a terrific year for the salmon season and although I dont know the statistics, as a guy who grew up as a kid on the river and has watched or fished each of the salmon runs since about 1972, I can say that this year looked spectacular, at least at the hatchery end of it anyway...

For those that have never been, heres how it works. The American River is blocked by Nimbus Dam which creates Lake Natomas which is blocked at the other end by Folsom Dam, of the town, lake and prison and popular Johnny Cash song of the same name. Nimbus Dam blocked the route of the salmon run, so the State of California placed a fish hatchery at that location to harvest the salmon and steelhead trout that make their annual runs up the river to return to their place of birth.

The fish do their natural thing by swimming up river from the ocean and as they do they encounter the fish ladder at Nimbus Dam where they enter the system to be harvested for the eggs and milt. The eggs are then placed in large tanks where they grow into more salmon who are then released back into the river and into other creeks in the area.

fish-ladder.jpg


This is the entrance to the fish ladder. The fish in this shot are about 20 to 30 lbs, and roughly 3 feet in length. This gate is dropped to slow the progression of the fish up the ladder so that fish processors can keep up with the workload. As soon as the fish have been processed, the gate is opened and more fish are allowed up the ladder to be processed. These fish are extrmemly energetic and sometimes jump several feet into the air, which scares the bejeebus out of the kids but its still fun to watch.

The Nimbus Fish Hatchery sits on a small bluff over the river. The State Fish and Game organization has recently added a "nature walk" to take you along the side of the river along a handicapped enabled trail, where you can see the thousands and thousands of these fish as they come up the river to wait at the fish ladder to meet their destiny.

test-fish.jpg

This is a shot taken from the nature walk looking down at the river to one of the migrating salmon who is just a foot or so off the shoreline. This fish is about 3 feet long, but is just one fish that is part of a group of thousands and thousands of other fish. While I did take several pictures of the fish in mass numbers, none of them show the true spectacle, it seems the eye is better at picking out these fish just below the surface than the camera was.

the-little-whick.jpg

tunaboy.jpg


This is the "two little varifranks" at the salmon exhibit within the hatchery itself. The exhibit takes people through the lifecycle of the salmon and shows the various salmon species which come up the river each year. At the end of the display there is a place where you can watch the salmon as they are, ahem, uh, well, "processed", by the Fish and Game workers.

pinklady.jpg

Mrs. Varifrank and the lovely little Miss Varifrank.

tunaanddad.jpg

The author, yours truly and his son, who has just been informed that the next stop of the day is to supercuts.

So what have I got to be thankful for?

I think I've just answered that question.

Posted @ November 23, 2005 02:36 PM | Current Affairs

Comments

Like you, I can also be thankful for a loving wife (slaving away cooking while I finish setting up the new puter) and a wonderful daughter. Happy thanksgiving to you and yours

Posted by: Wayne at November 24, 2005 09:22 AM

Frank,

Looks like you had great weather yesterday.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and all the little Varifranks!

Posted by: David St Lawrence at November 24, 2005 11:01 AM

The weather has been spectacularly nice. However, we are expecting it to change this weekend from the 70s and 80's to rain. I expect the normal fog season will be here starting next week. The Central valley has a type of fog known as "tule fog" which is so thick it doesnt burn off, so for months at a time its like living inside a building.

This time of year we are usually heading up to Boreal for a bit of post thanksgiving skiing, but this year its not even remotely possible at all.

We are expecting that this year will be very wet. Rain cycles go in 10 year increments here in the valley and the last big rain and flood year was 1995, so the concensus around the cracker barrel is that this year is going to be very exciting indeed.

Posted by: Frank Martin at November 24, 2005 12:08 PM

In the late 60's while living in Calif. I read a book called, Salamar the Salmon. It told the story of Salamar from birth to the Ocean and back to spawn. It was a terrific story and I think he was in the American River. I remember also stopping to swim in the river during the summer on the way to and from Lake Tahoe. Great post and we do have so much to be Thankful for.

Posted by: Herb Pemberton at December 11, 2005 04:55 PM