Just like last week we had class on Saturday morning. We spent that time discussing the nekton - organisms that are strong enough swimmers to overcome currents. You know, mainly fish, squid, and marine mammals. I then cut the crew loose for the rest of the day and weekend. It's important to have some down time each week.
Students scattered to get to work on research, do laundry, hike, play volleyball at the lab's sand volleyball court, etc. I took a short hike to an old RR tunnel not far from the lab. It was pretty cool. Here are a few photos from that outing.
You go down a short but steep trail. Partway down the trail you catch a glimpse of a broad algae-covered rocky shelf. It's beautiful. Coastal Oregon seldom fails to please.
The mouth of the tunnel appears as you round a corner. As you can see, it's not that long - you can see the other end of the tunnel in this shot.
The shot below is looking back out of the tunnel mouth, and the one below shows the opening at the far end. It's not a long walk to get to the other end, but there were several places where I saw rock that had come down recently, so be aware as you walk through.
Here's the scene at the far end of the tunnel.
Though not shown in this photo, if you could see farther to the left you could see another tunnel. These tunnels were built during the early 1900s when the south breakwater protecting the mouth to Coos Bay was built. It was extremely difficult to get equipment and materials in place to construct the south breakwater so the Army Corps of Engineers built the tunnels and a rail spur line through them to deliver those things to the construction site.
The photo below shows the entrance to Coos Bay. The south breakwater is the one on the right-hand side of the photo.
(Photo courtesy of FLICKR/ ALEX1DERR)
The trestles are now all gone, but the tunnels remain. It's pretty cool!
Day 13 - Sunday May 3rd
The crew had more down time after Church. Then at 7pm we had our weekly group FHE. Rachel S gave a thought, we played a version of Apples to Apples, and then students were invited to stay for a Sunday evening movie, "The Big Year".
It was another fantastic week. Stay tuned for more updates.
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