On Sunday, July 20, 2008, we coordinated a dive shop dive day at Clear Lake, Oregon. For many of the group, including me, this a first time experience in diving the lake. We ended up having a total of 30+ people join us for the day! Of those in attendance, 23 of us were diving and over half of the divers were Seven Seas Scuba and affiliates dive professionals!!
Thirteen of us, including me, were also taking the Altitude Specialty course which is a very useful and informative course for diving the local mountain lakes or traveling in our area after diving as we have many mountain passes (for example I go over 4 passes on the way to my parents in another part of the state!).
We also all participated in a potluck since we were spending the whole day at the lake. Our Dive Staff regaled the group with our "culinary skills" having prepared Rice Crispy treats and Fruity Pebbles crispy treats. The Fruity Pebbles crispy treats were a hit with the experience of eating them described as "getting punched in the face with a lemon!"
The drive to the lake through the mountains is beautiful and took me past some places I hadn't visited since late night crazy college mountain runs. With the gas prices as they are, we were all very carpool conscientious. There were 5 of us in a Ford 350 and the driver, Billy our dive shop owner, insisted he was maintaining optimal gas conservative speeds. I would not be able to argue with him since among many of the vehicles we were passed by one was a luxury RV bus (the kind you expect country singers to be in)...pulling a huge boat...being driven by my grandmother... He did speed up slightly when I mentioned that in the side mirror I thought I saw a moped scooter pulling a boat signaling to pass us.
Clear Lake, located about 2.5 hours Southeast of the Portland/Vancouver area or about 75 miles East of Eugene, OR, is surrounded on three sides by 9,000' tall snow-capped mountains at an elevation of 3,012' and is primarily fed by snow runoff from nearby Mount Washington and the surrounding areas. Sources state the runoff filters through underground caverns for more than 20 years before emptying into Clear Lake. Clear Lake also serves as the headwaters of the McKenzie River, which is the sole source of drinking water for Eugene, Oregon.
Clear Lake is reported to be one of the most exceptional freshwater dive spots in the United States, a certain unique experience. Submerged in the lake are upright preserved trees that were killed approximately 3,000 years ago when volcanic activity created the lake, bubbling springs, eerie neon green foliage, and weird little stick bugs underwater (plus some little red dots that I swore had legs and were also moving). The trees are remarkably preserved due to the cold year-round water temperatures of between 35–43 °F. The lake has two main bodies connected by a fast moving bottleneck which presents some fair water movement when in that channel, in all other places underwater the water is serene. The bottom composition is a thick ash so extremely clean finning is a must. I recommend that scissor kick divers stay 10' above the bottom whereas frog kick divers have no issues skimming the bottom (you can see evidence of this in the photos). Visibility can ebb into the 100'+ range at times.
While the water is colder, with appropriate dive wear the temperature was note extremely remarkable. The amazement of the underwater views took most divers' attentions anyway. We plan to do dive this lake again on July 18, 2009 including camping and moonlight dive! Will you plan on joining us!?
-nicolle
(me hitching a ride on Billy's tank...saving gas...)
