[SamuelMcF]

For those living in the Bay Area, I would HIGHLY recommend you swing by campus and take a walk around/have a picnic at Lake Lag. It's around 11 feet deep due to the high volume of rain we've been seeing around here...deepest it has been in a looooong time! And the lake's surroundings seem much greener to me this time around compared to past Springs.  :)

David Lombardi posted a gorgeous picture on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/LombardiESPN/status/...66/photo/1

[SamuelMcF]

For those living in the Bay Area, I would HIGHLY recommend you swing by campus and take a walk around/have a picnic at Lake Lag. It's around 11 feet deep due to the high volume of rain we've been seeing around here...deepest it has been in a looooong time! And the lake's surroundings seem much greener to me this time around compared to past Springs.  :)

David Lombardi posted a gorgeous picture on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/LombardiESPN/status/...66/photo/1

[CompSci87]

Thanks. What a beautiful shot. I live close to campus and will be sure to swing by!

[CompSci87]

Thanks. What a beautiful shot. I live close to campus and will be sure to swing by!

[dabigv13]

Wow, that's incredible. Thanks for posting.

[dabigv13]

Wow, that's incredible. Thanks for posting.

[martyup]

I actually took a wind surfing class at Lake Lag.  Easiest A grade in my life.  ;D

[martyup]

I actually took a wind surfing class at Lake Lag.  Easiest A grade in my life.  ;D

[SUBuddha]

I actually took a wind surfing class at Lake Lag.  Easiest A grade in my life.  ;D

I lived in Granada freshman year. I have distinct memories of taking a plate of overcooked meatballs out to the lake and knocking them into the lake with my 9 iron. Ahhhh, good times.

[SUBuddha]

I actually took a wind surfing class at Lake Lag.  Easiest A grade in my life.  ;D

I lived in Granada freshman year. I have distinct memories of taking a plate of overcooked meatballs out to the lake and knocking them into the lake with my 9 iron. Ahhhh, good times.

[martyup]

[quote author=martyup link=topic=16660.msg189624#msg189624 date=1488853123]
I actually took a wind surfing class at Lake Lag.  Easiest A grade in my life.  ;D

I lived in Granada freshman year. I have distinct memories of taking a plate of overcooked meatballs out to the lake and knocking them into the lake with my 9 iron. Ahhhh, good times.
[/quote]

Feeding the fish, you were.  :-\

[martyup]

[quote author=martyup link=topic=16660.msg189624#msg189624 date=1488853123]
I actually took a wind surfing class at Lake Lag.  Easiest A grade in my life.  ;D

I lived in Granada freshman year. I have distinct memories of taking a plate of overcooked meatballs out to the lake and knocking them into the lake with my 9 iron. Ahhhh, good times.
[/quote]

Feeding the fish, you were.  :-\

[vataha]

Many years ago this is where my black lab puppy Seamus learned how to swim. Spent a lot of time out there in the 70's, 80's.

[vataha]

Many years ago this is where my black lab puppy Seamus learned how to swim. Spent a lot of time out there in the 70's, 80's.

[CompSci87]

Thanks. What a beautiful shot. I live close to campus and will be sure to swing by!

I went by near sunset. Beautiful.

If you go, note that the boathouse parking lot is closed, so you'll have to park elsewhere.

[CompSci87]

Thanks. What a beautiful shot. I live close to campus and will be sure to swing by!

I went by near sunset. Beautiful.

If you go, note that the boathouse parking lot is closed, so you'll have to park elsewhere.

[CowboyIndian]

Ummm...back when dinosaurs roamed the campus it would be full every spring. Some fun days out there....including jalopy mud racing and, when it was dry for Big Game...a brobdingnagian bonfire.

[CowboyIndian]

Ummm...back when dinosaurs roamed the campus it would be full every spring. Some fun days out there....including jalopy mud racing and, when it was dry for Big Game...a brobdingnagian bonfire.

[cardcrimson]

I actually took a wind surfing class at Lake Lag.  Easiest A grade in my life.  ;D

My last name alphabetically popped up near the top of signups the spring of my sophomore year. Took windsurfing and sailing. A's in both! I feel ya!

BTW, whatever happened to the tiger salamanders that stopped it from being filled for awhile?

[cardcrimson]

I actually took a wind surfing class at Lake Lag.  Easiest A grade in my life.  ;D

My last name alphabetically popped up near the top of signups the spring of my sophomore year. Took windsurfing and sailing. A's in both! I feel ya!

BTW, whatever happened to the tiger salamanders that stopped it from being filled for awhile?

[82lsju]

https://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/mag...e_id=42740

[82lsju]

https://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/mag...e_id=42740

[82lsju]

BTW, whatever happened to the tiger salamanders that stopped it from being filled for awhile?

https://hcp.stanford.edu/salamander.html

[82lsju]

BTW, whatever happened to the tiger salamanders that stopped it from being filled for awhile?

https://hcp.stanford.edu/salamander.html

[CompSci87]

There's still a sign about the area being tiger salamander habitat and various activities being prohibited. The sign also explains that filling the lake would divert precious water from San Francisquito Creek, etc. So it's full only because of the massive rains lately.

[CompSci87]

There's still a sign about the area being tiger salamander habitat and various activities being prohibited. The sign also explains that filling the lake would divert precious water from San Francisquito Creek, etc. So it's full only because of the massive rains lately.

[Papa John]

Back in 1982-83, when I was a Roble resident, Lake Lag nearly overflowed. JJJ was there and will backup my story, I'm sure. Good memories indeed!

[Papa John]

Back in 1982-83, when I was a Roble resident, Lake Lag nearly overflowed. JJJ was there and will backup my story, I'm sure. Good memories indeed!

[CornFed]

God, I LOVED the bonfire.  Part of it is my innate pyromania.  Also, though, it was the most powerful school spirit-y, anti-C.al thing we did each year (other than beating their weenie butts waaaaay more than our share of the time).

Since we've had soooo much rain now, and the snow melt later this Spring may be epic (and dangerous), do you think we might be able to re-institute this tradition?  It really made for a great couple of days.

[CornFed]

God, I LOVED the bonfire.  Part of it is my innate pyromania.  Also, though, it was the most powerful school spirit-y, anti-C.al thing we did each year (other than beating their weenie butts waaaaay more than our share of the time).

Since we've had soooo much rain now, and the snow melt later this Spring may be epic (and dangerous), do you think we might be able to re-institute this tradition?  It really made for a great couple of days.

[Embo]

Two personal memories about Lake Lag:

1.  I saw a Big Game bonfire in 1975.  I think that was the last one, but I need others to chime in.  It was my freshman year, and that bonfire was indeed a big deal, given that the 1975 Big Game attracted national attention - the winner would be the Pac 8's representative to the Rose Bowl, assuming USC would beat UCLA the following week.  The Axe was there and its history read; the team was on a stage and introduced.  The announcers, before the gigantic structure was lit, kept warning the crowd to stay back.  Once it started going, no more warnings were necessary.  Your face started searing.

That article from the Alumni Association implied that there was a bonfire in the late 1980's.  Is that true?  I never saw another bonfire as a student.  In 1976, the structure collapsed early in Big Game week, with someone (a frat member) breaking a leg, thus cancelling the bonfire.  The following year, there was no attempt at a bonfire, as I do remember the tiger salamander issue had taken hold. 

2.  In my senior year, there was a junior in our dorm who had come back from a great summer job.  He was a Chem E major, and he worked for a very large oil company (I won't mention it here.)  But he had access to certain chemicals, and had participated in some shenanigans back on the east coast, and promised us all year that we'd end the year with a bang - literally.  So finally, after finals, he kept his promise.  We walked to the edge of Lake Lag where there was a dropoff to the water. He had, ahem, that summer borrowed these sealed canisters of pure elemental sodium.  He opened them carefully (they were pretty good sized bars), placed them into a bag, and tossed it into the water.  In the dark, we sensed only a splash.  A second went by.  Two seconds.  Three seconds.  What gives?  Then .... KA-BOOM - it was a h.uge explosion accompanied by a h.uge ball of fire.  That solid bar of sodium broke up into smaller pieces - each which exploded in a ball of fire, which subsequently broke into even smaller pieces, leading to more balls of fire ...
We stood there in awe of the sound and fury, but the perpetrator turned to us and commanded succinctly, "Let's go."  He explained later that when they pulled this at a public fountain that prior summer, law enforcement detained them.  So he knew better.
Fond memories to this day.

[Embo]

Two personal memories about Lake Lag:

1.  I saw a Big Game bonfire in 1975.  I think that was the last one, but I need others to chime in.  It was my freshman year, and that bonfire was indeed a big deal, given that the 1975 Big Game attracted national attention - the winner would be the Pac 8's representative to the Rose Bowl, assuming USC would beat UCLA the following week.  The Axe was there and its history read; the team was on a stage and introduced.  The announcers, before the gigantic structure was lit, kept warning the crowd to stay back.  Once it started going, no more warnings were necessary.  Your face started searing.

That article from the Alumni Association implied that there was a bonfire in the late 1980's.  Is that true?  I never saw another bonfire as a student.  In 1976, the structure collapsed early in Big Game week, with someone (a frat member) breaking a leg, thus cancelling the bonfire.  The following year, there was no attempt at a bonfire, as I do remember the tiger salamander issue had taken hold. 

2.  In my senior year, there was a junior in our dorm who had come back from a great summer job.  He was a Chem E major, and he worked for a very large oil company (I won't mention it here.)  But he had access to certain chemicals, and had participated in some shenanigans back on the east coast, and promised us all year that we'd end the year with a bang - literally.  So finally, after finals, he kept his promise.  We walked to the edge of Lake Lag where there was a dropoff to the water. He had, ahem, that summer borrowed these sealed canisters of pure elemental sodium.  He opened them carefully (they were pretty good sized bars), placed them into a bag, and tossed it into the water.  In the dark, we sensed only a splash.  A second went by.  Two seconds.  Three seconds.  What gives?  Then .... KA-BOOM - it was a h.uge explosion accompanied by a h.uge ball of fire.  That solid bar of sodium broke up into smaller pieces - each which exploded in a ball of fire, which subsequently broke into even smaller pieces, leading to more balls of fire ...
We stood there in awe of the sound and fury, but the perpetrator turned to us and commanded succinctly, "Let's go."  He explained later that when they pulled this at a public fountain that prior summer, law enforcement detained them.  So he knew better.
Fond memories to this day.

[Mick]

Two personal memories about Lake Lag:
2.  In my senior year, there was a junior in our dorm who had come back from a great summer job.  He was a Chem E major, and he worked for a very large oil company (I won't mention it here.)  But he had access to certain chemicals, and had participated in some shenanigans back on the east coast, and promised us all year that we'd end the year with a bang - literally.  So finally, after finals, he kept his promise.  We walked to the edge of Lake Lag where there was a dropoff to the water. He had, ahem, that summer borrowed these sealed canisters of pure elemental sodium.  He opened them carefully (they were pretty good sized bars), placed them into a bag, and tossed it into the water.  In the dark, we sensed only a splash.  A second went by.  Two seconds.  Three seconds.  What gives?  Then .... KA-BOOM - it was a h.uge explosion accompanied by a h.uge ball of fire.  That solid bar of sodium broke up into smaller pieces - each which exploded in a ball of fire, which subsequently broke into even smaller pieces, leading to more balls of fire ...
We stood there in awe of the sound and fury, but the perpetrator turned to us and commanded succinctly, "Let's go."  He explained later that when they pulled this at a public fountain that prior summer, law enforcement detained them.  So he knew better.
Fond memories to this day.

Great story.  My chem teacher in high school dropped a marble-sized chunk of elemental sodium in a pot of water, it spun for a few seconds, then there was a bang about the size of a firecracker.  That was fun, but the next year, our physics teacher -- it was his first year teaching -- wanted to do the same thing.  But he takes a golf ball-sized chunk -- about eight times the size of the prior year's chunk -- and approached the pot. 

Every single one of us -- except one -- had been in the prior year's class, and we all started slowly backing away from the pot.  The teacher didn't notice and dropped the sodium into the pot.  It spun for a very long time, and the kid who wasn't in the prior year's class looked over the pot and said "Oh, nothing's going to hap--"

BOOM!!

There was a fireball about six feet across which took out his eyebrows and a fair chunk of his hair.  He couldn't hear for a few days.  The ceiling turned black, and there was smoke everywhere.

Please don't try that at home...

[Mick]

Two personal memories about Lake Lag:
2.  In my senior year, there was a junior in our dorm who had come back from a great summer job.  He was a Chem E major, and he worked for a very large oil company (I won't mention it here.)  But he had access to certain chemicals, and had participated in some shenanigans back on the east coast, and promised us all year that we'd end the year with a bang - literally.  So finally, after finals, he kept his promise.  We walked to the edge of Lake Lag where there was a dropoff to the water. He had, ahem, that summer borrowed these sealed canisters of pure elemental sodium.  He opened them carefully (they were pretty good sized bars), placed them into a bag, and tossed it into the water.  In the dark, we sensed only a splash.  A second went by.  Two seconds.  Three seconds.  What gives?  Then .... KA-BOOM - it was a h.uge explosion accompanied by a h.uge ball of fire.  That solid bar of sodium broke up into smaller pieces - each which exploded in a ball of fire, which subsequently broke into even smaller pieces, leading to more balls of fire ...
We stood there in awe of the sound and fury, but the perpetrator turned to us and commanded succinctly, "Let's go."  He explained later that when they pulled this at a public fountain that prior summer, law enforcement detained them.  So he knew better.
Fond memories to this day.

Great story.  My chem teacher in high school dropped a marble-sized chunk of elemental sodium in a pot of water, it spun for a few seconds, then there was a bang about the size of a firecracker.  That was fun, but the next year, our physics teacher -- it was his first year teaching -- wanted to do the same thing.  But he takes a golf ball-sized chunk -- about eight times the size of the prior year's chunk -- and approached the pot. 

Every single one of us -- except one -- had been in the prior year's class, and we all started slowly backing away from the pot.  The teacher didn't notice and dropped the sodium into the pot.  It spun for a very long time, and the kid who wasn't in the prior year's class looked over the pot and said "Oh, nothing's going to hap--"

BOOM!!

There was a fireball about six feet across which took out his eyebrows and a fair chunk of his hair.  He couldn't hear for a few days.  The ceiling turned black, and there was smoke everywhere.

Please don't try that at home...

[thunder_chik]

Great memories!  ;D  I recall the Bonfire my freshman year was so impressive; I was standing on the opposite side of the lakebed from the structure, near the boathouse I think, and could feel the heat on my face even at that distance.  Also remember sailing on Lake Lag during Spring quarter (Searsville dam, too--guess that's history, too).

[thunder_chik]

Great memories!  ;D  I recall the Bonfire my freshman year was so impressive; I was standing on the opposite side of the lakebed from the structure, near the boathouse I think, and could feel the heat on my face even at that distance.  Also remember sailing on Lake Lag during Spring quarter (Searsville dam, too--guess that's history, too).

[BostonCard]

2.  In my senior year, there was a junior in our dorm who had come back from a great summer job.  He was a Chem E major, and he worked for a very large oil company (I won't mention it here.)  But he had access to certain chemicals, and had participated in some shenanigans back on the east coast, and promised us all year that we'd end the year with a bang - literally.  So finally, after finals, he kept his promise.  We walked to the edge of Lake Lag where there was a dropoff to the water. He had, ahem, that summer borrowed these sealed canisters of pure elemental sodium.  He opened them carefully (they were pretty good sized bars), placed them into a bag, and tossed it into the water.  In the dark, we sensed only a splash.  A second went by.  Two seconds.  Three seconds.  What gives?  Then .... KA-BOOM - it was a h.uge explosion accompanied by a h.uge ball of fire.  That solid bar of sodium broke up into smaller pieces - each which exploded in a ball of fire, which subsequently broke into even smaller pieces, leading to more balls of fire ...
We stood there in awe of the sound and fury, but the perpetrator turned to us and commanded succinctly, "Let's go."  He explained later that when they pulled this at a public fountain that prior summer, law enforcement detained them.  So he knew better.
Fond memories to this day.

Chemistry major here... I may (or may not) have absconded with some elemental sodium and potassium which may (or may not) have been thrown into Lake Lag.  Not only does the sodium react with the water to produce sodium hydroxide, but the reaction produces hydrogen gas, which reacts with air on the surface explosively.  My pieces may have been smaller, so they might not have produced as spectacular a fireball.  But still lots of fun... I hear.

BC

[BostonCard]

2.  In my senior year, there was a junior in our dorm who had come back from a great summer job.  He was a Chem E major, and he worked for a very large oil company (I won't mention it here.)  But he had access to certain chemicals, and had participated in some shenanigans back on the east coast, and promised us all year that we'd end the year with a bang - literally.  So finally, after finals, he kept his promise.  We walked to the edge of Lake Lag where there was a dropoff to the water. He had, ahem, that summer borrowed these sealed canisters of pure elemental sodium.  He opened them carefully (they were pretty good sized bars), placed them into a bag, and tossed it into the water.  In the dark, we sensed only a splash.  A second went by.  Two seconds.  Three seconds.  What gives?  Then .... KA-BOOM - it was a h.uge explosion accompanied by a h.uge ball of fire.  That solid bar of sodium broke up into smaller pieces - each which exploded in a ball of fire, which subsequently broke into even smaller pieces, leading to more balls of fire ...
We stood there in awe of the sound and fury, but the perpetrator turned to us and commanded succinctly, "Let's go."  He explained later that when they pulled this at a public fountain that prior summer, law enforcement detained them.  So he knew better.
Fond memories to this day.

Chemistry major here... I may (or may not) have absconded with some elemental sodium and potassium which may (or may not) have been thrown into Lake Lag.  Not only does the sodium react with the water to produce sodium hydroxide, but the reaction produces hydrogen gas, which reacts with air on the surface explosively.  My pieces may have been smaller, so they might not have produced as spectacular a fireball.  But still lots of fun... I hear.

BC

[jacketree]

Pretty sure we had one in 1985, but a lot of my life's history seems pretty mysterious to me lately.

[jacketree]

Pretty sure we had one in 1985, but a lot of my life's history seems pretty mysterious to me lately.