A Day of Kayaking on the Russian River, CA.

Thursday, Jan. 3, 2013, Jenner, CA.

Kayaking from Monte Rio, To Jenner

I told the guys to meet at Monte Rio bright and early to decide how to do the shuttle to Jenner. Steve and Ray met me there. We decided Ray would take his truck to Jenner and I’d follow in my car to bring him back to Monte Rio and we’d get started on our kayak trip, down the river. We unloaded the kayaks and gear at Monte Rio and left Steve to watch them while we did the shuttle set up thing with the vehicles. It’s about ten miles to Jenner from Monte Rio, so we were there and back in a short time and put in the water just after eleven in the morning. It was cool, but the sun was trying to break though the clouds.

The river was still a bit on the muddy side and it was up eight or ten feet above the summer water level, but was real nice for kayaking, just the same.

Below you can see what the river looked like just after we put in at Monte Rio, looking down river toward Villa Grande.

 

downriver

 

The river was moving some where’s around five miles an hour, plus or minus a couple miles an hour, so we made good time going down the river.

Below, Ray and Steve are ahead of me and we are just leaving the Ryan’s beach area.

ryans

 

Austin Creek, which flows down form Cazadaro was real clear and green, so we paddles up that a ways just to have a look around. We didn’t go very far up it, just enough  to look.

Below you can see what he Austin creek area looked like.

austincreek]

 

We continued down the river toward the Duncan’s Mills Bridge, which you can see in the picture below. The sun was mostly out and it was a fairly warm and nice day with very little wind to speak of.

duncansbridge

 

We were making good time, so we pulled out for a break a ways below the bridge.

Below is a picture of the river, down below Duncan’s Mill’s bridge, just after we took a break on the beach there.

downriver2

 

Continuing on, we rounded the corner at Marcum hole and this big ol seal was sunning in the sun and let us get to within about fifteen feet of it. He wasn’t going to give up his sunning spot.

seal

 

We came to the Willow Creek area and turned in there for a see.

Below is what Willow creek looked like just after entering it.

willowcreek

 

We stayed at Willow Creek just for a short time then continued down the river.

Below, is a picture of the river, just after passing under the highway one bridge at Bridge Heaven, looking down toward Jenner.

jenner

 

Shortly, after that, we came to the Eagle’s Landing area and I said, this is Eagle’s Landing, I bet he isn’t there, but as I looked up, there he was, the same place he was last time. He just watched us go by and didn’t seem to mind us much.

eagletree

 

Not too far from the eagle, this seal was coming close to us and sorta playing with us. He seemed to like Ray’s yellow boat and even got behind it once and gave it a push.

You can see the seal that was being playful with us, below. Normally, they do not do this sort of thing, but every once in awhile they might do something like this.

sealfriend

 

As we approached Jenner, Steve says, what’s the plan, go around the island or put in?

I didn’t have to think about that too long, nor did I get any arguments as I said, let’s put in, I’m beat. It was also cooling down as the clouds were blocking the sun. I think it was just before four pm.

Below is what it looked like as Steve and Ray were heading for the take out at Jenner, with me right behind them.

jennerout

We put all three boats and gear in Ray’s truck and piled in for the short ride back to Monte Rio.

It was a real nice day on the river, especially for a winter day.

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