More Wind and Rain So All I Could Do Was a Drive to the Overlook

Tuesday October 25, 2016 Jenner CA.

Rainy coastal mountains

It was raining again as I got it going this morning, but not as hard as yesterday so I got my stuff together and headed down to Jenner to see what the weather was like down that way.

I live in the coastal mountain range which causes the clouds to rise up to get over them which squeezes out the water as the clouds condense. So sometimes, it’s not raining at the ocean as the clouds haven’t started over the mountains yet.

That’s why I head on down to Jenner lots of times as one never knows for sure what the rain is doing unless one checks it out.

And since it was only raining lightly at my house in the hills, it might not be raining at Jenner. And even if it was, driving down to the overlook at the mouth is also a thing local people do, just to have a look.

Jenner overlook

This was my view as I got out of my car at the Jenner overlook at the river’s mouth, the place the river enters the ocean.

Winds blowing

It was raining lightly and the wind was up. See the streaks in the river’s water, the wind makes them when it’s blowing hard.

River’s mouth is closed

I could see the river’s mouth was mostly closed where it usually goes out by the jetty.

The one way valve

The ocean was fairly rough and big waves were breaking over the jetty rocks. You can see that the ocean is coming into the river. It works like a one way valve, letting ocean water into the estuary, but not back out. In the past ,big spawning fish have been seen coming into the river when this happens.

More birds every year

There were lots of birds preening and resting down there too. Lots of pelicans and seagulls with some other birds mixed in there as well.

It seems every year, more birds are showing up in the Russian River estuary since I’ve been coming down to boat.

Harbor seal tracks

Most of the harbor seals leave the river when the mouth is closed and stay on the ocean side. But these harbor seals have crawled across the sand  to take it easy on the river side. You can see their drag trails in the sand coming in from the ocean.

Kayaking not a good idea today

With the light rain and the wind, I decided kayaking here wasn’t such a good idea today, so I decided to go back to Monte Rio as there is always less wind there, so off I drove.

Well, there was less wind at Monte Rio alright, but the rain was continuous. If it was just showers I would have put  my boat in, but with the continuous downfall of water, I decided to head on home which I did.

Not much going on at home

At home the rain was still coming down lightly all day so I mostly stayed in the house and took it easy today.

Louisa came by in the afternoon with two laptops she wanted me to check out. Apparently a power surge took them out the other day when he power went out. They were shot  so it didn’t take much time to deal with that. I advised her to plug her computers into a surge protector with a switch you can turn off to disconnect from the power lines when not in use, therefore, this kind of thing is prevented.

So, I spent most of the day sitting around the house with my trusty wood stove keeping me warm.

That was  my day.