Monday January 27, 2014 Jenner CA.
Jenner has more John’s, but not many bathrooms
I thought I better go down to Jenner today to see what’s up on the River’s mouth situation.
As I was putting my boat in the water, John and his dog came by and I talked with him for a bit, then John the guy who picks up trash on the river and John the ex-post man came by and I shot the bull with them for a bit, then John the kayak rental guy came by and put his kayak in and I talked with him a bit.
Man, I talked for an hour and a half, before putting my boat in the water.
No posting for the river’s mouth out
I looked at the visitor center for a posting of the river’s mouth being taken out, but there was none, so I put my boat in the water.
Just as I was doing that, I noticed another guy coming out of the visitor center. He was from the Sonoma county water agency, but he wasn’t there to post any notices. He was taking pictures to put up a new antenna to transmit the water level signal. They have an electronic device in the visitor center that measures the water level of the estuary, but the cell phone signal at Jenner is real weak, so they need an antenna to improve the signal to transmit it as it doesn’t always work with what they now have.
He didn’t know anything about the river’s mouth being opened. And I didn’t ask him if his name was John. :O)
Finally off to kayak
After talking with him I was finally off to Penny Island.
The day was overcast, with a light wind. A bit on the chilly side.
I entered the little channel on the east end of the island. Darn, that big ol tree that was blocking the access spot on Penny Island moved back. It had left a couple days ago but now the wind had caused it to return.
I got behind it in my boat and paddled like hell to move it off the shore and back into the channel and the wind, so it would move away from the area, I hoped.
This is the tree with me pushing it with my boat. It was a slow process.
After I pushed the tree, I noticed a hawk nearby checking me out. Seems to be a red tailed hawk.
I continued on up the river to eagle’s landing, passing by these female merganser ducks resting on a log.
I paddled up to eagle’s landing, stayed there for just a bit, then turned around and headed back down the river, back to the little channel on the east end of Penny Island where I sat for a bit.
This is my view of Jenner from the little channel.
From there, I paddled to the west end of Penny Island and entered the flooded island.
This is my view as I entered the flooded island.
Not too many ducks and birds around today. This goose was honking on the island as I entered.
I paddled all the way back onto the island as far as I could go and sat around for awhile.
This is the spot I sat around on the island in my boat. Lot’s of wood has accumulated on the island over the years.
On the way out, I spied this red tailed hawk sitting in a tree. There seemed to be at least two, maybe more red tailed hawks around today. Maybe that had something to do with not too many birds around today, or maybe it’s just the weather?
This is a spot I stopped to watch at the west end of Penny Island looking down towards the river’s mouth area.
Eventually, I paddled on down to the river’s mouth area where I sat around for awhile.
Lots of seagulls and some harbor seals on the beach.
It was a bit chilly today, so I didn’t stay at the mouth area for very long and headed on in for the day.
Another big tree
As I was approaching the visitor center, I could see a guy in a kayak pushing a big tree away from the boat ramp, so I went over to help him get it out in the middle of the river to let the wind take it away.
I took a look at the water level gauge again and shot his picture. Just over 7.5 feet.
Still no sign of breaching the river’s mouth
Still no posting on when the river’s mouth is to be opened. I think they may be thinking that with the rough ocean, it would just close it again, so are waiting a bit longer to open it, but I really have no idea. At about ten feet, the water just gets to the floor of the visitor center, so they will have to do something for sure then.
While talking with John the old postmaster earlier, he said they did something real stupid a number of years ago. That was that they put a hardwood floor in the visitor center.
Not so smart, because hardwood floors don’t like water and the visitor center can flood. It did so in 1986.
When the water level gets this high, it sometimes starts to rise real slow, so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
I took my boat out of the water and went on home for the day, thinking it might be a good day to start pruning my fruit trees, but when I got home the weather wasn’t that nice, overcast, so I took a nap instead, the pruning will keep for just a bit.