Tuesday December 1, 2015 Jenner CA.
It was a little warmer today as I put my boat in the water at Jenner and headed across the river to Penny island. It appears I was the only one on the water today and that’s not a complaint.
I paddled down along the island’s north shore heading down towards the river’s mouth area.
Here’s the view as I paddled along.
This great blue heron was getting some sun and doing a little fishing.
Bathing brown pelican
I was crossing over the open water headed to the mouth when this pelican landed close by and started taking a bath. It’s beak is dark red and it has yellow on it’s head. The book says this is a mature bird, but it didn’t say weather this was a male or a female. I thought birds with this color where mature males, but now I’m not sure? :O) At any rate, it put on a good show bathing and splashing a bunch of water around.
My spot
I pulled into my spot at the mouth. The mouth is closing up and mostly only high tides are coming over the top right now just in front of me. The ocean was fairly rough with lots of crashing waves breaking over the jetty rocks.
Some big rollers were coming in as I watched and there were some seals out there too. That black spot on the beach is a harbor seal.
I stayed in the mouth area for about a half hour then headed on up the river taking the island’s back channel as I went, which looked like this.
The little wind there was, was dying down, so I crossed on over to the north side of the river, just below Paddy’s rock, to check for any wildlife along the shoreline there.
Wild turkeys
These wild turkey came along feeding as they went. I watched them for a bit, then continued on up the river.
These mallard ducks were feeding along the shoreline as I continued on up to Paddy’s rock.
I saw some turkey vultures on the grass near the shore, so I paddled over to see if they were devouring anything. It appeared they were just resting and getting some sun.
Once I got past Paddy’s rock, I stopped and took it easy for a bit, just enjoying the nice day. I decided to cut the day a little short as I needed to get up on the hill and remove the leaky dozer hydraulic hose before it got dark.
Winds down
I paddled across the river to the south shore and started back down the river. As you can see the wind really died down.
Roofs done
The state maintenance guys were putting the ridge caps on the visitor center roof and finishing up. I heard them all yell a shout of hooray and shortly the air compressor went quiet. They just finished the job and apparently were happy to be done with it. The new roof looks good and they did a good job.
I pulled my boat into the ramp and went on home for the day.
Finding the leaky hydraulic hose
At home I got my tools together and hopped on the quad runner and headed on up the hill to where the dozer was parked. I needed to find and take the leaky hose off the dozer. Of course, the hose that was leaking was in a hard place to get to, and determine just which one it was. I had to start the dozer and work the blade a bit to find the leak. Only it looked like the leaky hose was in the middle of some other hoses that had to be removed first and it was all a dirty oily mess. I finally got the suspect hose off which you see laying there in the picture and by now my hands were real grimy with oil and dirt. I brought some rags for that.
It appears the hose has been working back and forth in there and wore a hole in it’s side which you can see. I’ll put a guard on the new one to help prevent that.
Cleaned up the hose
I went on home and cleaned the hose up, so I can take it in to a hydraulic shop and get a replacement made which I’ll do in a day or so.
Then I spent some time getting all the oil and dirt off me and that was pretty much my day.