Monday January 9, 2017 Guerneville CA.
Shop now play later
The rain had let up today. So what to do? There’s really too much water to kayak Jenner, not really, I’ve done it at this stage, but it’s better to wait a day or two. I really needed some groceries as I’m on a mostly meat type elimination diet right now and I needed some meat type things like beef and chicken and some pork and maybe a couple snacks if I could find some corn free stuff. I figured I could check out some of the flood water stuff on the way over to Costco in Santa Rosa. And if I do that today, I can play tomorrow if the rains let up.
Wasn’t sure what roads were closed
I wasn’t sure what roads might be closed from the river’s flooding. I made it to Guerneville with no problem and crossed over the bridge heading out 116 through Pocket Canyon.
News media is still in the same old place as the old days
Just across the bridge there is a low spot by the Pee Wee golf place where the news media always went to get their pictures in the old days as it was the easiest place to show some houses under water and it was easy to get to.
Well, today, to my surprise, the side road there was full of news media types getting their pictures for all the big networks. Most of the houses have been raised up over the years above the flood level, but they still make good pictures for the news media.
Anyway, it all happened too quick to get an pictures, but I thought I’d try on the way back if any were still there.
The winds sure whipped through the canyon
I found a lot of the power company guys working by the hill in Pocket Canyon. Lots of tree stuff down in there as it’s a fairly dense forest area. The power companies repair the lines that have the most people with power out first and get to the lone people out in the sticks last. Just the way it is.
I wasn’t sure about the Santa Rosa Lagoon as the road I was going to take went right through it and it floods often.
The road was open and the lagoon looked like this as I drove along the road.
Costco was busy busy busy
I made it to Costco ok. The parking lot was pretty much full of cars and normally I’d likely drive away, but I was hungry and needed some food, so I pressed on.
Yes, it was very busy. I got what I wanted and headed for the checkouts. Most of them were backed up about ten carts, so I cut across out of the main isle and was fortunate to find a line with only three carts in it.
Costco moves people pretty fast even with long lines, but since my military time, I’ve vowed to avoid long lines like the plague. Non military people don’t understand, but military people do. :O)
Enough shopping for me
Anyway, I got out of there ok and wasted no time heading on home as that was enough shopping for me, even though I had more stuff on the list.
I remembered I wanted to see if I could get a photo of all the news trucks back at Guerneville, so I got my camera ready here as this was the intersection where all the media guys were this morning on Drakes Road which goes off to the right and is flooded.
This is where all the news media guys get their pictures for the news
Well, most of the news media guys were gone, but you can see one of their trucks there on the road on the right. They beam their stuff up to a satellite. It’s hard to see, but just in back of that news truck the road is closed with flood waters with some flooded houses. This morning this place was jammed with trucks and cars of the news media.
Just past that is the Guerneville Bridge and I shot this photo looking up the river. The river is about thirty two feet higher than it is in the summer.
I continued on home and put the stuff I bought away and had a short break.
Ray and I take a ride down river
Not wanting to just sit around the house the rest of the day, I decided to head down to the river’s mouth to have a look and thought maybe Ray might want to go along too, so I drove down the road to his house.
I found Ray, his wife and his brother John shooting the bull when I arrived, so I joined them at it as I’m pretty good at that too. :O)
Eventually John left so Ray and I headed towards the river’s mouth overlook at Jenner.
This is the water in the creek that goes by my house, only this is at the Town of Guerneville, a couple miles down the creek from my house. Usually, the water is down there far enough to be mostly out of sight.
River crested and started down
By the way, the river crested this morning around noon just under 38 feet and is already starting down. But more rains that are coming in tonight might change that. It’s raining fairly hard right now as this new storm hits.
Monte Rio Boat Ramp
We continued on to the Monte Rio Boat ramp to have a look. Ray said the water was at the second step from the top when he was down here earlier in the day and it was on the third step now. The high tide at Jenner also has some effect on the river in this area.
As we looked up the river across the parking lot, this guy caught our eye. The old adage, you can’t catch a fish unless you have a hook in the water. Eh? We didn’t hang around to see how he did.
This is a view looking down the river over the boat ramp area.
River’s mouth overlook at Jenner
We continued our journey on to the Jenner overlook.
We’re parked at the overlook, looking up river. Ray has his eye on something down there.
This is looking up the river towards Penny Island from the overlook. Lots of muddy water.
Rays thinks that’s a boat stuck down there on the log
The mouth is open wide. Ray is looking at the round rock in the middle called Haystack rock. There is a tree stuck on it’s front sticking out to the left and there is something bobbing on the end of the tree on the left.
Ray thinks it’s a boat. I’m not sure, it looks more like a tarp or a rubber raft type boat, but I really can’t see it clearly, so I take pictures that I can put on the computer when I get home to check it out.
The water was causing that tree to bob a bit in the riffles on the water and we couldn’t see it very well.
This was about the best I could see it, but I couldn’t make out a boat.
Ray was right
But my computer clearly shows it to be a boat caught and balanced on the end of the tree.
Ray wins that one.
We hung around there for a bit then headed to the Jenner Boat ramp to check things out.
Jenner Boat ramp
Here we are looking down the river towards the river’s mouth area. Not too much wood debrie on the boat ramp, at least not yet.
We shot the bull with several people in the parking lot, being locals we are sorta in the know about floods on the river.
I saw the visitor center was still open so I went in to chat with them for a bit.
When I came back out some guy had Ray cornered, so I joined them. Ray was talking to a guy that helps Vets apply for benefits. Because it’s government type stuff, applying for benefits isn’t always so easy so his job seemed to be to help vets do this. The guy had some good info so I listened too. By law no one can charge to do this so there are a lot of volunteers that do it.
We finally got away from the guy. Ray said it’s a good thing he wasn’t selling trucks. :O)
He was very helpful though.
We headed on home going by this road that was flooded. I’s not a main road, but that’s the creek that goes by my house that jumped it’s banks down by town.
I dropped Ray off at his house and went on home for a nap.
And that was my day.