Tuesday May 27, 2014 Jenner CA.
Good to be back on the water
After two days of working in the yard, I was ready to do some kayaking, so off I went to Jenner this morning. It was already a bit windy when I got there, but not too bad, at least for me.
I got my boat in the water and Ray’s truck pulled up with his wife and brother in law with him. I waited for them to get their boats in the water and we crossed over to Penny Island in some wind.
I had planned to go down to the river’s mouth before I got there, but the wind down in that area is usually stronger than going up the river. It was going on high tide and a lot of times the high tide ocean water coming into the mouth brings a lot of little ocean fish in with it and there sometimes is a lot of feeding going on, which can be interesting to watch. But today, we decided it best to go on up the river to avoid some of the wind if possible.
Right away we saw
I could see something on the east end of the island as we passed and eventually discerned that it was an osprey eating something on a log.
We continued on up the river looking for spots out of the wind to stop for a bit, taking it easy.
Great Blue Heron
A great blue heron was spotted up in a big fir tree as we passed, just resting there as it was too windy to be fishing, as the wind ripples the water on the surface which I would think would make it hard for these birds to fish in the shallows.
The wind picked up quite a bit as we paddled up along the south river edge and it was getting harder to find places out of the wind as the wind was blowing into the shoreline, but we did ok.
We turned around before going under the bridge on highway one and started working our way along the shoreline staying out of the strong winds as much as possible.
Here we are working our way along the shoreline staying out of the strong winds out in the middle of the river.
By this time the winds had picked up pretty strong and it took a bit more effort paddling, so these guys fell behind. I turned back around here to see how they were making it. It didn’t take long for them to catch up and they were doing just fine, and so was Ray’s wife Elaine who was way out in front of us someplace?
My view as we paddled past eagle’s landing, headed down the river.
Going ashore
We had planned to go ashore on the island for a bit, but when we got to the Swamp Rock Trail we decided to go there instead. I took them across the swamp and over to the rock, letting them know where the poison oak was that we had to go through and they all made it up to the rock you can see on the hillside.
One of the views from the rock, of Jenner.
Enjoying the view
We sat on the rock for a spell taking it easy and enjoying the view and shooting the bull.
Eventually we headed back out. I let them try to find the trail back out and they failed at first as the trails are hard to see. But we did finally get out of there and I ate some black berries on the way out. There were also some salmon berries I sampled, but they aren’t my favorite.
We got back in our boats and the wind was still blowing pretty good as you can see from these hunkered down ducks as we passed the east end of Penny Island headed on in.
As we crossed over to the take out ramp, this family of Mallard ducks was crossing the river in front of us. Momma duck is just out of the picture on the right. That’s poppa duck with the chicks.
At first I was thinking of staying out another hour or so as the others went on in, but as I sat out in the wind and thought about it, I decided to go home and work on the great ditch.
Some shopping first
Since it was fairly early I went shopping on the way home.
When I got home I cut up a head of cabbage and made some corn free coleslaw. Of course to be corn free I had to make some homemade mayo also which I did and had enough mayo left to make some deviled egg salad too.
The Great Ditch
A short nap of course, then out to the ditch.
I dug another twenty feet of the great ditch before it did me in. Only another 120 feet to go.
That’s what I did today for another enjoyable day of retirement. :O)