Friday, June 14, 2013, Jenner, CA.
I had planned to go to Willow Creek and back
That was the plan for the day when I woke this morning, so I headed off to Jenner around ten thirty in the morning. It was a bit on the windy side when I arrived, but not near as bad as yesterday. The boat was in the water, but the parking lot was full so I had to park out on the road, no problem.
So, off I went, over to Penny Island, down the north side and around the west end and up the backside channel, back to the east end, taking my time enjoying the water.
I spied a mommy deer and two little ones as I was going down the north side of the island. Here’s a pic of the two little ones looking after mommy as she hopped away. Better get going.
I continued on up the river to Eagle’s landing where I took a little break, then continued on.
I spied something in the water as I was cruising along the shoreline. A snake had a fish it was going to eat. Out with the camera, got close and scared the snake which let the fish go and scrammed. Only blurred pictures of that, but that was the first one I’ve seen this year.
I continued up the river, under the highway 1 bridge and up to Willow Creek.
This is the view as I approached the Willow creek area, just to the right.
There wasn’t much wind once I entered the Willow Creek channel. Below is a bridge that crosses the channel.
Going under the bridge there were a bunch of mud swallow nests, very active.
I stayed in Willow Creek for awhile taking a break. During this break, I decided I might as well go see if any seals were at Seals Haven, just up the river a bit more. The water was high because of the river’s mouth being closed so there was only one log above the water. This is the big ol seal that greeted me as I passed.
As long as I was this far, I decided I might as well go on up to Markum hole, just a bit farther up the river.
This is the view of Markum hole where I took a pretty good break and rested up.
I stayed at this area for about an hour taking it easy and decided to go up the river to the walk in or boat in state camp sites and once up there continued on up almost to the Great blue Heron nesting area.
This photo shows where I was headed up the river, just above Markum Hole.
Stayed in that area for awhile, then started working my way back down the river. Just as I passed under the highway 1 bridge, I saw a kayaker across the river, a blue one, it was Steve, so I joined him and we headed back down the river to Penny Island.
Just above Penny Island is this old redwood log that the birds like a lot. They were all lined up when we went by. This is the pic of them. Cormorants, seagulls, mergansers.
We went to shore on the east end of Penny Island and hunted up some berries to eat and hiked around a bit for about an hour.
I was pretty tired by this time so we put the boats back in the water and headed in for the day.
Nice day.
