Friday March 6, 2015 Jenner CA.
Scenic River’s mouth
It looked like it was going to be another scenic day in Jenner as I arrived this morning, so I drove out to the overlook to have a look.
This was the scenic view from the overlook this morning looking out the river’s open mouth into the Pacific ocean. I could see a bunch of surfers out there, but not much in the big waves.
Some of the harbor seals resting on the beach as waves broke over the sandy beach from the ocean.
Things looked good, so I drove back to the Jenner boat ramp and put my boat in the water. I paddled across to Penny Island where I was sitting when I saw Ray drive into the parking lot and launch his boat, so I waited for him to catch up.
Let’s go for a hike
After siting around and much discussion we decided to head up the river and go for a hike to the old Indian ladies face rock as spring is in the air and we knew everything would be real lush right now.
A Bunch of cormorants
We headed on up the river, real leisurely with the sun shining and a low wind. When we got up near Paddy’s rock we could see all these cormorants resting on the beach there. I stopped to get a rough count of how many. I did a rough count and got over 350 of them in this bunch. There was a big white bird in the bunch to the left which I thought was a great egret, but later found out it was a white pelican.
A place to land
We left the cormorants there and continued on up the river looking for a place to land that wasn’t muddy which we found at the Indian rock trailhead. With the tide moving the river’s water level up and down a good spot to get out changes daily and sometimes by the hour, so each day is different and to avoid the mud, we look around for the best spot. We also have to take into account the water level may move while we are hiking which could make it hard to get back in our boats, so we look for the best spot for the conditions of the day.
I’m following Ray as we paddle along.
Hike up the hill
Indian Rock trailhead was a good landing spot today, just a bunch of rocks. We got out and started up a game trail to the top going through areas like this.
Spooked Cormorants
We heard two guys coming up the river in their kayaks and I could see they were going to spook the cormorants so I tried to get to a spot I could see out to get some pictures of them as they were being spooked. As I got to a spot on the trail that I could see out, the cormorants where already starting to spook. A lot of them had just moved into the water in this picture. As you can see that white bird is a pelican on the left.
It wasn’t long until they really spooked and started taking off. Click the picture to get a better view of this.
We had worked extra hard to get to the spot to see the cormorants, so we sat down and had a nice break there catching our wind before continuing on up the hill.
The Old Indian Ladies Face Rock
Here’s Ray just as we were coming up to the Old Indian ladies face rock which is at the top of the ridge.
After hiking on up to the rock a good break is in order to enjoy the scenery. Our view looking down from the top of the rock to the highway one bridge.
After resting up there, we decided to walk up the ridge a ways through the grasses. We noticed these wild flowers on the trail we were on. Not sure what they were, but they were real lush looking. It looks like the wild flowers are just getting started around here.
We walked over to this part and had another break before starting down the hill on another animal trail to the right of this spot, down through a ravine.
As we were admiring the view, this flicker landed on the tree in front of us.
On the way down we went through these trees. I like to take a break in the green grass here, so we did. It’s a very peaceful spot.
Jenner
We continued on down the hill going by this rock I call Buzzard rock looking down to the town of Jenner.
When we got back to the river, we still had to work our way down the shoreline to our boats. Everything is real lush right now, especially the poison oak. It’s just getting it’s new lush looking leaves, so looks real pretty.
It’s always nice to see that our kayak’s are still where we left them, tied up on the shore in this spot. It’s one of the things one wonders about when out on one of these hikes.
Pooped
That walk was enough to tire Ray and I out. We rested a bit before getting back in our boats and heading back down the river along the south shoreline to the boat ramp.
Took our boats out of the water and went on home for the day. At home the sun was out nicely and I thought about doing some chores, but I was too tired out, so I just sat around in the yard for the rest of the day.
Nice day.
