Saturday, Mar. 30, 2013, Monte Rio, CA.

Kayaking Monte Rio in the showers

My plan for the day was to kayak from Monte Rio to the Vacation beach summer dam and back.

I was on the river around eleven am today at Monte Rio boat ramp, just below the bridge. It was trying to shower a bit, but that didn’t deter me, as I had my rain gear on for the occasion. The water was flowing fast and shallow just below the Monte Rio bridge, so I did my usual and walked the kayak up the straight on the south side of the river until I got back up to deeper water where I got back in the boat and continued paddling up the river.

Some showers were on, but the wind was down today.

The wind was really down up in this part of the river today, it’s one of the reasons I like this area.

Below is a picture of what the river looked like going up the river above Monte Rio today.

Lots of Blue Jays along the shore line today.

This time of year there are a lot of these Blue Jays along the river banks as I paddle along. They can be hard to get a good picture of, as they hop just as you are about to shot a picture, but I did get a good one of this one, as you can see below.

And a some turtles too.

This turtle just crawled out of he water as I passed and jumped back in as I got close for a picture.

Below you can see this turtle on a log along the shore of the river.

On the way back, this same turtle was back on the log, so I took one more shot of it as I passed as you can see below.

The water was real calm today, so there were a lot of reflections in the water as you can see in the picture below.

A duck friend stopped by to say hi.

I sit along the shore line in a lot of places as I go up the river. This female Mallard duck stopped by to say hi as I was sitting there, as you can see in the pic below. Monte Rio ducks are mostly real friendly critters.

I continued up the river almost to the summer bridge at Vacation beach and then turned and floated back down the river at a leisurely pace. Below is one of the river views as I drifted back down the river.

The sun came out in late afternoon, more or less and the day got even nicer. Below is a picture of more reflections on the river, just above Monte Rio, as I was going back down the river.

Drift boat fishing in the river.

When I got back to Monte Rio, I decided to go down and check out the slot where a lot of fishermen fish and there was a drift boat in there as you can see below. I shot the bull with these guys for about a half hour or so and then took my boat out at the boat ramp and went home for a nap.

Below, you can see the drift boat fishermen enjoying the day, just below Monte Rio.

I was off the river about four pm for a real nice day on the river.