Tuesday, June 4, 2013, Jenner, CA.
I’ve been meaning to get to the top of that rock for a long time
Checked the weather on Jenner today. It said calm. So off I went to Jenner this morning around ten thirty. It was a bit on the high overcast side, and just a gentle breeze when I arrived there. The water level was down a bit because the sand at the mouth of the river had been breached the day before, I assume by the Sonoma County Water Agency. At any rate the river was down and it was low tide.
I put my boat in the water and noted that there were a couple biologists using the boat ramp to put their Zodiac type boat in the water. I said hi and paddled across the river to Penny Island where I sat for quite awhile, just taking it easy. Because it was calm, it was also nice and peaceful, I almost fell asleep. The biologists went down toward the west end of Penny Island, it looked like they might be diving in the gravel shallows seeing what’s there to eat for little fishes.
At any rate, I headed up river to Paddy’s rock where I took it easy some more. After awhile I got tired of taking it easy and headed back down the river a ways until I got to a spot where there is a big rock on the hill side that I wanted to take a walk to. It wasn’t very far from the water, but it was though berries, and bushes and swamp grass and some poison oak too. The going was slow, but I made it.
Behind the log with the bird on it is the rock on the hill side I walked to today.
This is where I put ashore to go on the walk to the big rock, looking toward Jenner.
Once I was on the shore and up on the bank, this is what the swamp grass looked like hiking to the rock on the hill. It’s a very lush area.
I spotted this nice red plant. Looks nice and red huh? Lots of it on this walk.
Poison Oak. Lucky I don’t get it much.
One section I walked though there are high berry bushes and brush. The high berries are salmon berries. This is what the trail though this area looked like.
Here is a close up of some salmon berries. They get about an inch across and look just delicious, but?
They don’t have a very good flavor most of the time, so I don’t usually eat many of these ones.
But these little jewels, I eat all I can find. They are just starting to come on in this area, so I had to hunt for some ripe ones. I didn’t get all I wanted of them, but I did find enough for a good sample.
I made it to the big rock on the hill side. Below is a picture looking back the way I came from at the river. Can you see the trail though this?
The view from the rock looking toward the town of Jenner.
I spent and hour or so at the rock before returning to my boat and heading down the back channel of Penny Island. Picking berries slowed me down a bit too.
As I was approaching the west end of the island these turkey vultures took possession of this big redwood stump.
I also passed this great blue heron fishing. See, it has a little guy in it’s beak.
I continued on down to the rivers mouth to see how it was open. There were lots of birds and seals taking it easy on the sand by the rivers mouth.
Below is a picture of the river’s mouth area. It is open wide to the Pacific ocean.
I stayed down in the mouth area for about an hour, then headed back up the river.
As I passed this house some birds where making a lot of noise. Turned out to be swallows building mud nests under the eves of the house.
And I passed some of these flowers. The flowers are three or four feet in length on stems which some reach about twelve feet high. I think these are called The Pride of Madeira. Lot’s of them down there near the restaurant.
A little closer view of one of these flowers.
From there it wasn’t far to the boat ramp where I took my boat out of the water and went home for a nap. After the nap, I picked some blue berries as I was thinking of making a blue berry upside down cake, which I did and it’s not too bad.
Had another nice day.
