Thursday October 10, 2013 Jenner, CA.
The river is slowly rising
Seemed like the thing to do today was go down to Jenner and kayak and see how the river’s mouth closure was doing.
I met Steve down there just about eleven thirty AM and we put in the water. I took a picture of the water level gauge as we left the launch ramp. It reads just under seven and a half feet. The river is rising very slowly at this point, maybe two inches a day?
Steve and I paddled across to Penny Island and headed down the north side towards the river’s mouth area. We thought we’d go down there first today as the wind was down and it might pick up later in the day. There were a lot of seagulls resting in the area as we approached that took off into the air.
This is the view of were the river is supposed to enter the ocean, with lots of seagulls flying around.
This is the sand bar closing the river’s mouth. There is two or three feet of sand blocking the river getting to the ocean which can be seen in this picture.
We stayed around there for a bit then headed back to the west end of Penny Island which is flooded with water because of the river’s mouth being closed and backing up the water.
This is the view looking into the west end of Penny Island just as we entered it to check it out. 
We paddled in as far as we could go and took a break as it was out of the light wind, before heading back out and up the south side of Penny Island to the east end where we rested in the small channel there.
After leaving there we ran into this harbor seal resting on a redwood log in the water. Most of the seals are out in the ocean right now with the river’s mouth being closed.
We crossed over the river to the north shore and continued on up towards Paddy’s rock.
I noticed a few wild turkeys in the grass as we passed by, with some geese.
Some of the geese that were feeding in the grass as we passed.
There were some turkey vultures on the grass too. This one seems to have gotten all wet and was drying itself out.
The light wind died down in the late afternoon, as we crossed back over to the south side of the river, just above eagle’s landing.
Here is Steve as we crossed back over as the wind died down.
As we were sitting there resting, this common grebe popped up in the water.
By now the water was almost flat as we paddled on back to Jenner at a leisurely pace. This is the view we had looking back to Jenner.
We were off the water around four thirty PM and I went on home.
Nice day kayaking Jenner.
