Al B. from Canada says you gotta say the bad with the good, so here goes.
Today, I put my kayak in fairly early, just after ten in the morning. arriving at Jenner, I noted the school kids from Willowside school I think it is, were getting ready to put in for their annual science class outing, which I’ve witnessed before in years gone by. Their big ol yellow bus was the center piece in the parking lot today. They have been coming down here every year for a number of years now. I think it’s a great idea to get kids out on these kinds of excursions.
I pulled in and went to the boat ramp as they weren’t using it. They were using my usual side for launching, but it was full of boats, so I used the other side. On the way out, I took this photo.
Off I went over to the island and to an area I like to just sit when the water is at this higher, partly closed river mouth level. I was doing just fine there enjoying the nice fall weather, when I saw the school kids approaching my area. I was going to leave, but seeing them, made me think they might be interested in this blog which is mostly about the river, which they were studying. They came to shore and split into study groups, so I approached the school teacher to give her this blog address. As I did, I said hi, and she said hi, ,but then she went back to her students. Well, I thought I had picked a very bad time to tell her as she was very busy with the kids, so I backed off across the river about a hundred yards to the other side and sat around the river as I always do. I thought this would be a good time to nap a little until the teacher was done and I could talk with her. Now, this teacher should know me, because I took pics of all five of her science classes a couple of years ago, and gave them all of them, but maybe she forgot? My own thoughts where that she knew me.
As I was trying to nod off, I would open my eyes to someone standing on the island by the kids, arms folded across his chest, in a very offensive stance. After around ten or fifteen minutes, I thought I might as well go see what the person’s problem was. Unfortunately, this was the same person that blow up on me a couple weeks ago, so this guy really lit into me. He didn’t’ ask me what I was doing, only started accusing me of staring at them, I think it was. He wouldn’t let me say much of anything. I said I’d like to speak with the teacher and he said the teacher didn’t want to speak to me. He threatened to call the sheriff if I didn’t’ leave immediately. I left as I already had been embarrassed enough in front of all those people and it wasn’t my intension of causing any trouble. If I stayed things likely would have gotten worse for everyone. So, here I am paddling away about a hundred feet away and I hear this last threat. If I see you on the water when the kids are on it again, I’ll call the sheriff. I was blown away to say the least on this guys attitude.
I paddled around the island a bit upset. I decided to go to shore and talk to this guys boss about it, but no boss around, so I see that the bus driver is sitting in his bus waiting for the kids to be done. So, I write a note to the teacher explaining this unfortunate situation, apologizing and saying what I intended and sorry for this unfortunate thing that happened. I also gave her my blog address as that is all I intended in the first place.
Of course my adrenaline flowed the rest of the day, mostly because of the senseless thing that happened to me, when I was only trying to do a good turn in my mind. Now, I do understand about school kids and protection and all, but isn’t there such a thing as being courteous to people, maybe, just a little?
So, let’s put this in the past, and if any of the Willowside kids make it to here, I hope you find something entertaining and educational on my site. And sorry about the disturbance at the river. :O)
River mouth is still mostly closed.
Moving on, this is a picture of the Russian River mouth, the end of the river, where it flows into the Pacific ocean, or should if that sand bar wasn’t blocking that action. We are looking out toward the ocean from inside the river mouth. High tide will go over this sand bar to bring sea water and stuff into the river and the sand bar will not let all the ocean water back out, a type of one way valve. It will let more fresh river back out then ocean water as the ocean water is at a colder temperature than the warmer fresh river water. I think the ocean water is around fifty two-ish degrees F., while the river water is somewhere above that, say maybe sixty or sixty five degrees F. This temperature difference causes the warmer fresh river water to float on top of the colder ocean water. So, this action puts the ocean water at a deeper depth in the mouth than the river water, so the river water being on top, more can flow back out over the sand bar, before the river level falls back to the level in the picture.
Got that? :O) Don’t worry, I’m going to keep beating this in, as it’s a very important concept to understand, so as to understand how the water action works in the river estuary.
There have been a lot of pelicans going south lately, stopping at Jenner on the way. Here we have some sitting just inside the mouth area.
I wish I could say it was a great day, but it wasn’t. :O) Tomorrow is another day. I’m supposed to go out with my older brother Mike tomorrow night to check out the lumen action in the fifty foot hole up the river. I’m interested to see if the lumens are still in there, if they are and not down near the mouth, maybe that big ol hole is a breeder pool of some kind of ocean stuff up river. I also just want to check it out to see if the lumens are still on or not.
Until next time.
